Buying advice please - Next Level v3 Motion Platform

[MarkR]

I'm looking for some advice and thoughts of other owners or people with good knowledge of the product, please.

I always said I'd buy myself a motion simulator if I could afford one and had the room available. Well, that day may have arrived. I'm impressed by what I've seen of the Next Level v3 Motion Platform

This seems to meet all my criteria:

+ Limited space requirements, I don't have room for a huge sim rig but this seems compact enough to work.
+ Works with Oculus Rift VR, that fixed head position setting solution is impressive
+ Great support and regular updates from the developers
+ Available in the UK
+ Works with my current Thrustmaster wheel and accessories.
+ Sub £3k for the full setup, I'm not a pro racer I'm not looking for a practice simulator this is just for fun so the cost/fun balance has to be right.

So help me do the man maths! Is it worth it?

Is there another similar product I should also look at? It would need to be reasonably compact, work with VR, available in the UK without too much hassle and in the same £3-5K price range.

Is there anywhere I can try one or even better several of the systems in the UK?

 

[HugoB]

@AntoN_CheZ yep, my Sparco has threaded holes for bolting from below. Dead simple.

€160 ?!!?
Holy crap, it's an hour's work including prep and cleanup to file the slots. I'd seriously recommend trying what I did and then spending the €160 on strippers and Scotch.

Or sim gear.

Haha yeah, you might be right about that!
...and sim gear is the new booze for me

 

[Mascot]

It's grown wings!

I'll leave drilling the top flanges until the P1 is built and I can line it all up properly.

 

[Steve D]

It's grown wings!

I'll leave drilling the top flanges until the P1 is built and I can line it all up properly.

Brilliant!! That's gonna be rock solid!

 

[HugoB]

It's grown wings!

I'll leave drilling the top flanges until the P1 is built and I can line it all up properly.

Looks really clean! Where the bolts included with the V3 long enough, or did you have to get some longer M8’s? I guess you at least had to get some extra M8 nuts? Looking so forward to you project, it will be very clean!

 

[Mascot]

Looks really clean! Where the bolts included with the V3 long enough, or did you have to get some longer M8’s? I guess you at least had to get some extra M8 nuts? Looking so forward to you project, it will be very clean!

I used some longer buttonhead socket screws but might swap them out for countersunk ones to gain an additional 3-4mm clearance either side. I've got a garage full of hardware - finding the right item is the only challenge.

 

[Mascot]

Bloody hell. Fitting that BK mount to the NLV3 has to be one of the most awkward things I've ever had to do. It took about an hour to blindly attach the fixings then attempt to tighten four M6 nyloc nuts by feel in a cramped little space with no room whatsoever to get a spanner back there. Granted, I've got big hands, but who designed this thing? Jeremy Beadle?

I almost dropped a washer through one of the vents as well. That would have eternally pissed me to hear that thing rattling around in the casing every time the rig moved. Still, done now. But there was no need for it to be so difficult.

 

[Kay Ekanayake]

Hi guys, Im an owner of the NLV2, and I had it for a while. I did love it when first got it but now im looking at upgrading to something with traction loss or even 4DOF or 6DOF sim.

I'm still in the researching at the moment.

Anyway, out of curiosity, have you guys done much changes to the default game profiles. I found the default profiles were too much.

I mainly play AC, iRacing & Pcars 2.

If you could share some of the profiles settings it will be greatly appreciated.

 

[anton_Chez]

@Mascot that bracket looks legit. Strong and really clean. Props Nice that your seat has threaded holes, makes it much easier. I have removed the inserts from my frame so this seat should be easier to mount without all the other junk attached (seat slider, H bracket, my metal sheet holding my 2 Aura's for the seat). I can actually see what I am doing this way and am able to hold and tighten everything without struggling for room, like your mount. It's a pain when that happens.

@Kay Ekanayake check out my thread on the V3 settings I started about a month or so ago. It has some of my tweaks in there that some users have felt help their experience. I spent some time with the software dev (top bloke) to get some features in there that I was looking for and what I thought may add value and flexibility to the product. I use all the profile and hardware tweaks listed in there and am very happy so far with the increased immersion. Still tweaking, however, as we always are

@Mr Latte That's roughly what I am thinking of doing for my new mini lfe's (p.s did you get my little @you a page or so back regarding my current amp and the mini lfe's?) I plan on mounting profile to the V3 mounting plate, to allow me to bridge the gap in the seat holes, then in-between the seat and the profile I plan on threading rubber isolating feet (they are round with a hole in the middle) on the bolt that attaches the seat to the profile. Then out the back I want to mount a buttkicker type plate to the underneath of the profile (the one that holds the seat). Hopefully that set up allows maximum feel and no loss into the frame.

I was going to mount onto the bottom part of the frame but I feel this would be worse than I actually have now as my Aura's were attached a very similar way. Sheet of metal sandwiched between the seat and the H bracket/top of V3 frame.

I wanted to keep the kickers off the seat but I think one mini will be fine moving around on the platform. I should also have enough clearance out back with full range of movement but this will need to be confirmed. In my head this all seems completely feasible but I will only know for sure once the bastard is here and I am building it.

 

[BrainsBush]

FYI

Anyone else got the auto update message? New 2.73 version ready to install. I downloaded several times and still get version 2.71 via the auto update procedure. But when downloading via the Nextlevelracing.com/support site and entering your serial# manually you get the latest version 2.73.

I also informed NLR support about this and sure they will fix the auto update soon and meanwhile above 'work around' helps us further.

 

[Mascot]

What's in the update?

 

[BrainsBush]

What's in the update?

 

[Mr Latte]

@Anton or someone, can somebody remove one of the "H" supports, show the underside, measure and share the dimensions.

 

[Mascot]

Side views of the whole unit for reference:

Will this diagram give you the dims you want @Mr Latte ?

 

[anton_Chez]

Getting underneath for photos it pretty hard and I am not sure that I will be able to show anything special. I have the platform bare right now, pics of the top of the platform are already here but I will see if I can get a decent photo of underneath.

 

[anton_Chez]

Here are some pics. As I said you probably won't get much out of these as there isn't too much to see under there and the motor housing takes a lot of space to put the camera. It's also quite heavy to lift so it's not really able to be tilted on its side and I assume this can't be great for the unit itself.

Anyway, there are some reference shots for you @Mr Latte hopefully you find some of it useful.

Btw @Mascot my seat seems to be different to yours? I measured the front to back distance between the holes on it and it's around 5mm off from where the V3 hole pattern is. It's not that bad, I can use your method to open up a little more without totally butchering any more of it (see photo attached of birds eye view :/ ) but the thing it it needs to go the OTHER way, as in, open up a little toward the front. My seat holes measure 260mm apart and measuring the front hole to the rear on the platform I am still hitting metal before I get to the start of the original hole. It's not too bad, as the profile I mount to the top plate will cover it all and provide some more rigidity to it but as you can see it's not a pretty sight.....

 

[Mascot]

Whoah! Those are certainly holes..!

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Hmm the side mounts on my sparco rev II are 390mm apart so I’m definitely going to have to mount it differently to you guys.

 

[Mascot]

Hmm the side mounts on my sparco rev II are 390mm apart so I’m definitely going to have to mount it differently to you guys.

HA! So you're getting one as well then mate?
Best deal right now I think is at Amazon UK. I got around 20% off mine there. I think it's gone up a little since then.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

HA! So you're getting one as well then mate?
Best deal right now I think is at Amazon UK. I got around 20% off mine there. I think it's gone up a little since then.

Not just yet, I just bought a Heusinkveld Handbrake and sequential shifter that I didn’t really need and I need a new AV receiver first.

I will probably wait until after the summer when it’s cooler as it will probably be too hot to use VR much in my sun facing room in a couple of months, just planning early.

 

[anton_Chez]

Yeah it seems that the hole patterns for various seats are not exactly standard. Even if there is a standard pattern, not all seats adhere to it? Strange if that's the case but it's workable nonetheless. I am going to try and track down a round file like @Mascot and see if I can make the opening a little cleaner this time around. I know I have had one somewhere in the past but to find it now is another question. I may be able to use a drill attachment to do a similar job, I've seen them around at work if I still have them.Remember that I am not mounting the seat directly to the platform, rather to profile, so this may affect where I have to open up to as well. Only way to know is when I start the build.