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?

 

[leeroy605]

Just one point maybe no one else has thought of yet. We know that there are no guides or plans to follow with these cockpits. Just make sure through the photos on the site that you've actually put everything together the way it's meant to be. The chassis is SUPER narrow compared to our ones. I've used the seat mount railings to bridge the gap between the bottom long pieces and the mounting holes on the V3. Ours aren't that wide to begin with, either.

Hopefully you get it sorted.

I've been following the photos religiously and the Simlabs guys got back to me late last night to confirm everything looks okay with how I've put it back together already so that's a relief. Did not reply to my query about their proposed mounting solution so will have to ask again.

Hi Leeroy,

Based on the solution offered to mount your NLRv3, it's going to sit quite high whatever you do mate. However that's only really a potential issue when considered in relation to your pedals / pedal-deck position and you'll only be able to determine that and whether or not everything feels natural and comfortable, once seated and any final back / forth and incline adjustments have been made. You might be completely happy with things but, speaking from experience, you don't want to be uncomfortable or stretching or feeling you've had to make a compromise.

It looks as though the pedal deck is mounted internally to the profile. So if I were you I'd explain your potential issue to Sim Labs and ask Richard and Darko nicely if they would be willing to supply a couple of short lengths of profile, (looks like 4080), to mount on top of the existing sides. It might be overkill in terms of length but maybe those end / internal pieces would do trick, which would give you plenty of scope to make fore and aft adjustments to the pedal deck. You could always cut them down and it's better to start with more than you need after all. Also ask for some side-mount connecting brackets, (see pic below) to securely join the two pieces neatly on the outside. (4 should be sufficient but 6 would be better) Plus a couple of end caps would be good for a neat finish! Okay so this solution might detract from the clean lines of the TR1 but it'll at least give you an option to raise the pedal deck up a level should you feel the need to.

No harm in asking mate and of course this is always something you could consider later on, once you've used the rig in anger for a while. Once again though, you might be 'as happy as a pig in mud' with what you achieve in the first place.

Oh and one final thing. Whilst stability due to the narrower frame of the TR1 and the higher centre of gravity shouldn't be an issue, make sure you lock those wheels down all the same! Otherwise you might discover an additional range of motion you weren't expecting the V3 to give you and if you're immersed in VR by any chance, that could get interesting!

Good luck!

View attachment 271212

Hi Steve, thanks for this response really appreciate it! Amazingly helpful little community we got here

That's a good suggestion and one I'll remember for the future. I've been thinking of a few different ways of mounting the v3 lower but that involved using longer pieces of extrusion on the rear seat section to make the whole thing wider so it can be dropped in, and then using spacers to make up the gap where I need to elsewhere. Thinking about it though it would probably affect the stability of the rig so your idea is much simpler and cleaner.

Lets see how we get on with the aluminium brackets, they should be delivered tomorrow and I'll have time at the weekend to play around with them and fit the V3 and see how it goes. Who knows it may just work fine without further adjustment to other sections of the rig.

Noted about the wheels as well, will make sure they are locked before use or I'll be racing around the living room in real life too...Thanks all!

 

[Mascot]

@leeroy605, meant to upload this last night to illustrate what I was trying to describe. Is this how you understood it?

The only downside of this design is that the position of the angle can't easily be adjusted once the NLMv3 is bolted on, as it'll cover access the bolts. The NLMv3/seat position would need careful consideration beforehand as fore/aft adjustment afterwards would be tricky.

It was hard to tell from your photos exactly how much the NLMv3 overlapped the cockpit chassis, but this didn't look a million miles away (so probably is )

 

[leeroy605]

@leeroy605, meant to upload this last night to illustrate what I was trying to describe. Is this how you understood it?

The only downside of this design is that the position of the angle can't easily be adjusted once the NLMv3 is bolted on, as it'll cover access the bolts. The NLMv3/seat position would need careful consideration beforehand as fore/aft adjustment afterwards would be tricky.

It was hard to tell from your photos exactly how much the NLMv3 overlapped the cockpit chassis, but this didn't look a million miles away (so probably is )

@Mascot you are a sir and a gentleman. Thanks for taking the time to draw that up, really appreciate it. That's exactly how I understood it but always good to visualise it just to make sure we are singing off the same hymn sheet.

I may just be able to get away with putting the bracket on the other way round to the way it is in your diagram (so the upright section is on the inside of the side rails which would leave the bolts on the outside for easy adjustment). If not, I'm going to attach the plates to the V3, place it on the rig and make sure the positioning is right, marking that position, then taking them off and attaching them to the rig base first, then the V3.

Between your method of mounting and Steve's method of raising the pedal/wheel deck up I think we are going to be alright with this rig which is a relief so thank you guys for the help!

God bless aluminium extrusion, any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity!

 

[anton_Chez]

I love @Mascot's little drawings....!

 

[Kranky Pantz]

Has anyone tested the new NLRv3 software update yet?

Even though I have refunded my platform and am going the DIY route, I still have the software on my PC, and noticed that there is a fairly large update today.

What caught my attention was one of the notes mentioning this: "Dropped support for obsolete motion platforms".

If by chance that has anything to do with the V1, or worse, the V2's (which were only 6 months young before the V3 was introduced), then that is scary!

Hope you guys have a good run before they drop support for the V3's.
With the new traction loss platform working in conjunction with the V3, that may extend its life for some time.
Good luck!

 

[anton_Chez]

It might be that they are still supporting it with the profiles, but there will be no further firmware updates to the earlier models? I forgot there was an update actually. I had a race last night and zero time to mess with things, so I just put it aside, selected the profile and off I went. Haven't loaded it since. I'll have to check it out.

I need to start learning Simtools now, anyway....

 

[Mascot]

I always skip the updates anyway.
If Windows 10 has taught me anything, it's that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
On that subject, does anyone have a bulletproof method of disabling Win 10 updates? I've tried postponing, tried telling it I'm on metered internet (I'm not)... tried everything I can find. Whenever an update is forced through something inevitably gets borked on my sim rig, be it audio, visual or controller-based. Drives me mad. My PC is for sim racing only, I don't want these bloody destructive updates!
/rant

 

[anton_Chez]

I doubt you can man. Somehow they always find a way through. The only way is to have an offline PC. If it cannot physically get the update, then it won't install it. That said, people are 'forced' to update to run newer software. So they get you in the end no matter what.

I normally don't have a problem with updates Windows 7 and back, but Windows 10's updates have been a bit of a head f*ck for me too. Especially with the amount of hardware that I run now, all it takes is a small patch and half your stuff doesn't work for a week until you figure it out. The multi monitor support on it is also GARBAGE among other things.

@Mascot if you skipped all the updates, you wouldn't have been able to access the very useful and totally not my idea post processing tab and all it's awesome features. I guess you would have jumped on that after we guinea-pigged it for you, uh?

 

[Furnace Inferno]

I’ve not personally had any issues with Windows 10 updates because it is just a gaming rig I’ve just left it all stock (they aren’t going to find anything interesting privacy data wise to look at and targeted marketing doesn’t work on me it just pisses me off like all advertising) and it works fine.

Only issue I had was with the windows store before one of the updates, sometimes the downloads would just stop for no reason and God help you if you paused one or shutdown your computer mid-download as it would not only start the download again from 0% but also not delete the old download until it complete.

I had one game allocate 300GB of space on my SSD and then refuse to download because it decided there was not enough space left. Only way to fix it was using spacesniffer to find the files a nuke them. It was amazing how bad it was back then along with not being able to install on anything other than the Crive.

Thankfully it’s all fixed now for me at least, I’ve just bought a couple of UHD compatible drives though which need to stay on a specific older firmware to work so I can backup my entire film collection to a NAS and not have to get up to put disks in. If windows auto-updates those I’ll be back to vent my rage!!!

 

[Mascot]

@Mascot if you skipped all the updates, you wouldn't have been able to access the very useful and totally not my idea post processing tab and all it's awesome features. I guess you would have jumped on that after we guinea-pigged it for you, uh?

Ah, what I meant was I've skipped the last couple of NLv3 updates. I did the update when I first got it so do have the post processing features. And very useful they are too!

 

[Soulstoner]

I always skip the updates anyway.
If Windows 10 has taught me anything, it's that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
On that subject, does anyone have a bulletproof method of disabling Win 10 updates? I've tried postponing, tried telling it I'm on metered internet (I'm not)... tried everything I can find. Whenever an update is forced through something inevitably gets borked on my sim rig, be it audio, visual or controller-based. Drives me mad. My PC is for sim racing only, I don't want these bloody destructive updates!
/rant

I think the only way is by obtaining the LTSB version of Windows 10. It's meant for enterprise environments where forced updates can be catastrophic.

 

[rikirk]

What is the membership fee to join the club?

Just found a great deal and pulled the trigger. It comes without bolts and nuts, so I might need some help to install it on a 4play HD rig.

I was looking into the v3 for a long time, but couldn't justify the $.

Really eager to get it to work. Meantime need to find the right seatbelt for the playseat alcantara...

 

[rikirk]

Quick question. Is any tilt adjustment available via software?
I normally sit with little less than 10 degrees tilt and I am already in trouble trying to fit the 45 mm wider alcantara seat into the NLR v3...

 

[sjb266]

Quick question. Is any tilt adjustment available via software?
I normally seat with little less than 10 degrees tilt and I am already in trouble trying to fit the 45 mm wider alcantara seat into the NLR v3...

Yeah you can use the level calibration to adjust the default position to the rear if you wish...

 

[rikirk]

Thanks Simon.
The beast is coming tomorrow, can't wait!

 

[anton_Chez]

Just make sure you tilt backwards rather than forwards. The unit will shut off if it tilts too far forward under load. This was happening to me when I was running No Limits 2 (roller coaster sim) and the platform was leaning too far forward.

Now that I have limited the throw with the post processing options, this won't happen anymore. I don't use it (No Limits 2) much anymore anyway but at the beginning it was cool to run motion and VR on roller coasters.

 

[leeroy605]

I owe you guys an update!

Finally got round to working on the rig again, the brackets came ages ago now but adult life has been getting in the way....

So pleased to say it worked a treat and is all fitted up nicely! Slight issue as the middle channel for the sides is the same distance as the mounting holes on the V3, but put the brackets on first, lowered the V3 in and then put the bolts in the V3 to let it pull the bracket in each side nice and snug.

Luckily the driving position is pretty much spot on for me, the uprights have a bit of up and down adjustment so put them up as far as they could go, and being 6ft 4 I have no problems reaching the pedals .

In love with this TR1, its so small yet stable. Haven't had a chance to use it on a sim yet, that's happening tonight for sure. Now the real fun begins, tweaking the position of everything, sorting out the cable management etc. Also need to work out a way to attach my Thrustmaster Warthog but already got an idea for that.

Pictures attached, you'll have to excuse the mess, whenever I work on the rig in the spare bedroom it looks like a bomb has gone off in there (and was also in between doing the washing haha). If you're wondering why I have an admittedly not the best comfort wise playseat on there, its because its the only racing seat that can fold down. That feature alone does wonders for acceptance with the other half...

Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated!

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Looks very smart with the V3 mounted like that can barely tell they’re two separate thing.

 

[rikirk]

Unfortunately my unit arrived dead on arrival. It was sold as new from eBay, but from a second tier retailer that purchased it from a stock. The machine turns on, but the PC does not recognize it. Tried several USB ports and cords, another PC, both on Win10 fully updated without luck. Downloaded through the S/N the NLR software and did not recognize the unit as well. So mad because I have to put everything back and wait to have it fix it or return it to the vendor... I would rather being racing... Going to work on mounting my seat back on the rig

 

[anton_Chez]

That sucks, sorry to hear that.