Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

I'll 3D print this as a verification step before I build spend the time building one.
Pretty simple stuff.

TopPlate.jpg
Bottomplate.jpg
 
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I put a couple plates out so far. STL files and Fusion 360 files. I'm using a 1/4" aluminum plate for mine, but it could be made out of steel as well.

These are symmetrical plates that can be used upright or inverted depending on which direction the brake and clutch pedal are facing when bolting them down.

There is a 57_67mm pattern for the original Sprint bolt pattern and a 60_70mm pattern for the later Sprint bolt patter that is a bit wider. The file names are obvious.


I recommend using 2" UHMW tape on the plate touching the profile to slide better and so it doesn't scare things up.

For upright use M8x16 bolts work.

For inverted quick release I recommend these.

Recommend M8x35 T Bolts

Along with 4 of these large lever arms. These are probably a bit large for upright use.

 
I do wonder how many people would be interested in the inverted clutch wedge like I have.

Rotating the clutch and moving it backwards to line up better with the brake gives it a much better feel and keeps the ball of your foot from bending backwards uncomfortably.

I'm tempted to just make this plate in my garage. I just need two cuts with my table saw, 4 x 8.5mm holes, 8 x 5.5mm holes and 8 bevels. Hardly seems worth getting setup on the Mill for this.

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Impatience wins. Using a 3D printed part as a template does work well. I've already test fitted the 3D printed part, so I know everything works. The center punches are imperial and just barely snug in the holes helping to get well center punches.

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Beautiful work as always, Mark!

What size/brand of countersink bit do you use?

I am unashamedly adopting many of your techniques and touches having just acquired some UHMW tape as well.

Now, enjoy the fruits of your labors!
Have a great weekend!
Thanks!
I do intend to get a some time on my rig this weekend. I'm also hoping to get going on the 3D printed clock.

I have a few countersink bits, but this is the nicest one I got when I wanted to make sure I could put bevels in steel, It works well on aluminum as well.

 
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I finally decided to see how much power my rig pulled.
I have two circuits.

1. Computer ( i9-12900 & 2080Ti ) Valve Index, Behringer NX4-6000, EQP-304, DSP's
2. NLRv3, SC2 Pro, G-Belt

I was pleasantly surprised at how much is actually being pulled which is much less than I thought. Apparently the amps have enough buffer to handle transient spikes. My computer with 1200W PS is also more efficient than I expected running VR.

This also gives you an idea how quiet my transducers are. I don't notice them in VR.

 
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I am trying to understand the low wattage values that I'm seeing, because it seems crazy low. I'm not saying they are wrong, but I am trying to understand them better.

Reading around the Internet I did find out that the Kill-a-watt meter is considered good for it's price, but that it's sample frequency can miss large spikes. It appears that the cost to get more accuracy is a bit prohibitive at least to me and is in the $2,000 range. There is a cheaper digital outlet meter that does have a Max Wattage feature that could be useful.

They claim my meter:
Displays volts, amps, and wattage within 0.2 - 2.0percent accuracy

Looking at my setup.

The 2080Ti is supposed have a max TDW of 250W. The i9-12900 is known to be efficient and use lower power when many of it's cores are idle. My PC has a Corsair 1200W Gold power supply. However it's power efficiency is better when running closer to it's rated power so it could be losing another 5-10%. I'm not overclocking my setup and currently my 4 banks of DDR4 memory are only running at 3600MHz.

I was running a test drive in iRacing, so there were no other cars on the track and the GPU was likely only at about 65% based on earlier observations.

The 2 x t.racks 4x mini DSP's each have DC converters capable of delivering up to 12 W each, but are likely using less.

The EPQ-304 is only running at 2 notches above 0 at 80W max per channel (likely overrated), so it is not using much power.

That leaves the NX4-6000. Keeping in mind that even just pushing 1 channel at a fully rated 1500W and accounting for 90% efficiency of a Class D amplifier would mean 1667W pulled out of the wall which would nearly completely use an 1800W 15A circuit. So obviously there is no way that it could remotely pull enough power to sustain that load. This implies that it has adequate storage onboard to handle those peaks.

When you turn on the amp it immediately fills up the capacitors to give it a reservoir to pull from and in operation it just needs to top these off. What this means is that it "could" be driving peaks of 1000W to some channels without that load showing up on the Kill-a-Watt unless they were sustained.

However I know that I'm running my tactile at a lower volume than others. I'm running a base line 33% overall multiplier on my main BK and TST effects, where others are at 50%. There is a chance that the additional isolation of the pivot on my NLRv3 is giving me more tactile feel than having the isolation alone.

CapacitorsNX4-6000.jpg


On the rig side of these numbers, SimuCube has suggested that the initial inrush current of the 2 x SC2 Pro power supplies can fairly high. I also know that the Meanwell PS's have a bit of buffer as well. My test at Road Atlanta only has one higher speed sweeping turn where the wheelbase load could build up, so the SC2 Pro could pull more power than I got in other situations.

I verified my SC2 Pro settings. I had the profile I'm using turned down to 80% or 20Nm and 45/25Nm in iRacing.

For the NLRv3 with a Max rating of 350W I'm quite sure I would get much higher power needs in a Rally environment where I was being thrown around more. I have the settings dialed back for track use and while I'm happy with how that feels on a track, it might be worth seeing how it looks in Dirt Rally 2.0.

Dirt Rally 2.0 would also be more demanding than iRacing on the GPU running it nearly flat out in the 90%+ range, so I believe there would be more power being pulled from both sides.

All that said even if the GPU did pull another 50-75W and the NLRv3 pulled another 100W, that still makes me feel reasonably comfortable that I'm only using about half of the 15A circuit's capacity at peak.
 
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crazy low
Testers (e.g. Gamers Nexus) run specific software (not games) to fully load CPUs and GPUs,
at which point PC fans should be quite loud.
If a tactile transducer consumes appreciable power (e.g. 50 Watts)
more or less continuously, it will get quite hot.

A commercial servo motor, similar to SC2, requires considerable power
when delivering torque at high rpm, not so much near stall.
Near stall, back EMF is low, although current may by high (limited e.g. by PWM)
to generate torque.
 
This is in the category of should I even bother.
It's a mount for my HE Sequential shifter that I almost never use.

The current mount using profile and other 8020 mounting hardware works fine. This might be a little cleaner looking. I'll probably clean it up a bit from here. There's room for improvement.

That said to cut slots this would be my first application where I would actually need the the mill.

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It was just announced that DCS: AH-64D has entered Closed Beta Testing and they believe they are on track for a release before the end of March.

I guess it's time to start watching the tutorial videos for it.

 
It was just announced that DCS: AH-64D has entered Closed Beta Testing and they believe they are on track for a release before the end of March.

I guess it's time to start watching the tutorial videos for it.


You ever fly in MP servers? If yes, we will have to hook up in a server sometime, I will fly CAP for you while you do some damage on the ground.

Prior to me pivoting to sim racing, I was a top CAP pilot on a few of the big MP servers. I can probably buy you plenty of time to clear a lot of units :)
 
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You ever fly in MP servers? If yes, we will have to hook up in a server sometime, I will fly CAP for you while you do some damage on the ground.

Prior to me pivoting to sim racing, I was a top CAP pilot on a few of the big MP servers. I can probably buy you plenty of time to clear a lot of units :)
That's impressive!

I am definitely a novice in DCS. I've never tried a multi-player mission. I just googled what it meant to be be a CAP pilot in DCS. So it's unlikely I'll be ready to take you up on that offer any time soon, but the offer is greatly appreciated. If I get to the point where I'm ready for that, I'll let you know!
 
Just had a creative breakthrough of sorts. When I first got a 3D printer, I had ramped up on Fusion 360 and suddenly I could pretty much design and print anything I could dream up out of filament. It took me just a little bit to transition from thinking about what I could make out of wood in my shop to a much less restrained view of what I could make.

I looked at that simple design above using 1/4" angle and suddenly thought, why just that? I could be creative and use larger stock of steel or aluminum :)

Now I'm looking at 2"x2" solid aluminum and even larger chunks of steel that I could mill down in interesting ways.

What kind of cool looking shapes could I use that would be functional, but very interesting as well ? I have better tools at my disposal and I need my designs to reflect that!

For some reason it takes time to come to this realization. It think my brain has to wrap itself around thinking in terms of how a new tool works and then I don't understand why I didn't have this realization earlier.
 
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My first pass at something out of a solid block of aluminum.
It form fits the bottom of the HE sequential shifter and bolts to the inside of my vertical wheelbase support.

I have a ways to go with it and I can 3D print it to verify that I got this right before going to metal.

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When designing CNC parts keep in my that changing the " fixation on the machine" ( sorry, don´t know the right word in English) is a mayor PITA.
Everytime you have to reset the machine and find your measurements again.

So the less changes the better.

( a friend of mine has a small CNC company, so I wittnesed that for some parts he spends more time fixating than milling.)

Having typed that and looking on my HSV Shifter I like the look of your mount.:thumbsup:
Maybe put one or two slots on the upper side to make it blend in with the profiles of your rig?

MFG Carsten
 

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