The SimFeedback-AC DIY Motion Simulator thread

[sjb266]

Hey guys. Thought I’d create a thread for those taking the plunge into this brilliant DIY project..
I will be starting mine soon and I know there are others thinking about it.. so feel free to share your knowledge and experiences so we can all enjoy this platform to its full potential. A huge thanks to the developers who have really knocked this one out of the park!

Website: https://opensfx.com/2019/02/20/welcome-to-our-new-site/

Github: https://github.com/SimFeedback/SimFeedback-AC-Servo/wiki

For all the internals for the actuator contact Amy - skye@ntl-bearing.com
She can supply everything you need. Just remind her you want the ends of the shafts chamfered and make sure she sends the right sized ball screw - we have had a couple of issues reported. She is very helpful though and the cost is pretty good.


Huge thanks to @RowanH for writing a comprehensive user guide which can be accessed here - https://www.rowanhick.com/sfx-100-build-and-running-guide

In addition, @anton_Chez has contributed a list of post numbers for some of the important settings etc..
Post #320 SFX-100 thread
Post #327 SFX-100 thread for Discord correlation
Post #339 SFX-100 thread
Post #418 SFX-100 thread
Post #424 SFX-100 thread
Post #439 SFX-100 thread
Post #449 SFX-100 thread
Post #517 SFX-100 thread
Post #554 SFX-100 thread
Post #580 SFX-100 thread
Post #826 SFX-100 thread
Post #837 SFX-100 thread
Post #864,866,867,868,870,887,889,897 SFX-100 thread
Post #911,914 SFX-100 thread
Post #988,992,998 SFX-100 thread
Post #1147 SFX-100 thread
Post #1492 SFX-100 thread
Post #1511,1517 SFX-100 thread

I will try to keep this page updated with links to source the parts in other parts of the world. Just post whatever links you have and i'll add them here.

Please note: Not all the parts listed below are essential for the project. For the essential parts refer to the original shopping list.

Australia:

• O-Ring - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Kit-419Pcs-O-Ring-O-Ring-Black-Rubber-32-Sizes-With-Case-3-50mm-W8D7/223152697816?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
• D-Sub breakout board - DB25 25pin Female Adapter RS-232 Serial Terminal Module Breakout Board Connector
• Emergency Stop - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Reliable-Emergency-Stop-Push-Button-Box-600V-Switch-for-Elevator/192115082001?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
• Arduino Wiring - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/40-pcs-Dupont-Cable-20cm-Jumper-Wire-for-Arduino-RPi-breadboard-AU-Stock/202436863098?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&var=502467628096&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
• Breadboard - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-Solderless-Breadboard-400-Contacts-Tie-points-Universal-Available-New-lemon/123145741183?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
• D-Dub Cable - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-D...h=item3f6ace6403:g:038AAOSw9mpaSsU2:rk:1:pf:0
• Screw Shield for Arduino Leonardo - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Scr...h=item25a9d471a4:g:5BgAAOSwraJbc9rC:rk:1:pf:0
• Arduino Leonardo Replica - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DIY-Eduino-Leonardo-Module-with-USB-Cable-for-Arduino-ATMEGA32U4-Blue-Black/132719951279?epid=916281063&hash=item1ee6b9bdaf:g:2QUAAOSw5iNbWv6b:rk:123f:

Thanks to @AussieSim for the following links:

10A power lead(s) * 4
https://www.jaycar.com.au/2m-black-mains-extension-lead/p/PS4152

Top quality wire stripper
https://sydneytools.com.au/product/boxo-cutws205-multifunction-wire-stripper

RCD/safety switch power block
https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlec-4-outlet-heavy-duty-portable-safety-switch_p4420028

WD-40 lithium grease for the ball screws
https://www.bunnings.com.au/wd-40-specialist-300g-high-performance-white-lithium-grease_p6100408

Vibration pads
https://www.bunnings.com.au/whites-on-site-100-x-12-5mm-rubber-anti-vibration-mat-4-pack_p3961547

WD-40 Dry PTFE spray for the slider (free shipping)
https://au.rs-online.com/mobile/p/lubricants/7577134/

Arduino Leonardo (free shipping + frequent 10-15% off discount)
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/a000057/arduino-corporation

DB25 cables * 4 (free shipping)
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/ak401-2/assmann-wsw-components-inc

PETG * 3 (free shipping)
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/petg17bk1/mg-chemicals

WAGO-like connectors to avoid a breadboard (perhaps use genuine ones if you are doing 240V AC)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32906719488.html

D-Sub breakout boards * 4
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32297675967.html

3D printer Creality Ender-3 Pro
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32918302452.html

Wires from Arduino to D-Sub breakout (remove black plastic from the WAGO end)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32887680826.html

Crimp connectors for AC wire leads
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32813550981.html

 

[HoiHman]

Typical of Codemasters. Making the already least attractive options of sim racing even more so by locking their .xml files. Probably won't even bother with DR2. I've already prepared myself for the disappointment.

Actually this time it's not only Codemasters, but also the developers of the telemetry apps are to blame. They all fully claim the port and do not let you change it in a simple and easy way. Port assignments are buried deep into the plugins.

The only program that does make it easy for user is Simhub, but for the Codemasters games Simhub requires the new telemetry output while all others only work with the old output. So you can't combine Simhub with the other 3rd party apps.

F1 2018 is worth it for me and i look forward to play the entire campaign during the F1 2019 season paralel to the races in real life. Even though it is not a full blown sim, which all the toys enabled, the F1 career mode is quite fun to experience. I'm (not) ashamed to say that i also enjoy the occasional flashback it's a welcome change from all the hardcore stuff i have been running lately.

I expect Dirt Rally 2 to have exactly the same telemetry output as F1 2018. If you only use OSW + Simfeedback you will probably have no problems at all using the standard telemetry provider.

 

[anton_Chez]

Fair enough Henk, no shame in enjoying whatever it is that you enjoy. I have some of the sim cade rally titles and I don't care what they are classed as. If I can have fun in them I will, especially since rally is a pretty rare commodity in the sim racing world. I tried Forza and other titles that aren't as simulator driven but in the end they just frustrate me and I'd rather be doing other things than spending 3 hours making the OSW work in something it wasn't designed for. Except for rally, I bought a GIMX adapter for those titles and have yet to use it. It's here when I want it though.

Too busy building motion simulators backwards these days....

 

[MADShootStuff]

Just needed to vent after almost being tricked into opening a phishing email. My experience seems no different to most of you here so that helps to ease my concerns (but doesn't excuse them), but I'm just flabbergasted that a German engineering supplier would have such poor customer communication. I pray that the bits arrive present and correct and in tip-top condition because I shudder to think what trying to deal with their customer relationship department will be like.

I'm in the same situation but at six weeks since it shipped... I finally got a reply yesterday( after quite a few tries) and they said they would open an investigation with DHL Paket. Still not sure where that leaves me for delivery though.

If they weren't the only supplier (and thus, I'm afraid to piss them off) I'd be reading them the riot act. I can't even really file a PayPal dispute because I'd just turn around and re-order...

Loving all of your glowing reviews though!

 

[anton_Chez]

Perhaps there's enough of a reason to source them elsewhere? I know saxxon said that they are practically the reason they are able to do these DIY style but who knows. They do work very well once you have them, but imagine if they just end up annoyed at the abundance of smallish orders and complaints. Could end up pulling the plug on selling them they way we've all bought them until now. Who knows.

 

[Wmacky]

I hate hearing about these ordering issues. They seem to have gotten worse. I got my invoice the next day, and a tracking number a couple days after paying. Shipping did take weeks though. On the German forum someone did use a different china sourced profile, but it took modification of all the printed files as well as machining to the ballscrew nuts.

 

[anton_Chez]

Simon tried this too and ended up sorely regretting it.

 

[Moxley6969]

I also tortured myself into it. Wish i went with the German stuff....

 

[saxxon66]

I wish we had an other source for this profile.
Communication is realy bad or better said no Communication.

I only found one other profile that should work.
It is from "Item"

https://product.item24.de/produkte/...-10-1001042798/profil-10-100x100-natur-62456/

 

[frankrizzo2]

Just needed to vent after almost being tricked into opening a phishing email. My experience seems no different to most of you here so that helps to ease my concerns (but doesn't excuse them), but I'm just flabbergasted that a German engineering supplier would have such poor customer communication. I pray that the bits arrive present and correct and in tip-top condition because I shudder to think what trying to deal with their customer relationship department will be like.

I had a quick and easy experience with them but I also think I got my order in before the website overhaul. Hope your profiles show up soon. The one that I'm having issues with is Emily from NTL bearings. I placed my order on the 5th of Jan and I've gotten 2 different tracking numbers and neither one of them are making any progress. According to Alibaba it is suppose to ship 5 days after payment and we are far past that at this point. I sent her a stern email this morning asking for an explanation so we'll see what happens. The problem is that I need the parts either way so I hope that they have shipped.

 

[Specialist68]

Simon tried this too and ended up sorely regretting it.

 

[Specialist68]

Is there nobody that can make this from another material?
Like CNC it out of aluminium? Because this project ends if we cant get
The aluminium profiles.

 

[Mascot]

I had a quick and easy experience with them but I also think I got my order in before the website overhaul. Hope your profiles show up soon. The one that I'm having issues with is Emily from NTL bearings. I placed my order on the 5th of Jan and I've gotten 2 different tracking numbers and neither one of them are making any progress. According to Alibaba it is suppose to ship 5 days after payment and we are far past that at this point. I sent her a stern email this morning asking for an explanation so we'll see what happens. The problem is that I need the parts either way so I hope that they have shipped.

It's Chinese New Year now for her (I think she said they were finishing on 23 Jan) so there could be a good delay. I've had no tracking details from her at all apart from some vague promise that the bits were with the shipping company so I'm not expecting those parts for another month at least. China basically hibernates for a month at CNY.

 

[Mascot]

Is there nobody that can make this from another material?
Like CNC it out of aluminium? Because this project ends if we cant get
The aluminium profiles.

I think there's an opportunity to use a more widely-available profile if the 3DP parts were slightly redesigned, but I think the ball screw might be the limiting factor there. It'd be good to do away with the helicoils. Extrusion ports are perfect for self-tapping screws, that's what they are designed for.

 

[Ringorian]

It could be done with some CNC Parts / Profiles, but then it wouldnt be so easy and cheap for Everyone ..
This was the only profile we found were the ball nut fits without modification .Hang on, you will be happy if you get em. @Mascot if you are clueless pm me your name and order number and i give them a call ...

 

[RowanH]

Unfortunately selling 4x250mm sections of extrusion is not the business of any alloy extrusion companies (they're used to selling meters to 10's of meters of the stuff). 250mm tends to be close to waste on most 4-6 m bars. They'd probably be stoked if we were buying 250mm sections of more standard 40x40 profile as they would be using up offcuts/short stock lengths.

Small company, probably swamped by dozens of tiny orders over the past couple of months, wondering "what the actual f is going on here" (or the German equivalent of that question!).

I know it doesn't seem excusable, but most companies supplying in this space are only B2B for this reason - they would sell the profile to small "maker shops" who deal with hobbyists. Prior to the SFX, who knows but maybe they had 1 a week or month this type of order, now I suspect they're seeing 5-10 a week. The servo company has 99 orders over the past 6 months listed on AliExpress....

@Ringorian maybe if you call them to explain it. There's undoubtedly going to be loads of orders headed their way the minute one of the big blogs or YouTubers features it. So maybe they should batch all orders and say alright first monday of the month we accept the orders, get payment in by then, we'll get our profile extruded and ship on the third week or something.

It could be a flash in the pan for them (ie everyone who does it, rushes in, buys stuff and it goes quiet) or it really could be the OSW of motion and goes absolutely nuts. So long as they're making good margin on the orders they should be happy. But if they're only making a few percent they might slap an order min volume on their website. Then we're hosed. As then it's someone picking up the ole group buy banner.

Option B) another company (but likely will end up with same problem unless they're really slick behind the scenes)
Option C) would be someone custom extruding specifically for this, pre-buying and pre-cutting everything on and onselling it (but that would be against the terms of the open source license)
Option D) Kinetik does a deal with a "maker" shop for thi..

Not being an apologist for them, I just grew up around Aluminium extrusion, work indirectly with the industry, and have some reasonably educated guesses how they'd be operating. Also (if Germany is anything like AU/NZ) December/Jan period is stone cold quiet in construction space. Presses stop. Plants stop. Order volumes hit the floor. People go off drinking beer. Then the last week or so of Jan happens, people come back to work and they're absolutely flooded with stuff to do...

 

[RowanH]

... just to how you how much interest in this there is. 30 mins down the road from me @metalnwood is building one (person 1)

Then another friend who's got a top end sim rig had a mate (person 2) who sent him my blog article on it, he goes "I know that dude who wrote that, I'll hook you up to check it out"

So sure enough person 2 comes round last night to check it out, he's got 4 other mates back in Australia who were all keen on hearing how it went as they were *all* about ready to pull the trigger on building SFX's. My review blog post has had 650+ unique page views with an average of 6 1/2 min time on page. only from forum and a little bit of google search traffic.

I suspect David the servo guy has been the happiest camper selling dozens of servos unexpectedly. Who knows if that's out of the ordinary from a supply chain perspective or not.

 

[wajdi]

This thing should go commercial.... 3000-4000$.

 

[Talkwrench]

The one that I'm having issues with is Emily from NTL bearings. I placed my order on the 5th of Jan and I've gotten 2 different tracking numbers and neither one of them are making any progress. According to Alibaba it is suppose to ship 5 days after payment and we are far past that at this point. I sent her a stern email this morning asking for an explanation so we'll see what happens. The problem is that I need the parts either way so I hope that they have shipped.

I am in the same boat, I had the same promise they would be out the door on there way to me before the New Year vacation kicked in. I'm not holding my breath, gladly I have lots of things I can do without the bearings. I am use to building project cars and its the same story, you're always waiting on or chasing up parts to maintain progress. Its all part of the journey I suppose

 

[Mascot]

It could be done with some CNC Parts / Profiles, but then it wouldnt be so easy and cheap for Everyone ..
This was the only profile we found were the ball nut fits without modification.

Just for interest, about ten-fifteen years ago I used to design mechanical shading and operable louvre/aerofoil fin systems (anyone been to Man City's ground?) and have probably personally designed about ten bespoke aluminium extrusions during that time. From memory a porthole die to extrude a profile similar to the Kinetic one would cost around £1,000 to produce (back then), but the mill would often do it for free (or for a nominal setup fee) if a kilometer of extrusion was ordered. That's 1,000 SFX units at 4x250mm. The profile would obviously be designed to be as light as possible without compromising strength (extrusion is sold by weight) and engineered exactly to suit the application, eg it could have smooth faces on two sides and just the one nut channel on the two other sides for mounting purposes, and screw ports located and designed for self-tapping screws to negate the need for helicoils. It wouldn't be hard to do if the volume was there to justify the cost, and the unit price per set of four would be a hell of a lot cheaper than the Kinetic extrusion. I did get in touch with some old industry mill contacts to see if the Kinetic profile was available from here in the UK, but it looks like Kinetic own the die and don't licence the design. There's nothing particularly special about it, and as we've seen, Chinese mills produce something very similar (but just different enough to make it unsuitable as a direct replacement for SFX purposes).

Hang on, you will be happy if you get em. @Mascot if you are clueless pm me your name and order number and i give them a call ...

Thanks man, I might take you up on that if I haven't heard anything by the weekend.

 

[saxxon66]

You can do everything custom design, but that was not the idea.
Going custom would make many things easier and a lot of the design better.
And it would make things much more expansive and much harder to source or build.

The idea is an affordable, open source, DIY actuator design, with just of the shelf parts that are available for everybody to buy or build using basic tools and a 3D printer.

Of the shelf parts was the hard part.
We searched over one year, until one night, chatting and surfing the web Jochen and me found that one profile.
And we instantly knew this will gone work, this is it.

Since then many came up with similar extrusion profiles, but in the end, any other profile needed some machining to make it work.
I wish we could find more options for that profile.

This project is not going to be commercial. There are other commercial options and this project is not intended to compete with them. People need these commercial options for several reasons (time, knowledge, support, ...) and I saw many small companies on the SimRacingExpo that have taken their first steps into the market.