The SimFeedback-AC DIY Motion Simulator thread

sjb266 · Sep 17, 2018

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:

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

HugoB · Mar 18, 2019

GeniFx said:
And i told my self my simrig was done last year....

And then this show up... Aluminium profiles orderd and the harware for the actuators orderd.
3d printer is runing full speed atm.
Realy have to say this is an awsome project. Almost done with all the pages her just 30 or so left.
And big thanks to Saxxon for leting everybody in on this.

But i have some questions since i have to modify my rig. what is the optimal distance between actuators ? seen ppl be about 1 m front to back and 68 side to side.

thing i can have 63 side to side and around 1m front to back.

Was thinking of changing my main suport on the back of my rig to run past the front part with an overlap and chang it out with a 40x120 insted of the 40x80 i have now and run a 40x40 under the pedal part to suport it.
And shorten in my front part.

What do you guys think of that ?

You are correct, around 1 meter front to back (center of actuator to center of actuator) is what a beta tester of the project used, so it is guaranteed to be fine. Left to right distance around 63 is also fine. The narrower you go, the more effective your roll and sway effects will be, but too narrow might risk your rig falling over

You can change the maximum movement in the SimFeedback software to match what you like.

Your front to back placement (where they are in relation to your seat) is also important, it changes the feeling of the ride. Aim to match the pictures of the beta testers and the designer, this will make the stock profiles feel good. Or go with a stable center of gravity.

Regarding your rig design, I don't know if it will be strong enough for the whole motion madness of the SFX100... You might need some strengthening between back and front module. Your 40x80 is fine I guess, many people use similar profile for the base, I haven't heard about any flexing.

Also, know that if you have your monitors attached to the rig you might want to consider strengthening their mounting construction, there have been many people here struggling to get them from wobbling (which can induce nausea), also if they are rather heavy you might even break the mounting.. the motion of the SFX100 is so brutal it can throw around a 500kg rig like a feather in the wind.. and the high speed vibrations of F1 profiles can wreak havoc with prolonged usage.. This seriously is not a toy, it's industrial machinery.

And welcome to the club!

Mascot · Mar 18, 2019

Forgot to follow up to some postings from about a month ago:
If TNT try to sting you for a £20 'DPF' handling fee for processing your Chinese stuff through customs, just phone them up (the number will be on the invoice) and tell them you never agreed to this and are not in contract with TNT. They should waive the charge as they have no legal basis on which to apply it. Ask for emailed confirmation and a revised invoice just with the VAT amount (that they have already paid to HMRC on your behalf) so they can't chase you for it later.

Worked for me, anyway..!

If you're feeling cheeky then you could tell them to whistle for the VAT they paid to HMRC as well, and thank them for being so generous.

GeniFx · Mar 18, 2019

HugoB said:
You are correct, around 1 meter front to back (center of actuator to center of actuator) is what a beta tester of the project used, so it is guaranteed to be fine. Left to right distance around 63 is also fine. The narrower you go, the more effective your roll and sway effects will be, but too narrow might risk your rig falling over You can change the maximum movement in the SimFeedback software to match what you like.

Your front to back placement (where they are in relation to your seat) is also important, it changes the feeling of the ride. Aim to match the pictures of the beta testers and the designer, this will make the stock profiles feel good. Or go with a stable center of gravity.

Regarding your rig design, I don't know if it will be strong enough for the whole motion madness of the SFX100... You might need some strengthening between back and front module. Your 40x80 is fine I guess, many people use similar profile for the base, I haven't heard about any flexing.

Also, know that if you have your monitors attached to the rig you might want to consider strengthening their mounting construction, there have been many people here struggling to get them from wobbling (which can induce nausea), also if they are rather heavy you might even break the mounting.. the motion of the SFX100 is so brutal it can throw around a 500kg rig like a feather in the wind.. and the high speed vibrations of F1 profiles can wreak havoc with prolonged usage.. This seriously is not a toy, it's industrial machinery.

And welcome to the club!

Thank you Hugob.

Was thinking of ordering alitel every month but i think that whount happend sliders is finish now so i gues motors get ordered this week aswell.

Plan to take the screens of the rig.
And reinforce it with Main 40x120 that go 30cm past the front section with actuators between those and the 40x80 on the front section with A 40x40 under ut to sport abit more.

Hope that is good enoth. Then front and rear are conected where they meet at on actuators both sides and 10 cm after that with A suport under its since the side mains are 40mm lower the the front part

Its good that they are strong. Almoust 100kg Just with aluminium on my rig

Feel like A kid
Asume its the same kind og "toy" my osw is

sn4il · Mar 18, 2019

I'm thinking of printing PLA mounts for my SFX actuators and 1530 frame.
Do you think something like this will withstand brutal forces?

Flag Ghost · Mar 18, 2019

sn4il said:
I'm thinking of printing PLA mounts for my SFX actuators and 1530 frame.
Do you think something like this will withstand brutal forces?

I would use PetG. Just as easy to print but not anywhere near as brittle.

sn4il · Mar 18, 2019

It would be quiet a challenge for me to print big part like that with PetG. Its (150x150x95).
I will try to size it down to 140mm. Right now I'm getting this:
Build time: 54 hours 20 minutes
Filament length: 303181.4 mm
Plastic weight: 911.55 g (2.01 lb)

Flag Ghost · Mar 18, 2019

sn4il said:
It would be quiet a challenge for me to print big part like that with PetG. Its (150x150x95).
I will try to size it down to 140mm. Right now I'm getting this:
Build time: 54 hours 20 minutes
Filament length: 303181.4 mm
Plastic weight: 911.55 g (2.01 lb)

Ouch.. yes PetG is slower to print for certain but will put up with being slightly out of tolerance and not break when you tighten down bolts

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

sn4il said:
I'm thinking of printing PLA mounts for my SFX actuators and 1530 frame.
Do you think something like this will withstand brutal forces?

Nice design, that will work really well - PLA will be just fine. If you can get get bolts that have shanks ( non-threaded section ) that fit really snugly in the holes then you should not have any wear issues. Whats the worst that can happen... if one cracks in 6 months time... print another

HugoB · Mar 18, 2019

sn4il said:
It would be quiet a challenge for me to print big part like that with PetG. Its (150x150x95).
I will try to size it down to 140mm. Right now I'm getting this:
Build time: 54 hours 20 minutes
Filament length: 303181.4 mm
Plastic weight: 911.55 g (2.01 lb)

Is that per piece or for 4 pieces total? You could get these: https://sim-lab.eu/product/connector-bracket-40-mm-slot-8-bulk/?attribute_quantity=10
They fit for sure, I use them. I think 3D printing brackets like that is really cool! But I'd always choose metal or aluminum brackets here, the amount of force and the vibrations are so high, I'd be afraid to loose some fine details in the plastic dampening..? But I don't have any experience with such mounting solutions, maybe it's really good.

minderacer · Mar 18, 2019

I really like your design to, was thinking of making something like that myself, but my 3d rendering skills are not up to par. I really need to learn.. I'd print them and try them out, while inspecting them thoroughly and often.. If you could draw up a design for 25 series, illI give them a go..

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

I have been less than impressed by the heartache caused by Kinetik’s customer service so I have been testing an alternative 100x100 profile from ITEM ( part no. 0.0.624.56 ) for the last 6 weeks and it has not produced any problems. I have discussed publicizing this alternative to Kinetik with “saxxon66” ( Michael ) and he is ok with it, he just wants to make sure that it does not confuse builders.

ITEM are a USA based company and have distributors worldwide, they are definitely a lot more expensive than Kinetik but if sourced locally outside Europe then the shipping may well offset that price difference… when I ordered from the UK ITEM supplier ( www.mbsitem.co.uk ) it arrived 2 days later. The UK customer service was impressive.

The ITEM profile is very similar to the Kinetik profile, has good clearance for the ballscrew nut and has only needed a very small adjustments to the slider “grooves” and bolt hole sizes in the bearing mounts (10mm bolts), the bolt hole pitch is exactly the same as the Kinetik profile. There is no change whatsoever to all the internal hardware used to build the actuator ( apart from increased bolt size to fix the “linear bearing housing” and “fixed bearing housing” to the 100x100 profile ). I will make the modified STL files available shortly ( need to discuss with saxxon66 where how he would like them distributed ) - they are to big to post here.

Anyone using this ITEM profile will have to tap M10x1.5 threads in the existing 8.4mm holes (correct size for tapping M10 threads), this process is no harder ( a lot easier for some ) than winding the inserts in, I recommend buying a good quality tap and a proper “tap wrench bar” and lubricate the tap when cutting the threads.

Work required to be done to use ITEM profile…

Tap existing 8.4mm holes in ITEM profile with M10 x 1.5 tap
Print modified slider to fit internal 100x100 shape
Print modified Linear bearing housing to take M10 bolts
Print modified fixed bearing housing to take M10 bolts
Use M10 x 1.5 bolts 35mm long

ITEM Website
https://www.item24.com/
Find the distributor in your region and ask for details and prices for the following part no.

ITEM Part No.
0.0.624.56 Profile 10 100x100, 0.250 (m)

The attached pictures show the ITEM and Kinetik profile alongside each other and a picture of the modified slider with the standard Ballscrew Nut attached.

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

C64 said:
Nice design, that will work really well - PLA will be just fine. If you can get get bolts that have shanks ( non-threaded section ) that fit really snugly in the holes then you should not have any wear issues. Whats the worst that can happen... if one cracks in 6 months time... print another

One improvement you could make would be to make the whole bracket longer... so the mounting points attaching on the 100x100 are as far apart as possible ( vertically ), this will significantly reduced the load on the bolt holes when sideloads from sway and roll are created by the actuators.

minderacer · Mar 18, 2019

I bet they would even offer a tapping service at a cost..

HugoB · Mar 18, 2019

C64 said:
I have been testing an alternative 100x100 profile from ITEM ( part no. 0.0.624.56 )

Great stuff! Is the slot for the T-Nut the same or different?

ScottSonder · Mar 18, 2019

@C64 Thank you so much for your work. My Kinetik shipment is MIA almost one month after shipping now living in the US, so I was looking for other solutions. There's no way I could've come up with something like that, especially with remodeling the prints. I will be very eagerly following this, or if it's already up and running, starting to fab the new prints..

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

HugoB said:
Great stuff! Is the slot for the T-Nut the same or different?

Slot is the same.

Furnace Inferno · Mar 18, 2019

o Tiger Feet o said:
You can just use some 3 or 2 core cable. You'll probably have a mains lead somewhere youre not using... Just chop that up...

ScottSonder said:
4 wires from DB25 breakout back to estop as the input signals, one wire coming out of estop to connect to A0 on Arduino which would be the kill switch. You shouldn't need to buy anymore wire, not sure what you have, but that's a question I can't answer for sure.

Edit: I said 22 AWG is fine, probably want to just play it safe with 18/16. Just cut up a power cord like another user said.

You should be able to tell from the breadboard diagram. Pins coming out of each DB25 are taken into the estop, then one wire from the estop is wired back to the A0 Arduino pin.

Am I cutting off the DuPont connector then and splicing it with another cable. I’ve got some spare 14AWG speaker wire, would that do the trick?

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

ScottSonder said:
@C64 Thank you so much for your work. My Kinetik shipment is MIA almost one month after shipping now living in the US, so I was looking for other solutions. There's no way I could've come up with something like that, especially with remodeling the prints. I will be very eagerly following this, or if it's already up and running, starting to fab the new prints..

It’s up and running (for 6 weeks now)... just need to get a sensible place to put the STL print files for people to use.

They are a small modification of the original files so I don’t feel I can just stick them on thingiverse, would prefer them to go somewhere more official.

ScottSonder · Mar 18, 2019

C64 said:
It’s up and running (for 6 weeks now)... just need to get a sensible place to put the STL print files for people to use.

They are a small modification of the original files so I don’t feel I can just stick them on thingiverse, would prefer them to go somewhere more official.

Awesome work, thanks again. There's no rush on the STL files from me, I'll still bite my lip for a bit and hope Kinetik shows, seeing as I just finished printing all the bearing mounts and have the hardware ready there. Your timing couldn't be much better though

C64 · Mar 18, 2019

minderacer said:
I bet they would even offer a tapping service at a cost..

That is a very good point, ITEM are at the “premium” end of the 8020 market, their prices reflect that and so does their service so I expect they could offer such a service.