Hi-Fidelity Motion Simulation Development Kit

[smacdon2112]

Greetings to the mycockpit.org community. I am a first time poster.

Full disclosure: I am a professional in motion simulation and want to solicit feedback from this community on a hi-fidelity motion simulation development kit my company recently launched called STAR (which stands for Some Time and Assembly Required.) It essentially takes most of the engineering out of motion simulation for cockpit and sim builders. The idea for this kit is born from a labor of love for my late father who founded SimCraft in 1998 and also pioneered the SimCraft architecture for motion simulation. Thank you in advance for any and all feedback.

Sean

[Badge]

What is the maximum weight that your product can support? The vast majority of us have plans for a full size 2 place cockpit with enclosure can with a weight approaching 800kg.

[smacdon2112]

The max payload is 500 pounds for occupant, monitors, controls + seat.

[Roland]

Hi Sean,

I see that you are using good grade actuators and fast software. That will help a lot in getting good motion response.
For the 2DoF: For a flightsim I'd advice more pitch angle than roll angle. It maybe different for car sims, but you'll want lots of pitch for take-off acceleration and braking decelleration.
Why not add heave as a third DoF? with your actuators and software speed, lots of nice heave effects could be generated. (but it may be a bit complicated for the ready-to-fly kit kind of setup due to weightbalancing)

I had also thought about preparing a 3DoF kit of my system a while back. Unfortunately I don't live in the Far East anymore (material prices in Europe are just terrible, the kit would be 7 ~ 10x more expensive than when sourcing from Taiwan or China)
Then I thought about all the things that need to be taken care of: all mechanical and electrical tolerance calculations, safety issues, guarantees & aftercare, marketing, logistics, taxes, ect. I decided to keep it hobby and share info for free.

[autocadplease]

Sean,
I would buy something like that, but would like to see more pitch and an increased weight load. Heave would be great too. I would pay up to $5,000 for something that had those features. I like the DIY element of this product too - I am sure it keeps the costs down. Thank you for sharing.

[smacdon2112]

Roland: Thank you for all of your comments. We can add more pitch motion by increasing the stroke length of the actuator but heave will be a bit more difficult to add in. We have some ideas about how to add heave but safety and performance factors are currently very tough to overcome. Lifting and supporting hundreds of pounds of weight is a major factor in latency unless you have a lopsided ratio of force to weight - which is where the safety issues come in.


Grant: Thank you as well for your comments. How much pitch would you want to see? What would your payload requirements be?

[autocadplease]

Grant: Thank you as well for your comments. How much pitch would you want to see? What would your payload requirements be?

I would like to see at least +\- 20 degrees pitch and payload somewhere around 1000lbs.

Grant

[Jackpilot]

On the weight issue, do not forget that the whole visual system has to be included...but you know that I'm sure !!
Jack

[smacdon2112]

40 degrees of pitch is not a big challenge with a longer stroke actuator. (Which we have.)

The 1000 pound payload is doable with the system, the bearings are not the issue however, it is the moment of inertia created from rotating 1000 pounds. No doubt, the way the system is designed, the control system could actuate this amount of weight quickly but upon stopping and going the opposite direction, from a performance standpoint, that I would emphasize as the challenge.

Something to analyze and test - and we will - thanks again for the feedback!

[Doon1]

Hi Sean,
Then I thought about all the things that need to be taken care of: all mechanical and electrical tolerance calculations, safety issues, guarantees & aftercare, marketing, logistics, taxes, ect. I decided to keep it hobby and share info for free.

And God love ya for it brother