Motion Simulator community for haptic flight and racing simulation. Get in and start your project: Register here

[tahustvedt]

I tried driving without motion the other day, and it felt really weird. I had started to get so used to the motion and started to think it wasn't doing much for me, but I guess it's a testament to how good it works when it doesn't feel alien, and you don't know what you're missing until you turn it off.

[museumsteve]

I only really asked because I do want to keep playing Forza (just spent £85 on an interfaceone unit to use my TH8 shifter with it), although I'm sure it will die a death, so was keen to know how people keep their actuators from moving.

[museumsteve]

Just adding some finishing touches and I'll be finished.
Tonight I ordered a dampening kit from simxperience cos I think it will finish things off nicely
Here's a video of Dirt 2 I took this evening. The quality isn't great and I had to turn the room lights up a bit so the screens look a little washed out but it really isn;t

[museumsteve]

The end is in sight at last.
I've ordered a Damper kit from Simxperience, with red actuator covers...
I've sorted the gantry and all cabling and everything is sweet.




This week I had a brainwave as I was walking round a store..I saw a red shiny bread bin and quickly decided it would be great as my housing/.box for actuator PSU etc





Tonight I sorted it and was very pleased with the results





It will look much nicer when the red actuator covers are either side of it I've ordered some racing stickers to jazz it up aswell

[museumsteve]

Looking much nicer now

[museumsteve]

Just about finished my room now
Only small things to do are change some of the cable tidy to black from grey, sort out what dash system I'm using and a button box, but I'm not rushing to do any of that...so I think I declare the room done

I decided to get a banner made up, not sure where I'll have it permanently but it adds to the racetrack feel of the room for me



I finally changed the fittings for the actuators etc and set the measurements and angles as per the 'setup' thread on here and the difference is incredible and I never hear a 'beep' from the actuators. It meant moving the pivot under the seat, moving the anchor points and fitting the new ball joints that arrived with the simxperience actuator cover kit. The ball joints are much smoother than the ones I previously had.
Once I fitted the actuator covers the actuators were noisier than before, I thought it was the rubber dampers in the covers them,selves but it seems it was the covers amplifying the actuator noise..solution was to fit some kind of dampening/deadening material inside the covers, so I cut up a chunky mousemat and it works a great
The difference overall is immense

[bsft]

nice setup there! Lucky you, that you have a spare room. I will have to wait at least 6 years before i get that luxury.

[floriske.nl]

Nice setup indeed!

That breadbin is a genious solution

[museumsteve]

I finally bought a fairly decent camcorder so I can now get better videos
Here's one of Game Stock Car



On another note, I failed miserably at trying to make a damper bar. I think the bobbins/rubber I got were too flexible so when fitted in place they just bent half way over.
So back to the drawing board for that one

[bsft]

Hello Museumsteve, good to see you are having fun.
Profile writing is a tricky one, it took me over a year and I still havent messed with all the forces.
As for sims and comparisons of movement on dirt2, I built a seat mover with some the 12 v winch motors with one gear, so they can spin at over 200 rpm unloaded. The profiles are nasty in bumps and lateral and longitudinal is set to toss me around, mainly because of the short, sharp tracks and heavy braking. I really do feel I have to hang on to the wheel.
My main ride is a "frex" with wheel and pedals moving. For myself, I like everything (not the screen) to move, especially with games like dirt 2,3 because of the bigger motion needed.
Although with games like rfactor and gtr evo, both are just as good with a right profile set up.
It will be a matter of profile fiddling until you can find a happy medium . I still mess with profiles during a game, I cannot help myself.
Go Hard!