Boeing 737-800 Sim - 6dof Motion Platform Project
Nov 20, 2014 15:12:35 GMT
tronicgr and milou like this
Post by sagrada on Nov 20, 2014 15:12:35 GMT
I'm new to the MotionSim Forum, and Thanos has encouraged me to post progress on my 6dof motion platform project. I'm also greatly encouraged by all the other motion platform projects going on - especaially Steve's awesome race car motion Sim. Great job Steve!
Anyway... My interest is building a 6dof motion platform for my full-scale Boeing 737-800 flight simulator project. My 737 Sim is a full-scale hardware project intended to have a highly realistic form factor as that of a real B737-800 airliner - including real 737 Yokes, Seats, Pedestal, etc. I am using FSX for the base simulator software, running on its own high-speed computer system. I am using a second computer to run Sim-Avionics for the 737 flight model. These two computers talk with each other and support other software applications like scenery, sound, and the 6dof motion software by BFF. This combination makes for a very realistic 737 "hand-on" flight experience. I am using a ButtKicker on each seat platform to induce cockpit/flight vibrations into the seats. The seats by the way, are supported by four low-profile springs to isolate the flight deck from the strong vibrations that come from the ButtKicker audio transducer, which gives a more realistic sense of immersion in the cockpit on the ground and in-flight.
Although a big project in terms of scale and expense, the idea of adding movement to the full-scale Sim seemed like a challenging and interesting project addition, so I embarked on testing what might be required to build my own 6dof Motion Platform setup. Right now... I am in an initial phase of testing one segment (1 of 6 for the hexapod) of a full-scale 6dof motion platform. My requirement is to be able to move approx. 1,800 lbs. of mass ( the 737 Sim) attached to the Upper Platform.
To get an idea of what considerations might be involved in building such a 6dof motion platform project, I built a 1/8 scale model of what I thought my setup might be like, and powered it using small servos (50 oz-in torque, with the model weight scaled to match the torque) from the BFF 6dof motion software, and Thanos' AMC1280USB Controller. The testing of this scale model made me realize that another potential serious problem was physically anchoring the Motion Platform/Sim to the floor - as moving 1,800 lbs of elevated mass about at fairly fast response rates relative to motion cues, can make for some interesting resonant vibrations of significant magnitude - potentially uprooting the platform!
In any case, encouraged by my initial testing, and not to be detoured... I have concluded that such a 6dof motion platform project is viable for my 737 Sim, so I am now moving forward to build such a 6dof Motion Platform Project. My goal is to have it finished sometime the middle of 2015.
I'll try to make timely posts on this project thread as to my progress.
Mike
Anyway... My interest is building a 6dof motion platform for my full-scale Boeing 737-800 flight simulator project. My 737 Sim is a full-scale hardware project intended to have a highly realistic form factor as that of a real B737-800 airliner - including real 737 Yokes, Seats, Pedestal, etc. I am using FSX for the base simulator software, running on its own high-speed computer system. I am using a second computer to run Sim-Avionics for the 737 flight model. These two computers talk with each other and support other software applications like scenery, sound, and the 6dof motion software by BFF. This combination makes for a very realistic 737 "hand-on" flight experience. I am using a ButtKicker on each seat platform to induce cockpit/flight vibrations into the seats. The seats by the way, are supported by four low-profile springs to isolate the flight deck from the strong vibrations that come from the ButtKicker audio transducer, which gives a more realistic sense of immersion in the cockpit on the ground and in-flight.
Although a big project in terms of scale and expense, the idea of adding movement to the full-scale Sim seemed like a challenging and interesting project addition, so I embarked on testing what might be required to build my own 6dof Motion Platform setup. Right now... I am in an initial phase of testing one segment (1 of 6 for the hexapod) of a full-scale 6dof motion platform. My requirement is to be able to move approx. 1,800 lbs. of mass ( the 737 Sim) attached to the Upper Platform.
To get an idea of what considerations might be involved in building such a 6dof motion platform project, I built a 1/8 scale model of what I thought my setup might be like, and powered it using small servos (50 oz-in torque, with the model weight scaled to match the torque) from the BFF 6dof motion software, and Thanos' AMC1280USB Controller. The testing of this scale model made me realize that another potential serious problem was physically anchoring the Motion Platform/Sim to the floor - as moving 1,800 lbs of elevated mass about at fairly fast response rates relative to motion cues, can make for some interesting resonant vibrations of significant magnitude - potentially uprooting the platform!
In any case, encouraged by my initial testing, and not to be detoured... I have concluded that such a 6dof motion platform project is viable for my 737 Sim, so I am now moving forward to build such a 6dof Motion Platform Project. My goal is to have it finished sometime the middle of 2015.
I'll try to make timely posts on this project thread as to my progress.
Mike
it must have taken a while to put together.
