Hi Guys,

 

I'm in the process of building a racing simulator, for those that are interested; so far it's all set up and working, I've got a Dell XPS lappy as the brains, a 32" monitor for the screen, a cabinet partly built and a functioning full rotation feedback wheel, pedals, clutch and six speed gear box (with push down reverse). I've also fitted a high spec toora seat, with a sub mounted on the arse for engine rumbling and speakers in the headrest. It's comming together nicely but my main issue is getting the seat to move - I've no idea how.

 

The only thing I can think of is some sort of hydraulic set up, a strut on each side one front and back central. I'd need to control them somehow, I'm guessing the front and back can be switched Via switches on the pedals but the side to side i'm not sure. TBH I don't have a clue how hydraulics work or how to even begin looking at a setup, so I need some help and advise really. The only thing I can find on google are lowrider set ups and industrial machinery, I can't seem to tie down and advise that is relevant to me.

 

I'm not sure what other ways this can be done and I'm struggling so if anyone has any expertise in hydraulics or any ideas please let me know.

 

Cheers.

*laughs* hello fellow Nerd.

 

Was having a look around the interweb for this - and well, sadly there is no retail solution for you.

I have had a play with some robotics in the past and there is only on way that I feel that you could do this. I take it your steering wheel is usb or gameport based. and if you look in the control panel you will probably see your calibration window that shows ther ammount od direction is being inserted on each value (left, right acc and braking) you would need someone to develop a program that reads these values, and passes them to Electrical based linear accuators to make the seat move.

 

As this isnt a retail product however, it is not going to be cheap to impliment. without any knowledge about robotics in this field im afraid its not looking hopefull.

 

My only advice really, is to speak to some Robotics nerds at specialist universities.

 

Leeds and Oxford specialise in these - http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/ send an email perhaps - a student may be up for a project or something??

http://classicsim.com/ may be the key - this guy has had the same dream - and has a few examples - deffo worth a look :)

cool :D

 

Thanks for the help matey, and big up the nerds lol ;)

 

I've come up with all whacky ideas from suspending the seat from the joists in the ceiling and relying on energy from me moving the wheel to swing it, to mounting it on a giant bearing, to using old electric Z seats lol!

 

Think hydraulics or motors are the best bet tho, pref hydraulics due to the movement speed needed.

 

I'll drop some uni's a line. And yup, I got the software that pics up the wheel movement and calibrates it. Knocking together a program that is PC based and runs the system is spot on, I was thinking all prehistoric like switched and stuff lol!

nah you have the processing power, so use it - pick up the feed on your operating system control panel, and feed it down a serial port to a linear acutator - far, far easier! ;)

See if you can find an old arcade machine with the movement you need and gut it. The Space Harrier one springs to mind. Then it's just going to be a question of the interface software.

Found this which may be able to be adapted for a driving simulation application

 

http://buggies.builtforfun.co.uk/Sim/index.html

 

There may be other "home-built" flight simulator motion platforms out there that could be adapted. :D Google is your friend..................

 

Good luck

 

Also try considering pneumatic actuators instead of hydraulic ones - a lot less messy if anything goes wrong ;)

Cheers guys.

 

My quest continues.

 

For my machine I only require a little movement though, so I'm hopping it shouldn't be too hard, I just want a few inches of movement each way to tilt the seat forward, back and left and right with breaking and steeting to add that extra realism.

Hydraulics would be very expensive mate. you would need hyd tank, pump. small double acting cylinders, 4 function dual solinoids, digital/anolouge driver board for pc coms and the electronic interface and not forgetting the software to make it all work,

would cost a few grand by the time it was up and running.

And I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do something like this! :rofl:

 

 

I put a PC in an old arcade cabinet and made a 4 player control panel and wired it all up, complete with trackball, spinner and light gun - just needs the trim finishing off.

It's got about 32,000 arcade and computer games on it :)

I didn't go as far as hydraulics though! :nono: LOL

 

If I were you I'd check eBay for a machine to come up and raid it for bits.

Mine was made from a working Sega Decathlete machine with 28" screen thats like new and I only paid £110 plus £55 delivery, which due to its size and weight I'm amazed the specialist courier agrees to!

Jeees ed, that's a lot of shit! Perhaps I should look at motors?

 

Chris that's a fookin nice cabinet mate top job! ;)