Opinion on design

[sparky972]

I was wanting opinions on which style of sim you feel has the best benefits. I have looked at so many designs i just don't know which way to turn. I really liked Motion Dave's design with the motor's in the front of the sim, i would think that design would have a leverage advantage to it. I plan on using the sim just for driving games and would like to make it out of metal ( love to weld!) and i have already purchased 2 of the pololu jrk 12v12 boards to run my wiper motors. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[motiondave]

Hello Sparky, and thanks for the comment. Just for reference, I had a bloke at 6'3" and over 120kg on it, and thanks to the leverage design, it moved him with ease.
Only my opinion, I like the whole frame moving and screen still, as usually in racing , your eyes are fixed on a set point and tend to try to follow the road.
Flight though , your head moves with the sim, so screen attached.
Some people like just the seat moving and wheel and pedals stay still. The advantage of that would be some space saving as well as being able to design a custom dashboard.
Have a dig and look at some of the projects and ask questions as you need to.
Cheers, David.

[tronicgr]

Please, post in the proper category,


Balanced simulator means a platform that it can return to center position (level) by its self if no motors are even attached to it. Joyrider is one of them.

The "seat" simulators are the opposite. They may be balanced in level position, but as soon they take some angle they became unbalanced!! Think of it!!

[value1]

I personally go for the joyrider style with everything moving: seat, wheel, pedals and screen; see here.
With this type of sim one can simulate the g-forces rather than trick the body with pulses/kicks like with the other sim types.
My sim is not finished yet and I didn't have the chance to test it extensively. So far it really felt cool, especially the curves and when I turned off the other light in my garage the game immersion is striking. And as you can see from my project, it provides lots of opportunities to weld

A few things to consider though: Due to all things moving you will need a lot of space for this type of sim. Once it's assembled it's heavy and difficult to move.
When you balance it right (which is a MUST) the motors can easily move it.