Force Feedback challange

[Guest Faro]

Hi all,As my sim is placed on a platform, I would like to get some force feedback on it. I have placed the platform on some kind of suspension to allow it to be "shaked".I have a force feedback joystick that I would like to hack so I can drive a 220v motor with it.I made a motor with an off-centre wheel to make things shake.Does anyone have an idea how to make the connection between the joystick and the big motor. I am not an electronic man so I need some advise on this. In my opinion it must be possible to disconnect the wires from the joystick and adding the right electronic components to connect it to the 220v motor.Any help would be apreciated.Thanks,Marnix

[Guest groundpounder75]

What type of motor is the 220V motor? DC, AC, servo, stepper? You need some type of control system in place but before you get into those specifics you need too say what kind of motor it is.

[Guest Faro]

Hi Arthur,Thanks for the reply, wel in fact I now have a 220V DC (an ancient k

[Guest yoss]

Hi MarnixYou may look athttp://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/kevssim.htmThis guy using sound for drive the electrical motor for shakerEven better idea then to use the force feadback joysticregards

[Guest stevelep]

For an easier but smaller shake you may put an infrasonic transducer, sort of low frequency loudspeaker which make vibrationsBOB

[Guest DutchDak]

On http://www.dc3experience.com/building/Vibrationsystem.html you can find additional info on ways to generate vibration for simulator cockpits.Herman.

[Guest Faro]

Thanks for the reactions,I think I will go for the second option, using the low frequency part of sound to steer the motor. I will use a musicorgan to drive the motor (such a thing that drives spotlights on music) These can be pretty good adjusted by pots.The only extra thing I would like to do is adapt some sound files, the purpose for this is that I can re-inforce the bas sounds to drive the motor but to exclude these the bas sound in the cockpit itself, or only leave it a little bit.The most difficult I think will be to ad a sound to turbulence, while flying in turbulent weather, you can see the image shake. If I can find this action and add a low frequency sound to this, the cockpit will actually shake on turbulence and that would be very nice.Would anyone have an idea how to ad sound files to actions that normally dont have a sound ?Thanks,Marnix

[Guest MattOlieman]

Marnix, Just thought I would share with you what I did, and it sounds I accomplished what you are trying to do. My platform is build from wood frames and plywood. I have two 12" Subwoofers powered by a 250 watt subwoofer amplifier. One on each side. The frequency range on the amp. is adjustable, I set it at the lowest range. I want to feel the rumble and the thuds, not hear them. I also adjusted certain sound files to increase the the low end sounds. e.g. the gear transitioning sounds, the rumble of rolling down the runway on take off and landing, etc. It's also important of how you mount the speakers, remember you want to be able to feel it not hear it. It's really quite simple.My platform is not set up on a suspension system, but it shakes, rattles.I'd post pictures, except I'm not home, I'm traveling.Hope this helps, and make it a little bit simpler for you:)

[Guest tonyc]

You need to know the voltage that is currently driving the force feedback motors. These are probably low voltage-low amperage dc motors. To shake a heavy platform, you need to determine "what you intend to shake", the torque required to shake it, and most probably you will need an motor driver that will take the line voltage from the small joystick motors and drive the "motor driver" that will drive the motor attached to the platform. I fear that this is where you will get into trouble. A driver to run a large dc motor will probably be in the 20-30 amps and probably in the 12-36volts dc, the ones that are found in golf cart or wheel chairs. This driver will take the low dc voltage and run a high amperage dc motor. These drivers are not cheap, but sometimes you can find them as used golf cart drivers. I have a couple. If you are interested, let me know. These drivers require a 0-5 dc volts to drive a up to 30 amp dc motor.tony