Hello to all, and couple questions.

[swiiws]

Hello everyone, my name is Henkka and I'm from Finland. At first I must apologize my bad english.

I've been reading this forum about an year, and now I think its time to try build my own simulator. I do have this selfmade racing seat, and I love it. But still, there is one major problem, it doesn't move!!! And that, my fellows, is where i need your help. I post picture of my rig below.



I'm gonna list here questions, where i need your help. So please give me some advices, and don't loose your mental health with me and my questions.

I think, I can handle hardware, but the software is little problem. So first the software questions.

The games I play are these: NFS Shift 2 Unleashed, WRC3 and F1 2012. I checked the Plugins list, and there was no mention of any of those.
So I need use Yoda2. If I understand all correct, I need make own profile for each game, is that right? But do I need make own profile, for each car? Hope Not! Basically I can play any driving game, with little help from Yoda2? Is this true?
And what about ps3, any news?

And then the hardware.

I'm going to build this thing on my rig.

I've been thinking 2DOF system.
It means that it has 2 wipermotors? Is that correct?
And each wipermotor needs own driver? Is that correct?

So, what i need is:

2x Pololu Jrk 12v12 USB Motor Controller with Feedback
2x wiper motors
2x potentiometers
Power supply
X-sim software
What else?

If I need something else, please tell me. And all the information about where to buy those things would be nice too. Based my own knowledge this is the most simpliest way to do simulator? Or is it?

Wipermotors I dont need, i have many of those already.

Once again apologize my bad english. All these things must be here somewhere, i just didnt find/assimilate them. That's why I'm asking these stupid questions. So please, give me some advice.

Sincerely
-Henkka-

[prodigy]

You have a nice rig there, just need a bottom base and a uni-joint and you're good to go

JRK's and wipers are very good for start, easy setup and later you can always upgrade to bigger motors. Wipers can have ground problems, you need to watch out that electricity doesn't run through your frame if it is from steel, you can have problems with your wheel and other malfunctions. You will probably need to isolate ground inside wipers, you can find some solution here - LINK1 LINK2. Take note that not all wipers are the same, so you'll need to figure out which points to isolate.

DOF means degree of freedom, you can read more here LINK. 2DOF would mean that you can do 2 degrees of freedom, pitch and roll are most common.

X-Sim software is not that complicated as it looks at first glance. I did my part of reading all the manuals and watching videos while I was waiting for my simulator parts to arrive. You can also test X-Sim even if you don't have your simulator ready, you can try to learn some basics and see if the plugins are working properly for your games, if you get motion data etc..

As for the games, for F1 2012 you can use Codemasters plugin which works for Dirt2/3 and other Codemasters game. For WRC3 someone asked here, maybe Sirnoname wanted to look at it but has forgot. For SHIFT 2 unfortunately there is no available plugin, I guess you can get motion with Graphic Driver option which you can use if you have X-Sim Stage 2 Key or X-Sim supporter Edition. You can read more about it here. As I've understood, with Graphic Driver option you can get motion from almost every game.

You can learn most from watching other peoples projects and see their solutions. And if you have any problems, people here will help you

[swiiws]

Thank You, for fast reply.

I just find out, that my girlfriends friend sells these Pololu Jrk 12v12 USB Motor Controllers! She just came into room and asked. "Why are you surfing my friends NetStore?" Hahhahaha, maybe she can negotiate for me some discount

But, now to the point.
I have been one question on my head all day. If I order 2 off these Jrk's and they both have usb connection, does that mean, that i need plug 2 usb wires on my pc? Or, can I connect these Jrk's together somehow? This could be dump question, but I didn't found any help from those links, neither via "Search"


Sincerely

Henkka aka. Total Noob

[prodigy]

Yes, you need to plugin both JRK's in your PC so they could be recognized as two separated devices and ports.

Here is the wiring diagram for each JRK
download/file.php?id=1390&mode=view/jrk%20to%20wiper%20wireup%20fixed.JPG

As for power supply, Floriske uses two power supplies, one for each JRK and you can find more details in his project topic. And as I remember MotionDave uses power supply + car battery to power upt his JRK's. They can explain better.

I forgot to mention, X-Sim community has 5% discount coupon for JRK's 12v12 if you buy them from their site, this is the code: XSIMJRK5

[motiondave]

Welcome Swiiws, good to see you here.
Prodigy has covered just about most things, but ask if you need to , especially when it comes to JRK setup.
Cheers, David.

[swiiws]

Thank you guys for answers. You're making this too easy for me I leave here a question, go to sleep and when I wake up, here is answer. Awesome!!
And thanks for the wiring diagram.


Next step tor this project is order those Jrk's. But I think I've got to do that after Christmas. So my girlfriend can ask about prices.

Btw, about those wipermotors. My friend has a car repair business and I got those wipermotors from there, but is there minor differences usually between them? Or is here something special what I need to know about those? Any tips for choosing?

And I think I need to open topic on "Motion simulator Projects in progress" section. That I am goin to do as soon as I get this project to really started.

At the end, I must say. I was a little worried about this project, cause this kind of stuff is brand new for me. I appreciate lot you guys for helping me. And the best part is this. 2 off our family members sing up for building team, see picture below

[motiondave]

Wiper motors you need to earth isolate the bodies , otherwise you will blow jrks.
Wiper motors, nothing special, just maybe from a large passenger car.
Wipers can start you.
Maybe a big MDF base underneath, and put motors at front, like in the sketches.
The cats will move once the frame does