We were in a bit of a rush to make a test run before the weekend. Unfortunatelly, the 3D printer wasn't fast enough.
So we had to improvise a little bit and built a classical fly-by-wire airwire ratsnest with a cardboard box as protection against shorts.
The hardest part was to install VSC on my laptop. There is no user friendly software to setup the paramaters, yet. Instead, everything is hardcoded into the source so I had to re-compile to adjust the resolution, velocity and direction of rotation. But we finally got it to work and... WOW! The difference is like day and night. When we connected the controller to the simulator software for the first time I pushed the throttle with the brakes still engaged to make the plane slightly tilt forward. First, I thought it didn't work. I had to look at the motor shaft couplings to see that the servos were actually spinning. Everything was totally silent.
With the other controller the "average" movements were the same and we used the exact same settings for servo tuning and motion cueing. But it didn't feel like an airplane, more like a horse-drawn carriage driving down a gravel road. This time every tuft of grass on the runway could be felt while rolling on the ground and it was a perfectly floating glide while in the air. We had big grins in our faces.
I don't say that this success can be completely attributed to the P2. Theoretically, all this would also be possible using an ARM controller. But you'd have to spend much more time doing the PCB layout because you can't assign all functions to arbitrary pins. Then you'd spend even more time figuring out special tricks to get the timing right (interrupts, task scheduling...). With the smart pins and multiple cogs this is all easy and you can spend more time on the real task, the actual calculations of the motion.
And I thought the real task would be to "fly" the damned thing. I'm shocked and disappointed .
Funny you used the same tried and true protection from shorts. My favorite. i use it as a body shell as well. Also kind of works...for some time at least.
I wish we did not live half a world apart, I would love to fly it, I am afraid my license has a lot of brown around the edges as my medical cannot be renewed.
enjoy, it sounds like a super experence.
Jim
Man, I envy you having a place where you can build such things.
Are these steel or aluminum plates ?
As a side note, how do you find that table top in the real life day to day (ab)use ?
I had the very same idea a while back but once I took a closer look at it's structure I decided against it. A prolonged moisture can ruin it big time, or an oil spill not removed in due time. And the moisture and oil resistant type is prohibitively expensive.
Maybe I was overcautious and should give it a go...
Noticed that movie theaters here now have a high end “dbox” option that includes 3d motion. Would be neat if could use this type of setup to achieve that at home….
This is probably a lot more motion than dbox thought.
Tricky part is buying dbox license and interfacing to it. That looks very murky.
But people already selling chairs that do it…
@Maciek said:
As a side note, how do you find that table top in the real life day to day (ab)use ?
I had the very same idea a while back but once I took a closer look at it's structure I decided against it. A prolonged moisture can ruin it big time, or an oil spill not removed in due time. And the moisture and oil resistant type is prohibitively expensive.
Welding and oil or water don't mix, anyway. Watch Funny to watch but very serious if you want to weld in your DIY workshop.
When welding aluminium it's important to have good support and fixture for your workpiece. The welds get much higher quality if you can put your arm on a rest and work in a relaxed position.
@Rayman said:
Tricky part is buying dbox license and interfacing to it. That looks very murky.
But people already selling chairs that do it…
What is "dbox"? All you need is the propeller board (se post #32) and the FlyPT Mover software which is free. The servo motors (see post #36) are ~$130 per piece including drivers and shipping. For the bigger rigs you additionally need the timing belt pulleys and ball screws. For smaller moving chairs gearboxes and crank arms are sufficient.
Comments
We were in a bit of a rush to make a test run before the weekend. Unfortunatelly, the 3D printer wasn't fast enough.
The difference is like day and night. When we connected the controller to the simulator software for the first time I pushed the throttle with the brakes still engaged to make the plane slightly tilt forward. First, I thought it didn't work. I had to look at the motor shaft couplings to see that the servos were actually spinning. Everything was totally silent.
So we had to improvise a little bit and built a classical fly-by-wire airwire ratsnest with a cardboard box as protection against shorts.
The hardest part was to install VSC on my laptop. There is no user friendly software to setup the paramaters, yet. Instead, everything is hardcoded into the source so I had to re-compile to adjust the resolution, velocity and direction of rotation. But we finally got it to work and... WOW!
With the other controller the "average" movements were the same and we used the exact same settings for servo tuning and motion cueing. But it didn't feel like an airplane, more like a horse-drawn carriage driving down a gravel road. This time every tuft of grass on the runway could be felt while rolling on the ground and it was a perfectly floating glide while in the air. We had big grins in our faces.
I don't say that this success can be completely attributed to the P2. Theoretically, all this would also be possible using an ARM controller. But you'd have to spend much more time doing the PCB layout because you can't assign all functions to arbitrary pins. Then you'd spend even more time figuring out special tricks to get the timing right (interrupts, task scheduling...). With the smart pins and multiple cogs this is all easy and you can spend more time on the real task, the actual calculations of the motion.
And I thought the real task would be to "fly" the damned thing. I'm shocked and disappointed .
Funny you used the same tried and true protection from shorts. My favorite. i use it as a body shell as well. Also kind of works...for some time at least.
I wish we did not live half a world apart, I would love to fly it, I am afraid my license has a lot of brown around the edges as my medical cannot be renewed.
enjoy, it sounds like a super experence.
Jim
Man, you get to have all the fun, congrats
Short update: We are currently working on a 6DOF rig (aka hexapod or stewart platform)
Man, I envy you having a place where you can build such things.
Are these steel or aluminum plates ?
As a side note, how do you find that table top in the real life day to day (ab)use ?
I had the very same idea a while back but once I took a closer look at it's structure I decided against it. A prolonged moisture can ruin it big time, or an oil spill not removed in due time. And the moisture and oil resistant type is prohibitively expensive.
Maybe I was overcautious and should give it a go...
It's aluminium, easier to machine and lighter. But welding aluminium is an art (or a disaster if you don't master it).
What table top do you mean? The welding table with the raster holes in the right corner next to the vice?
Yes, that's the one I'm asking about.
I asked about the rig material exactly because of what you said about welding aluminum that I know also but have no own experience with.
Noticed that movie theaters here now have a high end “dbox” option that includes 3d motion. Would be neat if could use this type of setup to achieve that at home….
This is probably a lot more motion than dbox thought.
Tricky part is buying dbox license and interfacing to it. That looks very murky.
But people already selling chairs that do it…
Welding and oil or water don't mix, anyway. Watch
Funny to watch but very serious if you want to weld in your DIY workshop.
When welding aluminium it's important to have good support and fixture for your workpiece. The welds get much higher quality if you can put your arm on a rest and work in a relaxed position.
What is "dbox"? All you need is the propeller board (se post #32) and the FlyPT Mover software which is free. The servo motors (see post #36) are ~$130 per piece including drivers and shipping. For the bigger rigs you additionally need the timing belt pulleys and ball screws. For smaller moving chairs gearboxes and crank arms are sufficient.