elmerfud wrote:Those hexapods can be diy built you know?
You need 6 ball screws,6 large stepper motors, a large dc power supply, an P4 computer with open source software called 'enhanced machine controller' or emc. Your game would have to have some force feedback ability.
The tricky part would be to code the software interface between the sim game and the emc software.
Oh, and that type of machinery can severe a limb, so i'd strongly recommend building a safety cage around all the moving gaps.
It'd cost about 5 grand usd to build yourself.
(you could sell the code if it was pretty good)
Surely the system is hugely valuable for basic race handling training without crashing real cars !
for this you only need 2 or 3 degrees of freedom ?
(roll, sway/sideways translation, and pitch) ?
and proper (and variable) modelling of car behaviour
BTW ballscrews are just screws (without even ballnuts) - very cheap, but you need additional guide/constraint system
If you want the electromechanical equivalent of a 'hydraulic ram' you need ballscrew actuators (not so cheap)
plain nut actuators are much cheaper than ballscrew actuators
actuators are cheaper if they don't have to support the platform weight
stepper motor concept is founded on open loop position control, useful size stepper motors are not cheap
(closed loop is more practical, other motors/drives are cheaper/better eg with encoders or other position transducers)
Yes, I say build it and drive it !!
