My Motion chair for ED - v3. I've raised my VR experience level again

blastard

blastard
Hello Commanders.

I've just completed the latest modifications to my elite motion simulator pilots chair. I've posted my development work on this VR section in the past and over the last month I've upgraded the chair from 80watts 2DOF to a respectable 450watts and 3DOF. The chair has also grown in size - but I've been efficient where possible. Balance is near perfect. I use the chair exclusively for ED and I (and others) have been pestering FD for motion data. I also maintained that I will not stop developing in the meantime and now I've really hit the big time in ED - even though I'm in 'joystick mode'...

I've just done some test runs and I have to say I'm quite staggered by the performance. I've incorporated true motion dynamics in that roll and yaw are both inverted but I keep pitch non inverted. I have not yet run it at 100% power. A brief go at 80% saw the chair and base jumping off the ground - I kid you not!
For safety - I do not ever power it up without sitting in the chair first and holding the joystick steady else the inertia of it jolting from parked (tilted back) to level sends the sensitive and balanced CH Products fighterstick into a movement chain reaction with a resulting chair leaping escapade !!

In flight its so realistic now - check out the vid below and let me know what you think of 'the beast'.

I attach a 4 min vid of the latest developments and test run in ED at a sedate 65% power - the performance is still astounding.

Fly safe,
CMDR Blastard (very scared pilot)


below is a link to my youtube vid of the chair in action

https://youtu.be/gGanz8l5YSc
 
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ziddan

Z
Thats awesome, do you get any oddities from having the oculus sensor mounted firm as opposed to on the motion rig with you?


I havnt tried anything like this but my gut reaction tells me that having the headset tracking decoupled from the chair movement might feel odd, like the chair is moving inside of the ship as opposed to the whole ship moving.
 

blastard

blastard
It makes no noticeable difference to me though I will investigate mounting it to the chair (if it stays on). My sensor is about 3 ft from my head at the mo.
 
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TorTorden_VR

T
Again. lovely bit of kit.

As an owne of a CH hotas myself I was honestly suspecting such an "event chain" would be possible.
But would be hilarious to see though :D
 

S. Belmont

S. Belmont
Awesome chair! I myself built 2dof motion seat for racing games couple years ago, it also felt pretty good with ED. I also have buttkickers in my seat and under the feetrest to bring in the thunder. Last time I checked, Simtools ED plugin did not support VR mode, cool to see it working again! Too bad that currently I'm mostly unable to use motion and kickers because of the noise.
 

amadeus1171

amadeus1171
I think you need some seat belts for that chair, and make a hybrid helm/vr headset for comfort, reality, and comforting space sounds.
 

Cmdr Kurnek

Cmdr Kurnek
That...is pretty damn cool. How long did it take you to make? How much did all the gear set you back? So tempted to try and find someone to make something like this for me at some point haha. I have zero engineering skills.
 

blastard

blastard
Blaze Stark said:
Really impressive, and it look like loads of fun! How do you get the motion data from ED? And when can i buy one of these? ;)
Click to expand...

Hi Blaze. Its IS really good fun. No motion data from ED sadly, I'm running the rig in 'joystick mode' atm. We (me and the simulator motion community) have been requesting motion data from FD for a while now as it would allow motion sims to run flawlessly with the game. I have used a dedicated plugin for ED in the past and what I really miss is the motion feedback I got when being shot, crashing into things and jumping into multicrew when the chair moves in relation to the ship I'm the passenger in!.
Alas, until a motion api from ED is made available I have to play in joystick mode (which is a poor replacement for actual game data). As for buying one, there are a couple of designs on the market (pagnian v2 being one of them), but they are expensive (£1000+) and its only 2dof. I built mine for less than 500
 
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blastard

blastard
Cmdr Beeston said:
That...is pretty damn cool. How long did it take you to make? How much did all the gear set you back? So tempted to try and find someone to make something like this for me at some point haha. I have zero engineering skills.
Click to expand...

Hi Cmdr Beeston. I started my research in Nov 2016, began the build in Dec and had a 2dof running by end of Jan 2017. Since than Ive done various upgrades (motors and chassis) and added the extra pc screen, hotas and the monitoring electronics and lcd display (for temps, positions etc). Around 150hrs total research, R&D and construction time (as usual, would be a quicker build if I did it again from scratch). Circa £500UK for all the bits. Alas, as a DIY project you would really need some mechanical engineering/electrical/electronic skills as well as some programming knowledge and pc software setup skills - but if you are determined, there is no real limit to what you can achieve.
 

blastard

blastard
TorTorden said:
Again. lovely bit of kit.

As an owne of a CH hotas myself I was honestly suspecting such an "event chain" would be possible.
But would be hilarious to see though :D
Click to expand...

You will get your wish. I'm planning to shoot a short vid of the wild 'chain reaction event' and will post it here. You'll get a good impression of how powerful it really is (and dangerous if complacent with it at start up)
 

Wynters

Wynters
I have over 1000 hours in Elite, spent countless hours and thousands of dollars building and refining my rig.... yet every time I come to these forums, there is always someone that makes me feel like a filthy casual.

Bravo CMDR

o7
 
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