I was able to pick up a non-functional P3 (non-SFU) for a grand a couple of weeks ago. Got it up and running and the first thing I noticed was the gearbox backlash. It’s $520 and 2 months before I can have the SFU gearboxes. So I designed my own and ordered the parts ($310) to build them this evening.
It sounds like the SFU will take care of the backlash. But because of the limitations of the Arduino board there is “cogging” in the movement. Has anyone here tried a different control solution? Has anyone got one of these machines to move smoothly? In it’s current sloppy cogging state this thing is unusable. Glad I got it cheap 'cause I’ll be selling it if I can’t get it smooth.
The new motor/gearbox combos from DOF Reality solved the cogging issue that had previously annoyed me so much with flight simming on my 14 month old H3, but I believe you need an SFU, controller supporting motor parking and cardan joints for it to be upgradeable to this, which I’d say your P3 doesn’t have. DOF Reality is supposed to be coming up with upgrade options for older rigs but I don’t think they are quite there yet.
You may be better off selling your P3 to someone who only uses racing games, as these are not really affected by cogging, and getting one of the new rigs with the new motor/gearbox combos, which I highly recommend for flight simming.
Thank you. I am considering selling it, but I only have a grand in it. Not sure of the market for a used P3.
Or, considering that I had started building my own motion rig before I found the P3, I could design and build my own upgrades to the P3 instead. Mine probably would have suffered the same cogging and backlash issues as it uses the same type of drive system as the original P3. Maybe something like this with a 5:1 planetary box between the motor and SFU. Mounted in the same spot as the original motor/gearbox. I ordered all the parts yesterday. It cost less than just the SFU gearboxes would have from DR. Woohoo, I love modding stuff…
I believe the new DOF Reality motor/gearbox combos use a 3:1 reducer gearbox and that seems to be a sweet spot between responsiveness and smoothness. Also note that there needed to be a controller firmware update to get the full range out of the new motor/gearbox combos, otherwise you only end up with 1/3 the range of motion and centering is all messed up.
Yes, I noted that in the video. He also swapped the 3000 rpm motor with a 1500 rpm one. I’m hoping the 5:1 gearbox will make up the difference as I’m using the 3000 rpm motor.
The unit I purchased didn’t have a functional Arduino, I found this page (Full Motion Flight Simulator: P6 Mods - Firmware) The cool thing is that SRS and the DR software recognize it. I haven’t explored all the added features of the sketch but there was a list of extras noted on the page and others have added functionality to it. One of which had to do with software braking. I’ll play with it (and the SMC3 settings) once it’s built.
There are significantly faster versions of the Arduino available, like the ESP32 (32bits).
They should give better control, as will better steppers (lower inductance perhaps).
However you probably need to recompile the source code.
I’m not a good (or even decent) coder. The Uno and MEGA are the only 2 boards defined in the sketch. Would I need to define, say an Arduino Nano EPS32 board in the sketch? Other that defining the board, would I need to change the code?
You would have to recompile the code for an ESP32. I’ve never done it, but yes you choose the target board and compile the code…then deal with whatever goes wrong!
One critical detail is the Nano ESP32 has I/O voltages of 3.3V. You cannot connect 5V signals inputs and may struggle to drive motor controls expecting 5V signals.
1 Like
Thanks for that insight. I have a board on the way, and the IBT-2 motor driver’s are both 3.3v and 5v input. I compiled it for the board and ran into some errors that are associated with the Uno specific PWM frequency clock generator. I’ll comment those sections out and see if it installs on the ESP32 board.