3-DOF Motion Cockpit - initial design.

JAN '08 I've had a number of enquiries about detailed mechanical plans for the motion cockpit, or for details of the construction. I don't intend to draft a full set of detailed plans as I think the design is probably a bit too complicated for many DIY'ers (not all) and the returns won't justify the outlay in time to prepare the plans.

However to provide some help for other DIY'ers I've tidied up my 3D CAD model of the design and made one or two changes to reflect mods made during and after the build and have produced a series of high resolution images which should show, at least, the principals of the construction.

Not all fasteners have been included in the images.

I've added one or two comments where they might be helpful - but this page is really just about the images. Note you can't get accurate dimensional information from the images - for that type of detail you would need the 3D CAD model and the CAD software to read it.

NOTE - some of the images are quite large and may take a moment to download.

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Motion Cockpit Wall Brace

 

Timber structure but with steel flats for roller running surfaces - the rollers are heavily loaded.

 

     

  

 

 

Heave Carriage

 

Timber with steel stress components. The motor drives a 3/8" roller chain to pitch the cockpit cradle (see below). Needle roller bearings and thrust ball bearings on the main cradle support pin. The lower-most rollers should be soft-tyred (eg roller blade wheels) for quiet rolling on the cradle. I eventually fitted a small vibration isolation connection where the support chain is attached to remove slight but noticeable chain vibration from the cockpit.

 

     

  

 

 

Heave Drive

 

Mounted at the top of the wall brace, again 3/8" pitch simplex roller chain (might be better with duplex chain) carries the cockpit and is driven by the 2x200W motors. The heave feedback potentiometer is mounted on one of the idler sprocket spindles.

 

     

 

 

 

Cockpit Cradle

 

Key elements are the angles rollers which prevent fore-aft movement of the cockpit - these are heavily loaded when in use and need to be rigidly supported.

3/8" pitch simplex roller chain to drive the cockpit roll movements.

 

   

     

 

 

Cockpit

 

Light-weight timber structure. Key part is the curved running surface for the fore-aft movement constraining rollers on the cradle. I used Ø12mm steel reinforced electrical power cable for this (shown in black) bonded to the curved plywood formers.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

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