My Slightly OTT DIY Motion Sim Rig - 3DOF + G-SEAT

Welcome to my build log of my slightly epic sim rig. It started out like most as something quite modest, and is now anything far from it – home to 8 AC Servos for the motion platform, with an OSW wheel and more aluminium than you can shake a stick at.

  • Version 5 – 2020-2021 (current) : Wanted the ultimate G-Seat; started built my own…
  • Version 4 – 2019-2020 : Tried to build a G-Seat using a race seat, that wasn’t so great
  • Version 3 – 2018-2019 : Discovered the SFX-100 system; built one, mounted to a simlab rig
  • Version 2 – 2016-2018 : Discovered OSW‘s built a MDF rig to hold it
  • Version 1 – Pre 2016 : G29 like everyone else, various contraptions to hold the wheel

My latest adventure in the descent into madness, is the addition of my own design G-Seat; which you can follow along in the section below.

This is the build/review log of everything on it. Video’s tell 2000 words so here you go :

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The first major motion platform version. SFX-100 with Simlab P1
Initial testing
A complete build walkthrough of the G-Seat Powerpack
Testing video of the latest 2021 iteration

Open Source High Performance AC Servo G-Seat

Click here to go to my indepth Google doc detailing the project, parts, Bill of Materials etc. Read my blog posts below about my journey to create an epicly powerful AC Servo based G-Seat

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Open Source, GitHub and SimRigs/Racing – pt1

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | No Comments
Share and discover files, designs, code the right way This will be a two blog posts. Part one the what and why, Part two will be the how. What is…

@steely’s G-seat: Alpha file release

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | No Comments
The following files are the alpha release. There's issues. You'll have to drill holes. It might not be right for you - you're going to be a brave pioneer. But…

@steely’s G-Seat: Milestone reached ! All functions working.

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 3 Comments
A busy few weeks, parts from China, emergency stuff locally and we now have a fully functional G-Seat Yesterday I achieved the next big milestone of the G-Seat to get…

StreamDeck + Simfeedback = a winning combo

| G-Seat, SFX-100, Sim Rig | 5 Comments
Especially with multi controller setups ! Don't think about it, just get one I'd purposely avoided the StreamDeck channel in the Simfeedback discord, because I just knew it was going…

@Steelys G-Seat: It’s all escalated! Top part working

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 4 Comments
Lockdown in NZ across April-May meant no CNC laser cutting and folding (well unless you had your own serious production shop in your garage!) so I put the final design…

@Steely’s G-Seat: FAQs

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 2 Comments
Are you mad? Thinking about building one? Well hopefully I can answer some questions for you I want to get in touch/ask questions Use the discord here just for this…

@steelys G-seat: Modular frame, rethinking my G-Seat

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 5 Comments
The problem If you've been following along one of the things you will have heard/read is that I've struggled with the actual seat itself. The "powerpack" is attached to the…

@steely’s G-Seat Milestone reached

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | One Comment
Woop woop It works, it's alive, and it's survived a few hours of abuse. Built new arms What I mounted both HTD5M drive trains and then promptly heard all sorts…

@Steely’s G-Seat Copyright & Open Source License

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | One Comment
Many people have asked if this would be open source?, am I going to sell these? This was quite a thing to think through. I haven't even finished it yet,…

DIY G-Seat Prototype #3 – Bigger belts, pulleys, thinking about Argon drives

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 2 Comments
Getting back from a short break, a package that I'd been waiting on from Aliexpress showed up - proving all of China wasn't shut down. Very excited I unpacked it…

DIY G-Seat Prototype #3 – the power pack

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | 7 Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3fsyXZrbVA Note will continually update this post until I've reached the point the powerpack is holding together; uphsoltery/finishing will be the next one. Big shout out to: Bruce, Saxxon66, J.R, Buri,…

DIY G-Seat fails aka Prototype #2

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | No Comments
I'm stubborn, I think this post will prove that. Following on from my previous post https://www.rowanhick.com/2020/01/25/delving-into-the-world-of-g-force-cueing I switched up my approach and went for a full blooded AC Servo, retaining…

Delving into the world of G-Force Cueing aka G-Seats

| G-Seat, Sim Rig | No Comments
So lets get this out of the way; there's no way a motion simulator can actually simulate g-forces - what it can do however is "cue" forces. The more cues…

SFX-100 Review and Build guide

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StreamDeck + Simfeedback = a winning combo

| G-Seat, SFX-100, Sim Rig | 5 Comments
Especially with multi controller setups ! Don't think about it, just get one I'd purposely avoided the StreamDeck channel in the Simfeedback discord, because I just knew it was going…

SimFeedback Tutorial

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 6 Comments
An unofficial in-depth guide to setting up and using SimFeedback to drive your SFX-100 actuators. From initial configuration through to tuning individual effects.

3d Printed SimFeedback controller box

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | No Comments
Righto, had my initial fun with the SFX100 units so now it's time to tidy up my mess. First stop the Arduino controller. Having this all exposed is not really…

SFX-100 Review – The OSW of Motion Sim Platforms?

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 26 Comments
You want a cost effective, 4 actuator platform mover motion platform with fast vertical speed? Sounds like a contradiction in terms, it's actually a reality with the SFX/SimFeedback solution. Read…

Build Guide SFX-100 Motion Platform – Part 4 Bolting up to the rig and testing

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 2 Comments
Note this is part 4 in a five part series on building the actuators. Click here to see my full SFX-100 Build and Running guide In my previous posts I…

Build Guide SFX-100 Motion Platform – Part 3 Actuator mechanical assembly

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 2 Comments
Note this is part 3 in a five part series on building the actuators. Click here to see my full SFX-100 Build and Running guide There's a surprising amount of…

Build Guide SFX-100 Motion Platform – Part 2 Electronics and testing

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 4 Comments
Note this is part 2 in a five part series on building the actuators. Click here to see my full SFX-100 Build and Running guide I charged ahead with building…

Build Guide SFX-100 Motion Simulator – Part 1 – Sourcing and Printing

| SFX-100, Sim Rig | 6 Comments
Let's go through finding all the parts for our actuators, ordering them and 3D printing the components.

General Sim Rig posts

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Windows Timer Resolution change (2004) and Motion Simulators

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
Might be late to the party on this one, but it is hidden in various forums/discords, so just putting a post up incase it helps some else out. So you've…

SimLab P1 Black – The Review

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
Okay so I really don't like writing reviews like this but I had of wished I'd found the stories before ordering mine. I can sum this review up into this :…

Building the sim rig – Part 5 – Finishing

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
If you value your time just get vinyl wrap...

Building the Sim Rig – Part 4 – Go wide young man

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
Once I had the bits I wanted on the rig permanently sorted out then it was onto finishing, wait back things up a bit, not yet, still more to get.…

Sim Rig – Part 3 – 3D Printed Paddle Shifters

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Follow the journey to build some 3D Printed Paddle shifters

Building the Sim Rig – Part 2 – Simvibe

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
Having the basics of the sim rig working, like any good project, upgrade time ensued pretty quickly. Transducers Previously I made some famous last words like "I won't put transducers in".…

Building the Sim Rig – Part 1

| General, Sim Rig | 2 Comments
Many options present themselves for how to get a Sim Rig into your basement / garage / spare room. This is my relatively quick journey from 'hmm I need to…

Spiralling down the OSW Sim Rig rabbit hole

| General, Sim Rig | No Comments
Surfing YouTube is a costly past time, if it weren't for YouTube I would be blissfully unaware of many toys - my garage would be a whole lot emptier and…