cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/4625991

A quick test, without a wheel attached to the spindle, of the openffboard running on Linux in BeamNG.drive. It took a while to get here as I’m not very knowledgeable with motor drivers but it seems to work so far.

Next step will be to fabricate a bracket to mount it to my rig. Since this video I have mounted a wheel and done some driving. The feel is pretty good, the motor is only 6NM which in DD land is a little on the low side but it’s incredibly smooth.

Hardware:

OpenFFBoard (purchased assembled)

ODrive S1

Baldor BSM90N-1150AFP (ebay auction for untested motor, was about 50USD shipped)

48v 10.5A power supply

  • BURN@lemmy.worldM
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    1 year ago

    That’s cool as hell.

    If you’re not looking to fabricate a mount it should fit any VRS/MIDGE mounting bracket for rigs.

    About how much did it cost? Would be interesting to see the savings compared to one of the other options

    • mranderson17@infosec.pubOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks! Here are prices/links:

      40USD - OpenFFBoard

      ~50USD - Baldor BSM90N-1150AFP, I managed to get an “untested” one on ebay

      150USD - ODrive S1

      ~50USD - I’m working on fabricating a massively overbuilt mount for which the steel plate (including cut fees to sheer the pieces into manageable rectangles, and a fair amount of extra material) was 50ish. Then “wings” will be eventually cut off so it’s a little smaller footprint, I just didn’t feel like cutting more plate that day:

      So a total of ~300USD for parts and materials if I account for some odds and ends like connectors, consumables, and wire and such that I keep on hand.

      I would say this isn’t that much less expensive than some of the lower end DD wheelbases. In fact some of them are a lot cheaper if you buy a bundle with wheels and pedals, where as I’m using some things I already have for that. I did have the opportunity to purchase a 9.5Nm motor for the same price but missed it by a day. I’m keeping any eye out for another deal on something slightly more powerful but it’ll probably be a while before I find one.

      For me the drive (pun intended =] ) for building this was Linux support. OpenFFBoard uses standard HID force feedback supported in both windows and Linux. It does not require drivers and the configuration software is python+qt and runs on anything. Most other DD wheels either don’t work at all in Linux or require community maintained reverse-engineered kernel modules like hid-tmff2 (what I currently use with my t300) or hid-fanatecff which has some missing effect support.

      EDIT: Sorry for all the edits, I kept forgetting links.