Hi, I've been thinking about buying a Simxperience Stage 1 set, but i'm wondering about the reliability of the SCN5 actuators. They are costy and i was looking for someone which have used them "heavily" for some time which have thoughts about this. Also if someone knows any alternative products in the same prize range including controller (all accessories except seat/wheel/pedals etc.) which could be a good deal, i would appreciate. I do live in Europe btw.
Hi Xracer, I have owned SimX for a while now, at around 12 hours running over a week and from week to week, and at about 2 hours per session, thats on an average. Some days like today (being my day of from work), I've been practising or more so just having fun with cars and tracks ect, I've had it running already some 8 hours straight. To this day I have had absolutley no hiccups at all. My example may not be a sign of long term realiability just yet, but I do know that Simexperience has examples that run all day every day and with different drivers and with this it comes with an array of driving habits and attitudes as you can appreciate, and from what I hear these machines/Sim's or more to the point, the moving parts ie: Actuators are still going strong. On their web site it explains it quite well or you can leave your question there as I'm sure you will get a response quite quickly. I yet to find a negative on these actuators and like you at first it was my first question, realibility and longgevity.....my research gave me tons of confidence and was never an issue from then on with what I have chosen. However, in my personal research, I did come across actuators that either have failed or became damaged early in its life, the reasons for this a 100% of the time was due to an incorrect setup. They take quite a bit of punishment before one realises that somethings wrong which shortens the life of them. I must say though, these failed ones were not a Simxperience setup, mostly all homemade, The actuators as far as I'm aware need the correct angles to operate efficently and effortlessy, something Simxperience has perfected. As In the actuators themselves ie: SCN5,6 ect, not aware of different brands models ect, but can say it seems they are most popular as I see them mostly on all kinds of sims, homebuilt and other manufactures of Motion Simualtors. I would be very thorough in your findings if you come across cheaper brands...we all know "we get what we pay for". As in alternative products ie: Motion sims, well theres quite a few and cheaper of course. Alternative you will find, As in alternative in the same price range, If it's any help to you use my 3 years of research to your benefit, look no further. This is not a plug for SimX, I've past that Happy customer status stage, I'm now a believer in the SimXperience process, from their own and continuing Research and Development, sales and after sales service...I trust them period. One word "Quality" I would sell mine just so I can go through that stage again to put together another one. Cheers ps: Don't forget the software that needs to drive everything in your hunt for actuators ect.....compatibility....
Thanks alot VLA for the great feedback. I''ve got very little time to reply on this, but i'm in the process of checking with SimXperience about shipping costs for this. It's quite expensive so i have to think hard about this investment. I will also get 25% import tax on the total prize including shipping so i don't know...Anyway hopefully i will reply back on this if am going for it Great to hear that you are enjoying the setup!
The difficult thing about the SimX stuff is they use the best they can get to make sure your stuff will last. Yes you can find cheaper actuators etc out there, but the likelihood that you will be happy a few months down the road diminishes with time.
SCN5's have 10,000km (400 million inches) standard minimum life ... However it's quite hard to calculate... it will also depend on how agressive are your motion profiles (longer throw vs shorter throw ) and if you go for a simxperience rig, wrong actuator angles will not be an issue ... I have been running mines for about 10-14 hours a week in the last 2-3 years without any issues on a custom motion rig... and I have also altered stock connectors to fit my custom connection box at first, before switching to simxperience connection box ... These are build to last if you do not weight more then 250 pounds ... They are your best buy in terms of performance and price ... They are no other cheaper option that will give you the same performance, forget the wiper motors if you are really looking for simulation ...
I am currently waiting for a quote from Joyride (UK) for an Atomic A2. I've searched this forum and found nothing on the Joyride. But from much research on the internet, I really like the specs on it. OP may want to check this out as well.
HI DUDES! i got a motion starter kit and plus a 3rd actuator to simulate rear traction loss and then i built up an aluminium rig to fit everything copying the measurements of the actuators and seat pivotal possition in order to be safe and get the same results as the simxperience stages. actuators move quite fast and i weight 80 kilos. i can play hours and no problem for the actuators. the only bad issue is the break of an internal pin which connects the motor to the cylinder. that pin is arround 1mm thick and 1cm long and is very fragile. i have to be very careful adjusting the profiles for the actuators in order to avoid maximum strokes and thus to prevent hard and sudden stop of the stroke. you know what i mean? if the telemetry tells the actuator to enlarge 20 cms and the actuator is only 15cm then u gotta problem with that internal pin as it will be responsible for stopping the actuator instead of the motor. so i have to take care of my stroke profiles on the simcomander soft so as to limit stroke of the cylinder. i have broken 2 times 2 different actuators but if you are a bit skilled you can open them and repair it with a bolt and a nut. ORIGINAL INTERNAL PIN BROKEN View attachment 6350
I'm using x4 scn6 's these are just as fast (under load & faster under heavier load) & much more heavy duty Scn5's are fine but it's important to set them up & damper them correctly people start to have problems when ths is not the case The pins are like fuses -they break to protect the more expensive parts in the actuator, people do change them themselves I believe
Jkn Do you use software to handle the curved screen? (so graphics are not distorted etc ) -nice job, keep us updated !
yes, i do. immersive display pro. it warps the image to fit any curved surface no matter how curved it is and it also can blend+warp up to 10 projectors at the same time to have an ultra extended image.
adrián, can you show us your rig? what soft are u using in order to move 4 actuator?S how is ur rig designed to move? seat motion or full rig motion? knowing ur using scn6 i guess it is the second option, if so, are you capable to sustain enough G force through great degrees rotation? PS:i believe i have read from you time ago as your niks sounds very familiar to me. are you on x-sim.com or simxperience.com?
