Motion simulator are usually not cheap but the Feel Three has some huge advantages over traditional platforms.
Parts
First, we’re designing and redesigning around the idea that if we want to sell a lot of these they have to be affordable, not cheap, affordable. Safety is our number one priority so everything will be strong!
We’ll be able to do this because unlike 98% of the other sims available you’re not being pushed up and down, the sphere is rotating. An add on for vertical movement will come, but we reduce the power requirements, and need for expensive servo motors, by using a novel design.
The panels are quite cheap to produce in large quantities, despite the initial tooling cost, but this gives us another reason to try to sell a million, which drops the price. They also nest together nicely and are quite light so shipping isn’t too expensive. And the best thing, we only need to manufacture TWO panels and one connector to hold them all together.
We’ll also use off the shelf components in the base to keep costs down. This means better reliability and lower costs since we’re not reinventing the wheel. The electronics are all pretty standard too, and the latest base design uses just ONE major component 27-30 times. Our manufacturing partner will love us.
Versions
Although we plan to release three versions they will all use the same parts but in different configurations.
The base unit will be 16 panels, a mount for your own chair, the base with three (or perhaps only two) degrees of freedom and the electronics.
We’d also release two other versions with more panels, faster motors and other nice add ons but these parts could all be purchased separately (or with the base unit) whenever you wanted to upgrade. We’ll also leave plenty of connectors on the base electronics to plug in more motors.
For people who can’t afford the simulator right away we would sell the non moving ‘battlestation’ as a seperate component. When they’re ready to upgrade its just a matter of fitting their seat into the sphere.
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