Hello, I want to create a game with a platform you can place a chair on and with four Linear Actuators under each corner. So I found high speed Linear Actuators from brand 'Progressive Automations', you can see it on www.progressiveautomations.com. I want to make the Linear Actuator IP-66 (Model: PA-04) to work together with Arduino and my game made in Unity3D gamedevelopement software. I want to let the platform move like the airplane in the game is moving. I asked Progressive Automations for some advice, the answered with:
"In regards to using the PA-04 with arduino.. you will require a motor driver as the Arduino only had low current digital signals. You will require +/-12VDC to extend/retract the actuator. The PA-04 has a max current draw of 12A. I can recommend using the MegaMoto, check out the following article:
We can customize the PA-04 to have a HALL effect sensor feedback, which will provide positional feedback. The HALL outputs a signal based on the speed of the motor, which you can track to provide a positional feedback.
Will this Linear Actuator also work with Unity3D? And will it work with feedback? And maybe someone knows a script for Unity3D to make the platform move like the airplane in the game? Or maybe I should ask the Unity3D Community for this. My understanding of English language is pretty good, but I'm from The Netherlands so please keep it a bit simple.
By the way, I want to use a balance point with a metal stick underneath and screwed to a wooden plate on the ground. The stick will have a ball at the top, and the wooden plate (that will move like the airplane) on top of it, to carry most of the weight. The platform on the ground will be larger than the plate on the ground. Then I will screw some pilars on each corner, and the top of the pilars wil come next to the corners of the platform, on the top of each pilar there is a spring that goes to the platform, this for losing weight. Sorry for my bad English maybe, and I also just dived into electronics. But already working with Unity3D and Blender for a while now.
And also some Youtube videos, but maybe someone can still give me some tips.
I have the Arduino Starters kit 2017 Limited Edition. But still need to buy the Linear Actuators. And maybe that HALL effect. But I'm not sure if I need that for use in Unity3D. Maybe someone knows an answer on that. The linear Actuators need to have high speed.
The advice from Progressive Automation is sound. I would not do it exactly the same way but their code is not bad either. (Except for the delay()s in the "timing" example.)
4 actuators on one platform is a bad idea. They will fight each other. If the weight is supported on a central pivot then you only need 1 for pitch and 1 for roll. You may also consider a "Stewart platform" which has 6 actuators and 6 degrees of freedom.
"High speed" is not a specification. Work out what your maximum roll or pitch rate is going to be and then work out the inches-per-second you need from the actuator. Since it's not supporting weight, you only need to calculate load as mass times acceleration. Then double-check the specifications to see if the actuator will move at that speed with that load.
For this application, I would use linear actuators with analog feedback. The hall effect sensors are only relative encoders - you have to count the pulses all the time to work out how many steps you have taken since it was switched on. An analog potentiometer will plug straight into an Arduino's analog inputs and give you the absolute position at all times. It looks like this kit at PA is appropriate: Linear Actuator Parts - Buy Parts for Electric Actuators - Progressive Automations Other actuators from other companies have a linear potentiometer along the length of the actuator.