Hi guys
I started a thread a while back about wanting to replace my current upright scratch built cabinet with a new one that can convert from stand up cab to sit down racer type.
I've got lots of ideas on how to do different aspects of this (t'll be a bit of a ballache in general), but one thing I need to figure out is the most suitable means of increasing the amount of travel I get from say an electric ram device, in order that it can be contained in the cabinet still.
The main cause of needing this, is for the lower half of the cabinet where the seat needs to extend out from. I have one electric ram capable of 160kg lift, that has about 13" travel and this will be used to raise & lower the monitor module, so if I have a similar one for the seat, thats not going to be nearly enough distance for the seat to move out & away from the cabinet to give a good layout.
So am thinking of ways to translate movement into larger movement to facilitate this.
1) I could have a big arm/lever with a pivoting at one end and the ram moving it just above the pivot point. Would give a lot of travel but I don't think it's suitable as it could use a lot of space etc.
2) A scissor 'trellis' type mechanism. The ram would push together the two end pieces, which extends the scissor mechanism outwards. Might be able to get enough travel doing this and keep it compact inside the cab, but often these sort of mechanisms suffer wobbliness and so on.
3) Something telescopic. Something like a bottle jack but with more travel, and able to be motorised would be idea.
I haven't measured all this out, yet and am not sure what the norm would tend to be for a driver layout. I think I need to set up a seat, 'assume the position' then measure what's what.
I hope you'll excuse the crap quality sketch here but this is the basic idea of what I'm on about more or less. The wheel I have on my existing cab works in a similiar way to this, in that it swings down out of the way inside the cabinet, behind the front door panel when not in use.
But mostly at this stage, I'm just trying to figure the best way to get that outward travel of the seat without costing an absolute fortune. Was thinking something like heavy duty drawer runners would help at the sides and would help for including some side wall type panels.
Thanks for any useful suggestions on the mechanics of this part guys - you all seem pretty good at this side of things!