What datasheets leave out
The method behind every page here: why a number without a measurement boundary is not a specification.
Compare
Compare it
with anything.
Every rival figure here is the maker’s own, named and dated; every figure of ours names its basis. The Portal Development Kit (PDK), a development kit: under 1 ms game to motion, 3 g on all six axes, fully loaded (250 kg), development-kit price from $4,899.99 for qualified recipients.
Development Kit: early-access hardware, software in active development.
The comparisons ›Every price, one table ›The rules we wrote them under ›
The comparisons
Start with the method.
More travel or faster motion?
Every rig has to come back to center. Each maker’s travel, latency and force, side by side.
Every price, one table
Motion simulator prices: 20 platforms, each from the maker's own page.
What a developer adds
What a developer adds to a PDK development kit: five 6DOF platforms built up to the same rig and added to one total.
Head to head
Five platforms, five different questions.
Qubic QS-S25
The closest like-for-like in this category — both real 6DOF parallel kinematics — and the places the two diverge.
MOZA HMA150
Shared intent and one shared spec, different kinematics. Three axes on four posts against six axes on six legs.
DOFReality H6 / P6
Both ship as kits you build yourself. The difference is what is inside the actuator.
NLR Motion Platform V3
A seat that tilts on two axes inside the cockpit you own, against a platform that moves the whole cockpit on six.
Driven DynamiX DDX Precision
A turnkey six-axis cockpit at $84,500, against the PDK: latency, motion bandwidth, travel, and what each price covers.
Our own row
The row we ask you to check.
Here it is on its own, with the basis of each figure written out.
| ARK PDK | Basis | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | 6DOF Stewart–Gough, six direct-drive legs | Patent CA 3217174 C |
| Actuation | Direct-drive BLDC outrunners, field-oriented control | Design of record |
| Static load | Carried pneumatically, 3 × 50 mm × 140 mm cylinders at 6.0 bar max | Published specification |
| Envelope | Surge 158.23 mm · sway 143.85 mm · heave 117.35 mm · pitch 16.07° · roll 17.36° · yaw 19.60°, single-axis | T1 firmware boot banner, envelope of record |
| Payload | Up to 250 kg | Published specification |
| Feedback | 6 × 21-bit magnetic encoders, 0.000171661° per count | Arithmetic from the bit depth |
| Control rate | 1 kHz game to motion · 3.3 kHz control loop · 8 kHz drive loop per motor | ARK drive firmware and rate definitions |
| Transport delay | Under 1 ms — game telemetry in, motion out; boundary on /technology/latency/ | Measured, game telemetry to actuator motion |
| Power | Universal PSU, 100–290 V single-phase mains: 3,000 W on 200–290 V, 1,400 W on 100–130 V · 30 kW burst from the capacitor bank | Power supply specification |
| Footprint | 1.00 × 1.00 m platform · 1.57 m diameter with the extension feet · 0.50 m retracted | ARK specification · 1.57 m measured from the CAD |
| Development-kit price | $8,499.99 PDK + ARK Ecosystem · $6,299.99 PDK Racer · $5,299.99 PDK + Extension Feet & Table · $4,899.99 PDK | ARK price list |
| Network | Direct. No dealer network. | ARK |
Which build to compare
Against a bare motion platform — Qubic QS-S25 Basic Set, MOZA HMA150 — the PDK. Against a platform with its own rig — DOF Reality P6 — the PDK Racer. The PDK + ARK Ecosystem adds our wheelbase, wheel, load-cell pedals and button box, matched and tuned as one system. No ARK build includes a seat, PC or screen. We build development kits in sequence for qualified recipients, the PDK + ARK Ecosystem first.
Built to allocation for qualified recipients · ready to ship an estimated 3–6 months from order confirmation; delays of up to 12 months are possible
Competitor figures
- We do not re-measure another company’s product.
The rules we wrote them under
Sourced, dated,
and reversible.
Manufacturers revise specifications and a figure here can go stale — if you find one that has, tell us and it gets corrected. Where a rival publishes something we do not, that is on our row too.
Keep reading
The engineering
Our own architecture, ten pages, one subject each.
Latency
Under 1 ms, game to motion, and where it is measured.
Contact
Found an error in a competitor figure? Tell us.