FAQ · PDK Ecosystem

Questions,
answered.

What the kit is, how ordering works and where every number comes from.

The PDK motion base seen three-quarters on: a triangular platform carried by three motor blocks, con rods and pneumatic cylinders, on a black studio set
RSCV021 · the PDK motion base

Contents

Answers are written the way the machine is specified. Where an answer carries a figure, the figure carries a source and a status, and a dotted underline marks it.

01 · The machine

The kit

What arrives, what it takes to build, and what it runs.

Exploded view of the RSCV021: cockpit chassis and platform lifted above the three motor blocks, con rods and pneumatic cylinders
Exploded view · RSCV021
What is the difference between the four builds?

Four builds share one motion core. The PDK is the core with a flat top — mount your own seat or rig. PDK + Extension Feet & Table adds the wider feet and a desk-height table top, for a workstation rather than a cockpit. PDK Racer adds the aluminium cockpit spaceframe. PDK + ARK Ecosystem adds the ARK direct-drive wheelbase, wheel, button box and pedals: the complete machine.

Compare the four builds

Do I need to assemble it?

Yes. The kit arrives as pre-assembled modules in six to nine boxes depending on the build, none over 26 kg, and bolts together in fourteen steps, feet first. One person can do it. The Safety Manual and Installation Guide ship with the kit; the Kinemaniacs community site, where owners will share build notes and tuning profiles, is in development.

The fourteen steps

Which games work?

Any title supported by FlyPT Mover, a free third-party tool that translates game telemetry into platform motion. FlyPT Mover maintains its own list of supported titles. You can also drive the platform from your own code.

Is it magnetically levitated?

No. The static load is carried by pneumatic cylinders, not by magnets. The motors are electromagnetic, but they move the platform rather than hold it up. Older copy that described the platform as magnetically levitated is being retired.

What does the patent cover?

Adjustments to the Stewart platform that separate weight-bearing from positioning: a pneumatic actuator carries the load and a direct-drive actuator does the moving. Canadian patent CA 3217174 C, granted 11 February 2025.

Read the patent page

Can I use it commercially?

The kit is sold for private use. Commercial operation — a venue, an attraction, paid rides — needs a separate Commercial Operator Agreement under Terms of Sale & Use Section 8.4; institutional use needs the academic licence. Both are being prepared. Write to us with what you are planning and you will hear when terms publish.

Contact

02 · Commerce

Ordering

Payment, prices, codes, delivery and who you are buying from.

Aluminium spaceframe cockpit chassis with wheelbase, wheel and pedals fitted, on a black studio set
PDK + ARK Ecosystem · cockpit

Made to order · Batch One: ready to ship an estimated 3–6 months from order confirmation

How do I pay?

Through Stripe-hosted checkout, open for the United States, the European Union and the rest of the world, except Quebec and British Columbia. You pay in full at order, or monthly with Klarna where offered. Orders to the United States and the rest of the world settle in USD; orders to the EU settle in euros, from their own published table.

Can I pay monthly?

Where offered, with Klarna at checkout. Approval is Klarna's.

What does it cost?
List prices for the four PDK builds. USD for the United States and the rest of the world; the EU has its own euro table, VAT and import duty included. US sales tax, where we must collect it, is shown at checkout. Shipping is quoted separately.
KitUSDEUR
PDK + ARK Ecosystem8,499.998,699.99
PDK Racer6,299.996,499.99
PDK + Extension Feet & Table5,299.995,499.99
PDK4,899.994,999.99

US prices include import duty, with sales tax shown at checkout where we must collect it. EU prices are in euros with VAT and import duty included, except in EU places outside the EU VAT area, such as the Canary Islands, where local import taxes are paid on delivery (Terms 4.3). Everywhere else, import VAT, duty and customs fees are payable to customs or the carrier on delivery and are not included in the price; we cannot calculate them in advance. Shipping is quoted and billed separately when your unit is ready. Paid in full at order, or monthly with Klarna where offered. Grid-position codes apply at checkout. These are Batch One prices. Batch Two ships after Batch One, and its prices may be increased.

How do the codes work?

The grid-position code applies to three builds: the PDK + ARK Ecosystem, at USD 5,499.99 (EU €5,599.99), the PDK + Extension Feet & Table, at USD 3,599.99 (EU €3,699.99), and the PDK, at USD 3,499.99 (EU €3,599.99). It does not move the PDK Racer. Existing grid-position holders are emailed it (nothing is charged, and positions are no longer sold). The code is single-use and tied to your email address; enter it at checkout.

When does it ship?

Ready to ship an estimated 3 to 6 months from order confirmation. The Terms of Sale allow up to 12 months beyond that, and you can cancel at any time for a full refund until your Production Notice.

What does shipping cost?

Shipping is not included. It is billed separately when your unit is ready and quoted by destination. We ship to the US, the EU and EEA, and most other countries; Russia, Belarus, Quebec and British Columbia are excluded.

Are taxes included?

US prices include import duty, with sales tax shown at checkout where we must collect it. EU prices are in euros with VAT and import duty included, except in EU places outside the EU VAT area, such as the Canary Islands, where local import taxes are paid on delivery (Terms 4.3). Everywhere else, import VAT, duty and customs fees are payable to customs or the carrier on delivery and are not included in the price. We cannot calculate them in advance: they depend on your country's rates and on your customs authority. The United Kingdom is the one we can put a number on: import VAT at the UK standard rate of 20 % of the customs value — the Kit price plus shipping, insurance and any duty — plus the carrier's clearance fee. The duty itself depends on how UK customs classifies the Kit.

Who is my contract with?

Orders delivered in the United States and the rest of the world are contracted by ARK Dynamics Global, a Wyoming corporation, and settle in USD. Orders delivered in the EU are contracted by ARKINEMATICS LIMITED, a Cyprus company, in euros. ARKINEMATICS is also our EU authorised representative for product safety and our EU data-protection representative. Your seller, your currency and your total are named on your order confirmation.

What is the warranty?

24-month Limited Warranty on the kit. The conditions are in the Terms of Sale & Use (v1.4, effective 14 September 2026).

Can I return it?

Consumers can return the kit within 14 days after delivery, for any reason. You can cancel at any time for a full refund until your Production Notice; after it, until dispatch, outside the EU, the EEA and the UK our unrecoverable parts cost may be kept, capped at 15% of the price. The conditions, including who pays return carriage, are in the Terms of Sale & Use.

03 · Provenance

Numbers

Every figure on this site carries a source and a status.

Source vocabulary

  • cad-measured — taken off the CAD model of the RSCV021.
  • verified — checked against a primary source or recomputed.
  • published — ARK's published specification and engineering record.
Where do the numbers come from?

Every figure on this site is tracked to its source: the RSCV021 CAD model, a primary document, or ARK's published specification. A dotted underline marks a tracked figure.

How big and heavy is it?

Footprint 1.00 × 1.00 m for the PDK on its own feet, 1.57 m in diameter with the extension feet splayed at 120°. Retracted height 0.50 m. Height 1.13 m to the top of the seat tower. Mass 115 kg. Footprint and height are measured from the CAD model; the mass is the designer's stated figure, and the CAD model agrees.

Does it need compressed air or special power?

No external air: an integrated HC210B compressor feeds the pneumatic cylinders that carry the static load. Power comes from a universal 100–290 V AC supply that auto-switches — 3,000 W on 200–290 V mains, 1,400 W on a 100–130 V outlet — backed by a bank of three 0.47 F, 63 V capacitors that recirculate braking energy. The compressor is measured from the CAD model.

Do 1 kHz or 8 kHz mean my game gets telemetry that fast?

No. Those are internal control-loop rates inside the platform: drive loop 8 kHz per motor, position commands 1 kHz. What your game or PC exchanges with the platform depends on the software path, for example FlyPT Mover, and runs at the title's own telemetry rate, typically 60 Hz. No internal rate is a promise of telemetry to your PC or game.

Which envelope should I design my cockpit around?

Around every pose the platform can reach. The single-axis figures on the technology page are the nominal envelope, and combined moves reach further, so leave clearance beyond them.

See the envelope tables

Why does forward kinematics matter for a simulator?

It lets the controller reason in the rider's coordinates, surge, sway, heave and the three rotations, rather than only in leg lengths. That is the basis for task-space control and for reporting where the platform is.

Still open

Not answered here?

Write to us with a question that is not here, or go straight to the order.

Made to order · Batch One: ready to ship an estimated 3–6 months from order confirmation