Hello all 
About 3 months ago i have started experimenting with tactile feedback in sim racing games.
During those months, i have searched the internet for some information regarding the Buttkicker Mini LFE tuning and mounting but i could not find any help.
I have realised that most people with Buttkickers are in the iRacing forums and i dont feel like renewing my subscription just for viewing the forums.
So i have decided to make a thread about buttkickers in order to share, with my bad english, my experience in installing and tuning them and also my early knowledge that i have acquired during these days. I will be painting text red in the parts that i have some conclusion.
I can post some pictures of my rig if people are interested in this thread.
So, my setup:
My rig is wooden, its the ricmotech RS-1 , with the add-on for the 3 screens. I have bolted a seat from a Honda CRV on it.
I now have 2 Buttkicker mini lfe's in SEAT and PEDALS mode.
Since it is wooden, it is really heavy, and from what i have gathered, the vibrations go through the wood much better.
Since the vibrations go through different parts of the rig, for best results you must use rubber isolators in order to avoid lost power. I will get back to that.
Amp :
I am using a 2 x 200 W RMS audio amplifier @ 4Ω.
It is a car amplifier, therefore i am using a 20A 220V to 12V converter in order to power it.
This amp has proven more than adequate and after some quick testing, i decided to have its power output at around 40% so the buttkickers wont bottom out .
This is mostly because, simvibe's output is much stronger and sharper than just an audio output, therefore the signal is much stronger. I believe that if i just used sound output from my primary sound card i would need to have the amp at about 70% and not bottoming out the buttkickers.
Mounting:
Well, i am not 100% sure about the positioning of the Buttkicker in my pedals, but i am pretty damn sure that the SEAT buttkicker should go under the SEAT, and i mean ON THE SEAT CHASSIS. I have mounted it really nicely under the seat in the middle of my a$$ and the effect is great. After some testing, i had plenty of vibrations going through the rest of the RIG , so i have used 4x isolators on my seat and it works like a dream ! No escaping vibrations now !
The 2nd buttkicker is screwed tightly on the rig chassis, right behind my pedals. But my rig is so stiff, the vibrations are kinda getting lost so i think ill have to think something better later on.
Software:
As i said, i am using Simvibe. I think this is the best way to do it for simracing games.
My favorite sim right now is Assetto Corsa, but simvibe support is pretty bad right now.
So, i also play Rfactor2 and GSC2013.
GSC2013 has the best support for simvibe at the moment, it is just great.
The aim of buttkickers and simvibe, is not to replace the feeling of motion rigs.
I believe, after some testing, we should use Buttkickers only to enhance the feel and the immersion of being in a car and racing around.
Simvibe has some default setups for these games, but i found them really bad. This is also where i need people's input.
I will post my setups for GSC2013, where all my testing and fine tuning has gone and i would love to know people's opinions.
I have also found out that if you use many different effects in the simvibe software, the buttkickers will obviously get choked, just like the FFB clipping on a wheel.
The effects i am trying to simulate are:
Engine rumble
Gear change kick
Rumble strip feeling
Track bumps
I think these effects will help with immersion and the feeling of speed a lot, and they do in GSC2013.
Here are 2 screenshots of my effects page for GSC2013. Seat and pedals. Since simvibe supports exporting the settings to a file, i can share it with anyone that wants to give it a try. But i am pretty sure that the fine tuning should be done differently for different setups / amps / rigs / buttkicker models.
I am really happy with these, sadly i cant get the same effect when using same effects in Rfactor 2.
It would be nice if there was a knowledge base telling us which effect does what in each game.
Thanks for reading my post and here is hoping we can all gain something out of this thread.
About 3 months ago i have started experimenting with tactile feedback in sim racing games.
During those months, i have searched the internet for some information regarding the Buttkicker Mini LFE tuning and mounting but i could not find any help.
I have realised that most people with Buttkickers are in the iRacing forums and i dont feel like renewing my subscription just for viewing the forums.
So i have decided to make a thread about buttkickers in order to share, with my bad english, my experience in installing and tuning them and also my early knowledge that i have acquired during these days. I will be painting text red in the parts that i have some conclusion.
I can post some pictures of my rig if people are interested in this thread.
So, my setup:
My rig is wooden, its the ricmotech RS-1 , with the add-on for the 3 screens. I have bolted a seat from a Honda CRV on it.
I now have 2 Buttkicker mini lfe's in SEAT and PEDALS mode.
Since it is wooden, it is really heavy, and from what i have gathered, the vibrations go through the wood much better.
Since the vibrations go through different parts of the rig, for best results you must use rubber isolators in order to avoid lost power. I will get back to that.
Amp :
I am using a 2 x 200 W RMS audio amplifier @ 4Ω.
It is a car amplifier, therefore i am using a 20A 220V to 12V converter in order to power it.
This amp has proven more than adequate and after some quick testing, i decided to have its power output at around 40% so the buttkickers wont bottom out .
This is mostly because, simvibe's output is much stronger and sharper than just an audio output, therefore the signal is much stronger. I believe that if i just used sound output from my primary sound card i would need to have the amp at about 70% and not bottoming out the buttkickers.
Mounting:
Well, i am not 100% sure about the positioning of the Buttkicker in my pedals, but i am pretty damn sure that the SEAT buttkicker should go under the SEAT, and i mean ON THE SEAT CHASSIS. I have mounted it really nicely under the seat in the middle of my a$$ and the effect is great. After some testing, i had plenty of vibrations going through the rest of the RIG , so i have used 4x isolators on my seat and it works like a dream ! No escaping vibrations now !
The 2nd buttkicker is screwed tightly on the rig chassis, right behind my pedals. But my rig is so stiff, the vibrations are kinda getting lost so i think ill have to think something better later on.
Software:
As i said, i am using Simvibe. I think this is the best way to do it for simracing games.
My favorite sim right now is Assetto Corsa, but simvibe support is pretty bad right now.
So, i also play Rfactor2 and GSC2013.
GSC2013 has the best support for simvibe at the moment, it is just great.
The aim of buttkickers and simvibe, is not to replace the feeling of motion rigs.
I believe, after some testing, we should use Buttkickers only to enhance the feel and the immersion of being in a car and racing around.
Simvibe has some default setups for these games, but i found them really bad. This is also where i need people's input.
I will post my setups for GSC2013, where all my testing and fine tuning has gone and i would love to know people's opinions.
I have also found out that if you use many different effects in the simvibe software, the buttkickers will obviously get choked, just like the FFB clipping on a wheel.
The effects i am trying to simulate are:
Engine rumble
Gear change kick
Rumble strip feeling
Track bumps
I think these effects will help with immersion and the feeling of speed a lot, and they do in GSC2013.
Here are 2 screenshots of my effects page for GSC2013. Seat and pedals. Since simvibe supports exporting the settings to a file, i can share it with anyone that wants to give it a try. But i am pretty sure that the fine tuning should be done differently for different setups / amps / rigs / buttkicker models.
I am really happy with these, sadly i cant get the same effect when using same effects in Rfactor 2.
It would be nice if there was a knowledge base telling us which effect does what in each game.
Thanks for reading my post and here is hoping we can all gain something out of this thread.
Last edited:
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