Inexpensive transducers for simvibe

JeffL

Right on Brother, I hear ya, it's all good.
Some of the guys in the club were asking about some affordable transducers for Simvibe.

I have $50 sub and the 4 pack 16 0hm minis ($44) drive in 2 zones by 2 - $20 lepai amps and not even close to using all the power. Actually just the large shaker and one amp would be sufficient but....

The company that makes the transducers is Dayton Audio but the best price is from Parts Express

http://www.parts-express.com/cat/tactile-transducers-exciters-bass-shakers/18
Have fun.
 
That's interesting Jeff. I have been thinking about this for a while, but I want to do it as cheaply as possible, I don't want to stretch to a buttkicker if I can avoid it.

So can you please clarify for me - is that all that is needed to get started (bare minimum, that can be added to later) ? -
Simvibe software
a Second sound card
Any music system amplifier
Aurasound ProBass shaker shown in your link

Many thanks :)
 
Kicker is 4ohm so you need a 2 ohm or 4 ohm amp. You can go lower ohms but not higher, makes amp work to hard and burns it up.
 
So I need the four pack thingy from dayton, an amplifier (which i have no idea how to choose),a second soundcard and a subwoofer?

What Im trying to say is that im confused
 
Here is a little guide for an economical Sim Vibe setup:


First, Here is a sound card-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D1PWGM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Works fine with win 7- anything else I don't know.
The outputs are even color coded to coinicide with Simvibe software. Industry standard.
There is a lot of options out there but sabrent has been around for along time and the

drivers are usually pretty good and I have spent more on breakfast.


Here is an amp:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lepai-Lepy-..._Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item258c4c9019

Nothing special but well designed low signal to noise and durable, have used in several applications and it's the price of 7 beverages.


Here are the mini transducers:

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton...source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla

They are 16 ohm so if you tie all 4 of the positive leads together, then tie all the negatives together you have and put to one channel it will be
4 ohms.
This is called parrallel wiring. I would suggests them for wheel, pedals, shifter.
They are wired together but spread them out.

Here is the bigger transducer:

http://www.parts-express.com/aurasound-ast-2b-4-pro-bass-shaker-tactile-transducer--299-028

It is 4 ohm and I would recommend it for the seat.


Now if you notice We have a group of mini transducers (about the size of a hockey puck)
that equal 4ohms and 1 large transducer (about the size of mini pizza) that has 4ohms. they have equivalent resistance so you
can put the small group of transducers on one channel and the large transducer on the other channel of a stereo amp.

They don't require a lot of power, in fact they don't like to be over driven so a large amp will do you no good. It is better to under power these than over power them.

I would suggest buying two amps at that price so you have more control.

I have run these little amps only running one channel and it does not effect them and they are so cheap I have tried some pretty silly things with them and they won't burn up LOL.

You need a little speaker wire and a couple of 1/8" male to male cables
The sound card comes with a usb cable.

You can set these up as a four corner if you want but you have to have a pretty accoustically designed rig to get positional transduction and more amps.

I would suggest going for engine vib and bumps, curbs etc.

We can do another thread about acoustically proper surfaces for mounting on another day.

We can also do another thread on Setting the Freqs in simvibe to get the best experience.

But here is a hint they don't make drum heads or or accoustice guitars out of 10ga metal or 3/4In wood. HEHE

After you read this and go ahead and ask some silly questions:)

Edit: yes you can buy the sound card, one amp, and one large transducer or one set of mini transducers to get started.
 
Last edited:
This is really helpful thanks Jeff. I will be giving this a go when I get chance.

Out of interest I looked up the equivalent items over here in UK, and this I find laughable - the Sabrent USB SND8 is $19.70 on Amazon.com. Over here on Amazon.co.uk it is £66 ($110) !!
BUT on EBay I can order it all the way from USA for £21 incl. shipping - it's a mad world.

And the bass shaker & transducers are also a terrible price over here or impossible to find, but I will do the same & order them from USA.

This sourcing & pricing is really the reason I have not got round to it - it was too expensive to make a wrong guess, but with your info, I will at least be able to order the correct bits to get me started, so thank you :)
 
My question is: Is it worth it to do all this stuff if I don't have a proper cockpit (I use an office chair and clamp my g27 to my desk, the pedals lay under the desk)
 
Only you can answer that question Tai, It's all about immersion to me. So I will always be trying to add anything to get it. It won't make you faster but it will enhance the experience. My dog hates the gas soaked rag with a fan blowing across it.:p
 
My question is: Is it worth it to do all this stuff if I don't have a proper cockpit (I use an office chair and clamp my g27 to my desk, the pedals lay under the desk)
Currently my setup is similar - office chair, TX clamped to desk. I use two transducers, SimVibe seat and pedals (extensions mode). I have my pedals bolted to a wood platform I made to angle the pedals slightly and allow for mounting a transducer. The platform was also so the pedals don't move around, and I isolate the platform from the floor with rubber bumpers. The second transducer is mounted to a wood plate, the wood plate bolted under the chair. Only a single wire can be seen (to seat transducer) and there I'm using quick disconnect connectors to get out of the way in seconds.
How well the vibrations work will depend on of course the amp and transducers themselves but also how they're mounted/isolated. My setup provides more than enough vibration - never have to run my amp over 60% or so.
Once you get use to tactile feedback its harder to race without - feels a little lifeless, like turning off the FFB on your wheel.
This is what I am using - not over-kill but more expensive than Jeff's lowest cost suggestions.

Dayton Audio APA150 150W Power Amplifier (75w @ 4 ohm) ($158)
2 x AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker Tactile Transducer (4 ohm) ($48 x 2)
Diamond Multimedia - XtremeSound 5.1/16-Bit Sound Card ($19.95)
 
I didn't know they made such a difference.
But my main problem is I have no idea how I'm going to attach the transducers to my seat (and pedals if need be). I'm not much of a handyman. It would be great if you could maybe send a pic of the way you attached it to your chair and pedals!
I thought maybe i'll drill some holes in the plastic covers of the chairs so I can screw the transducers in, but I really don't know if it'll work.
 
I didn't know they made such a difference.
But my main problem is I have no idea how I'm going to attach the transducers to my seat (and pedals if need be). I'm not much of a handyman. It would be great if you could maybe send a pic of the way you attached it to your chair and pedals!
I thought maybe i'll drill some holes in the plastic covers of the chairs so I can screw the transducers in, but I really don't know if it'll work.
A few pics... let me know if these links don't work, I have never shared pics from my OnDrive.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!ADCEHzCyyOveHlk&v=3&ithint=photo,png
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!ANThTNKsTcMiFBs&v=3&ithint=photo,png
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AG0Sb7wnEjF3JHs&v=3&ithint=photo,png
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AF3P4klERi9186g&v=3&ithint=photo,png
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AJu2JtfieI-y7oI&v=3&ithint=photo,png
 
In Speakers you want precision, accuracy and very little distortion. Let me put it this way. Speakers recreate the sound of on an instrument while transducers are the instrument. It is all about efficiency. Mounting transducers on to steel frames is the least efficient way of transferring waves. It might, with a scope, be more accurate but has less "dance". However, the plastic sheet on the back of most office chairs actually serves as an amplifier just like the head of a drum. I know it's counter to conventional thinking but as we say in sim racing "it's just physics" :)
 
Thanks William, at least now I have an Idea of how things should look.
So, Ideally, How do I mount the transducer on the chair? One on the backrest and one under the chair? I was thinking of buying maybe two big ones for the chair and one small one for the pedals. Which brings another question: How necessary is it to have a transducer on the pedals? Is it something I could do without?

Also, wiring: Do I need to buy specials cables or do they come with the transducers? And those quick disconnect connectors, are they something I have to buy seperately, or construct on my own?

Lastly, I want to see If I understood this correctly:
I plug the amp to the soundcard, and the transducers to the amp, right? and what then?

Thanks a lot for the info guys, by the way.
 
You have three places that are affected. Hands, feet and butt. Your wheel does a good amount. So I would worry about that last. If you have a shifter that too would be good. I would start with the butt and work to the feet then to shifter then to wheel. Grow as you go.
 
Tai when you decide what you want to spend, and purchase, I will send you a diagram exactly how to install and wire. The whole point of this thread is to spend the smallest amount and get the best return since most of the world is on a tight budget. :) I wanna help you get the most out of a smaller system.
 
LOL, we are writing at the same time. I never said that is what you should do, you kinda dancing between Williams pictures and my advice. It's cool but that's not how I would do it. I respect what He's done so I don't want to get into a back and forth on philosophy. My little pea brain has trouble arguing philosophy and giving advice at the same time. :)
 

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