Tactile Immersion - General Discussion - Hardware & Software

Yeah I’m only using about 15% on the amp and don’t even need to use more than 50-60% gain in Sim Hub and that’s plenty for me.

Thanks, I still have to play with mine to get the right settings. The noise is strange though - it only starts when I start a game, in this case Assetto Corsa. If it was EMI, I would be hearing it right when I power on the amp.

You can hear the noise here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlLwpatc40RCjABt1rQgsLeeGmkP?e=xKlc3w
 
Thanks, I still have to play with mine to get the right settings. The noise is strange though - it only starts when I start a game, in this case Assetto Corsa. If it was EMI, I would be hearing it right when I power on the amp.

You can hear the noise here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlLwpatc40RCjABt1rQgsLeeGmkP?e=xKlc3w

If it is only with Assetto Corsa at this time then It may be down to a specific effect and settings used with it regards its activity/sensitivity. This could happen even when the car is ontrack prior to a race. Try the sim with only one effect operating at a time from the effects you have been using.

As an alternative, use the EQ on your designated soundcard with 500Hz and above set to its lowest setting. This will help generate a type of crossover but will be applied to all channels. Doing this will remove some of the noise the units generate from harmonics that are generated.

You may even want to lower the 125Hz EQ slider as well but theses exciters are good for detailing upto 200Hz. Thats what makes them so good for high engine RPM and effects like wheel slip that feel nice with finer detailing and what higher frequencies can offer.

My tactile has been disconnected for about a month, been so busy lately and not had much chance to work on my build.
 
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If it is only with Assetto Corsa at this time then It may be down to a specific effect and settings used with it regards its activity/sensitivity. This could happen even when the car is ontrack prior to a race. Try the sim with only one effect operating at a time from the effects you have been using.

As an alternative, use the EQ on your designated soundcard with 500Hz and above set to its lowest setting. This will help generate a type of crossover but will be applied to all channels. Doing this will remove some of the noise the units generate from harmonics that are generated.

You may even want to lower the 125Hz EQ slider as well but theses exciters are good for detailing upto 200Hz. Thats what makes them so good for high engine RPM and effects like wheel slip that feel nice with finer detailing and what higher frequencies can offer.

My tactile has been disconnected for about a month, been so busy lately and not had much chance to work on my build.

Thank you again for your help Mr. Latte. I was playing AC last night, and as I play with headphones and Rift S I could not hear the noise, just enjoyed the great immersion with the effects from Simhub played through the new system - really nice!

I just purchased a separate sound card for this use, SB Audigy FX, and it came with an EQ. I'll try cutting out all above using the supplied software. I will also try the effects one by one to see if I can find the culprit this way, if the EQ doesn't help.

I also did the Noctua mod yesterday, it was not hard, and now the amp is so quiet that I can't hear it over the other (quite silent) equipment that I have.
 
Good to read that your making progress and happy with the new quieter fans and exciters. I had some previous effects shared in the Discord conversations a few months ago you might be able to have a try with. More time will be spent on newer and improved sets while working with people that have went with this exciter concept.

Hope you have some fun with discovering how well the exciters can help enhance effects detailing.
 
Hello all, I have next lever racing F-GT seat, I also own buttkicker gamer 2, its mounted under seat. I have an idea to add more bass shakers to my rig. I would not like to pay too much, but I also dont want to pay some price and be dissapointed. So my original plan was to buy two Sinuslive bass pump III 8 ohm. One to the front and one to the back of the rig, but is this bass shaker strong enough to provide good vibs I there will be one only in front/back? Second option is to buy four of them, two back/front as front/rear wheels, but this option is more expensive and if I can have good effect from two only, then I would like to go that way. I was thinking also about Sinutec BS-250, Aura Pro or ADX Maximus....could someone give me an advice please?
 
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I'm curious if there is any consensus on how to mount a single transducer to the bottom of a fiberglass shell seat.

I would like to mount the transducer directly to the bottom of the seat, but I don't want the fiberglass to disintegrate over time. I assume that directly bolting to bottom will eventually wear out the holes and around any bolt heads and washers.

I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to make a solid durable direct mount.

Thanks!
 
Drill holes big enough for a bolt to fit through, then you can use washers and nuts on the other end of it. That way you're not using the seat as a thread. If you use washers either side you should have enough spread of the load on the fiberglass to not cause any ill effect to the holes. You'd obviously then need to find bolts with a fairly flat head so not to be felt through the seat cushion.
 
Drill holes big enough for a bolt to fit through, then you can use washers and nuts on the other end of it. That way you're not using the seat as a thread. If you use washers either side you should have enough spread of the load on the fiberglass to not cause any ill effect to the holes. You'd obviously then need to find bolts with a fairly flat head so not to be felt through the seat cushion.

I was thinking about a pan head screw head with washer. Insert Coin says that the 3M Dual Lock has held his transducer solid for 6 months, so I'm considering giving that a shot to see if it transmits enough detail without through bolting. I have a flat area at the bottom so I'm considering using a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Through bolting the transducer to the aluminum and then using the 3M Dual Lock to hold the plate to the seat bottom. Then if I'm not happy with that, through bolt like you suggested.
 
I was thinking about a pan head screw head with washer. Insert Coin says that the 3M Dual Lock has held his transducer solid for 6 months, so I'm considering giving that a shot to see if it transmits enough detail without through bolting. I have a flat area at the bottom so I'm considering using a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Through bolting the transducer to the aluminum and then using the 3M Dual Lock to hold the plate to the seat bottom. Then if I'm not happy with that, through bolt like you suggested.

I’ve attached a Aura Pro to the underneath of my Sparco bucket seat with extra strong Velcro, had to also add some Gorilla glue double sided mounting tape as the M3 isn’t good enough on the soft material of the transducer, it’s held for the last month or so fine with plenty of force felt through the seat, it’s bound to be better if you drill and bolt it but good enough for me, can’t say on holding power over long term but wanted to avoid the drilling.
 
I'm planning to bolt the transducer to a piece of aluminum plate and then velcro the aluminum plate to the fiberglass shell. So hopefully two very hard smooth surfaces will maintain a bond well. That's what Insert Coin did.
 
I used Velcro as well for my Aura's. I had to glue the Velcro where the adhesive was as well but the actual Velcro holds pretty good. You can get heavy duty stuff as well. I guess it depends on how hard you run them if they stay attached all the time.

Why not skip the aluminium piece and just Velcro the shaker to the seat? You'll save a bit of weight. After all, it's only as good as the weakest link, which will be the metal attached to the seat.
 
And there' velcro and there's also heavy duty velcro for higher weights/strength from screw fix etc... pricey but really strong bonding

Looks to be the same kind of stuff I got from Amazon, same weight holding of 7KG. The problem is the surface of the Aura has a soft round pad that the adhesive doesn’t stick well to and the adhesive isn’t as strong as the Velcro itself. Fine for the seat side but not for the Aura side.

That’s why I put some cardboard and a towel under the seat when I first stuck it on as I knew it probably wouldn’t last and sure enough a week later it fell off. So I added the Gorilla Mounting tape to it also and so far for so good for the last 6 weeks maybe.
 
Allright, I'm now looking for the next step - Aura or the ADX -maximus, two under the seat. Which one is better?

They only need 50W per unit, what is the chep amp to work these?
 
Mike, I think it will depend on how and what it's used with, I'm not aware of any major issues with the product. Your welcome to highlight specific cases if you can show the installation and what tactile was used with those that had failures.

Lots of people go with installations of tactile that is far from ideal. What I mean is that much of the energy from the tactile used (like in 4 corners) is wasted. So on these installations you generally find these people run much higher effects output volumes or with generally a rather high percentage of the amps max output.

In the case of what I have recommended the EPQ304. it is with small 40W exciters being placed directly on the seat. So with this installation and usage case. We need very little of the amps actual volume so I doubt it would be an issue. I have not been able to fully test mine yet as still waiting on some components arriving and I have been that busy lately have not been focused on the build.

The main problem is that if he wants to upgrade later with say aura 50 watt base shakers and he wants to run 4 of them he will likely have overheating problems with the amp unless he runs it at a very low setting. Why buy an amp and then have to buy another one if he decides to run more powerful shakers? I had 4 aura's in chassis mode and couldn't run the amp at the settings I wanted to without it overheating and I wasn't running it near max settings.

Numerous people on the iRacing forums also had that problem while running SimVibe setups. I bought a used Adcom 4 channel amp after I sold the 304 four or five years ago and have never had an overheating problem.

I just hate to see someone make a mistake and have to buy another amp later on and my comments are based on my experience and the experience of others. I know you don't like Simvibe or Berney at SimXperience, but he also warned people about using that amp as they had tried it and had overheating problems with it.
 
Why not skip the aluminium piece and just Velcro the shaker to the seat? You'll save a bit of weight. After all, it's only as good as the weakest link, which will be the metal attached to the seat.

The issue is getting a smooth hard surface for the adhesive to bond with. I can through bolt the transducer to a flat piece of the aluminum which I can clean with alcohol and then bond the other side with the seat's shell.

The underside of the transducer has a non-metalic pad.
 
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The main problem is that if he wants to upgrade later with say aura 50 watt base shakers and he wants to run 4 of them he will likely have overheating problems with the amp unless he runs it at a very low setting. Why buy an amp and then have to buy another one if he decides to run more powerful shakers? I had 4 aura's in chassis mode and couldn't run the amp at the settings I wanted to without it overheating and I wasn't running it near max settings.

Numerous people on the iRacing forums also had that problem while running SimVibe setups. I bought a used Adcom 4 channel amp after I sold the 304 four or five years ago and have never had an overheating problem.

I just hate to see someone make a mistake and have to buy another amp later on and my comments are based on my experience and the experience of others. I know you don't like Simvibe or Berney at SimXperience, but he also warned people about using that amp as they had tried it and had overheating problems with it.

Mmmmmmmmmm
It seems you assume the Aura Pro via CM would be an upgrade for someone to get in the future after trying the exciters?

A Typical CM installation can waste a lot of the energy from the units and this includes lost detailing too with higher frequencies. People with CM installations are more likely to crank the volume to compensate for the lost vibrations. These are vibes that are freely able to move over connected/adjoining surfaces and to sections of a rig the user won't even feel them. So with many peoples CM installations, the seat/pedals is only getting a partial amount of the best energy/detail based on the users installation used.

Do not underestimate what the exciters installed as shown can achieve. Having units directly installed working in pairs/groups bring several advantages to typical or popular CM installations. Just because the recommended exciters appear tiny or are only 40w. I expect most people to be quite impressed with the punch and detail they bring. They certainly impressed me and I am soon going to be testing having 8 of them on the back of a seat for improved multi-effect distribution. I will use 2x EPQ304 amps to do this and will report on any issues but with this approach, we use so little wattage anyways, so these units are not going to working the amps that hard. Other 4 channel amps are available anyways.

Keep in mind, there is nothing stopping people combine with the exciters, "larger units" for improved low bass. These can be installed to the base of the seat/pedals and applying whatever level (price range / performance) they want to go with.

Multi exciters let a person enable better representation of using more effects at once. We can split effects over whatever channels we want to the bodyzones we desire. On top of that we have the benefits from their improved detailing. When you do this over several body zones then its a big upgrade to having 2 units (eg like Aura Pro) bolted to the seat frame that a CM installation would bring. It is also a big compromise trying to have a single unit output multiple effects at once.

Simvibe Chassis Mode - Aura Pro - Upgrade Or Downgrade?
Actually I'd say compared to the (exciter concept) that has been shared here. Installing these exciters directly brings finer detailing, with less requirement of higher wattages, simply because the user gets not only the ideal force/smack from the unit with little energy being wasted but we also can place it to the specific body zones we want. Tactile for Shoulders, Spine and Sides with direct units will easily outperform units installed in the typical approach of CM with units like the Aura Pro or other sub $50 models.

A user can easily start with a couple and then expand but you discover the benefits of bringing smarter effects distribution and will want more, bringing improved stereo effects as well as maybe having certain effects separated, like engine or speed based sensations from others. This is much better than effects all crammed onto single units, (make no mistake about it). Simvibe and CM/EM is not close, no not anymore is it the best way to approach this (imho).

Save money rather than paying $90 for Simvibe, give a nice donation toward Simhub Shakeit.
Ask anyone thats tried it. As it has become the way to go, much nicer UI, easier and better than any other tactile software solution. It also brings more effects, better controls and configurations we cannot achieve from the alternatives.
 
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