Tactile Transducers (shaker) Setup

Piero Favretti · Nov 11, 2018

Hello everyone

I have 2 AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shakers I would like to use with an older Yamaha (RX-V595, 70 w/channel) receiver. The AuraSound will be mounted rear-right and rear-left, I will eventually add 2 more of these shakers front-right and front-left.

I am looking for clear instructions on how to best wire the transducers to the receiver, connect to the receiver to the PC. I currently use a Buttkicker Gamer 2 with its amplifier under my seat, I plan to move it up front below my pedal deck. The Buttkicker is connected to a sound card.

I remember coming across useful instructions some time ago but I can't seem to find them. Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers!

PS; I will soon be building a Sim-Lab P1 cockpit, I'd love to see how anyone mounted the AuraSound or Buttkicker to it, or any other shaker setup on the P1 for that matter.

roundabout · Nov 12, 2018

Hello,

I tried a similar setup before moving onto PA amplifiers after blowing the power supply on the receiver trying to run 5 100w 4 ohm shakers at once. If you check that the amp works at 4 ohm in the manual and the wattage delivered at 4 ohm you will be able to tell if it will work and roughly what max volume should be (from a quick look 70w is that receiver at 8 ohms, it'll deliver more at 4 ohms). Bear in mind that the supposed max per channel is probably optimistic if using all channels, the size of the power supply usually means that you can't drive all channels at the maximum.

How you set it up will depend somewhat on what software you use. I used simshakerwheels and that can only use one soundcard. I used HDMI from PC to amp to monitor, set the HDMI as soundcard in ssw as ASIO and it worked (PC soundcard was used for audio). You could use the unamplified subwoofer output of the receiver to drive the buttkicker amp but again it depends on the software you are using as to what is delivered to each channel, I have customised the ssw files for my now 6 shaker / channel set up and am currently using the soundcard to drive 3 PA amps. I believe that simvibe can use two soundcards but have no experience with this.

Most people seem to mount the shakers at the edges of their rig or on brackets. I took the approach of mounting them as closely as possible at the points of body contact with the rig - One under each cheek in seat, one at back where shoulders touch seat, one at front of seat (engine) and one under each foot heel. My shakers are the budget version from Amazon without the heat shield but similar to the internals of the ones you are using, which meant that I could fit them in small gaps easier. After melting the glue in one of them through overheating and repairing with epoxy they are now all actively cooled with small usb powered fans.

I did adjust frequencies is ssw somewhat to compensate for these shakers inability to produce low (<20hz) frequency.

Piero Favretti · Nov 13, 2018

roundabout said:
Hello,

I tried a similar setup before moving onto PA amplifiers after blowing the power supply on the receiver trying to run 5 100w 4 ohm shakers at once. If you check that the amp works at 4 ohm in the manual and the wattage delivered at 4 ohm you will be able to tell if it will work and roughly what max volume should be (from a quick look 70w is that receiver at 8 ohms, it'll deliver more at 4 ohms). Bear in mind that the supposed max per channel is probably optimistic if using all channels, the size of the power supply usually means that you can't drive all channels at the maximum.

How you set it up will depend somewhat on what software you use. I used simshakerwheels and that can only use one soundcard. I used HDMI from PC to amp to monitor, set the HDMI as soundcard in ssw as ASIO and it worked (PC soundcard was used for audio). You could use the unamplified subwoofer output of the receiver to drive the buttkicker amp but again it depends on the software you are using as to what is delivered to each channel, I have customised the ssw files for my now 6 shaker / channel set up and am currently using the soundcard to drive 3 PA amps. I believe that simvibe can use two soundcards but have no experience with this.

Most people seem to mount the shakers at the edges of their rig or on brackets. I took the approach of mounting them as closely as possible at the points of body contact with the rig - One under each cheek in seat, one at back where shoulders touch seat, one at front of seat (engine) and one under each foot heel. My shakers are the budget version from Amazon without the heat shield but similar to the internals of the ones you are using, which meant that I could fit them in small gaps easier. After melting the glue in one of them through overheating and repairing with epoxy they are now all actively cooled with small usb powered fans.

I did adjust frequencies is ssw somewhat to compensate for these shakers inability to produce low (<20hz) frequency.

Hello roundabout and thank you for all the information. I have an AccuForce wheel so I am using SimCommander as my software to control/drive the Buttkicker, eventually the 2 new Aurasound.

By PA do you mean "Power Amplifier" or "Plate Amplifier"? Is there one or more you would recommend? Would a Dayton Audio SA70 70W suffice or is more power required?

Thank you!

roundabout · Nov 14, 2018

PA Power Amplifier. I used Thomann t.amp E-400s as they had some b stock available cheaply at the time. 190w is slight overkill for the 100w 4 ohm shakers but channels can be bridged to 400w so they are flexible if I ever want to use them to drive a larger shaker. I am happy with them, they are solid, heavy and have given no trouble. If you are not in Europe though they will be expensive to get hold of. The amp you linked is a subwoofer amp so only one channel, PA amps are usually at least 2 channels. If looking at locally available amps then check cabling requirements, I needed RCA to 3.5mm cables and used Neutrik speakon plugs for shaker cables but this will depend on the amp.