What is the best Buttkicker for my Sim?

Hi Guys,

Im interested in buying a Buttkicker Gamer 2 but fear that it may not be powerful enough. I see that some of you run multiple mini's and gamers and even the LFE model for more impact.

What would you recommend? Im in Australia so shipping is the biggest killer but Im open to all suggestions.

Thanks, Murray

Hi Murray,
in my opinion it depends on the mounting position and what effects you like to run.
Personaly i did it the cheap way.
I bought used 2 pcs aura interactor shaker ( with housing) and 2 aura interactor amps.
The new amps for 6€ each .
Ok they come without manual and they are not easy to setup.
But when you once manged to find a good adjustment they are realy good.
I run them with only 1/2 the power , for me that´s more than enough.
I mounted one under my Seat and one at the backrest. Screwed directly to the Polyster seat.
I only run curb effcts and some Rpm.
With two shaker you can divide the effects . One with your onboard soundcard the second with X-sim ( if you use 2 PC).
I have uploaded some pics in the Gallery!

I don´t suggest to mounted them too much away from your seat. You loose alot of effects and need a really strong amp.

Regards
Kai

I also use the Aura Interactor amplifier with two noname 50w bodyshaker. Works really good and is a very cheap alternative. I dont really know how intense the feeling of the Buttkicker is, but the bodyshaker do their work. My gf sure enjoys watching action movies since i installed them xD

The Aura amp should costs about 10 dollars @ebay. A 50w bodyshaker around 30 dollars.
If you have an old amp you can use it instead of the interactor amp (i use one to power the shakers mounted under my bed), but i recommend to use one with the possibility to adjust the bass and treble.

I mounted the shakers like murray under the seat and one on the backrest.

I originally started with the buttkicker gamers but did not find them strong enough to reproduce the effects that I wanted. The Buttkicker amplifier is not very good and the smaller buttkickers would go into thermal shutdown quite easily when driven with a better amplifier at a low frequency.

I now use 2 full sized Buttkicker LFE's and they are more than enough for any situation. This is a more expensive option and they also require a lot of power (500 watts each) but you have more flexibility with mounting location because of their strength. I have one mounted under my seat and the other in front of my pedals.

....Mike

Hi Can you still get the aura interactor amplifier, do you have a contact / supplier i could ask for info on this, i cheated with my test setup and connected my Butt Kickers to the SUb Woffer lead on my old PC Sound System and it seemed to work But Quite like the idea of these units if they are that cheap still

Hi
Aura Amp for 3,50€ !
but without power supply.
http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/NjA3OTYzOT ... ACTOR.html

On ebay you can get used one with power supply for 10€
Regards
Kai

Thanks for the replies guys,

It would seem that bigger is better and Im glad I didnt lay my money on the Gamer 2, the price was ok but looks like it may lack some much needed performance when used in conjunction with a motion seat.

I have made a purchase on a Buttkicker Wireless kit with the newer Advance unit, it looks to have more than double the output of the Gamer 2 and I could use it for home theatre use later on if need be. From what I understand I can run a second one in series if I find it doesnt have the balls Im looking for.

Hopefully this will satisfy my needs. I like the idea of these cheaper options too which may come to play if I need more power. Getting the Buttkicker sent to Australia is proving to be a complete pain the ass, with no distributor here and nobody willing to send to us either....looks like I may have something sorted out now though.

Murray

hi,
i have a ibeam buttkicker http://www.ibeam.de/deutsch/startdeutsch.htm
is a very good kicker.hi make the same power with 200 watt were the big lfe
buttkicker with over 500 watt.

Thank Kai just placed my order so hope to have these units to play with soon are there any special need when connectingmy butkickers ? Wiring Diagram , pictures Maybe

Hi
wiring is easy. You need a 3,5mm Stereo Headphone plug for the input. On your soundcard it should be the same.
For the Buttkicker output there is a cinch plug.
For the 11,5V input you need a 4 pin Din Plug. Hmmm its very old stuff. Perhaps solder the wires on the PCB!?
The Din Plug is very loose and fells off often. I thought about direct soldering too.

For the adjustment you have 2 switches A/B and Game/ Music. Choose B and Game
Then you have 2 Potis Filter and Power I have both in the middle arund 3-4.
This depends on your Buttkicker
Choose the right volumes In Game! For curb effects set the curb volume at 100%
It is very important to fine tune the effects with your soundcard!

First i didn´t spend any attention to the last 2 Points and wondered how low the bassshker effects were.

regards
kai

i have this: http://www.shakercentre.co.uk/aspbite/p ... _miniquake

Hi Hai omce again big thanks for the info ,, i have not got a PSu for these units as yet vbut will get something sorted as soon as i find out the spec -- did i read somewhere tha these are dual rail Powered ubits i.e + / - X Volts required .. will search on the net but wanted to ask here as you guys have already done some work with these units Cheers ( cant wait to play with these when they get here ) will keep u posted for any updates

Any news on the power supply for the Aura Interactor amps ?
I just received my 2 amps from Pollin.de (3.5€/pcs but 2 weeks for delivery ) but can't find any info on powering them without the original power supply...
[edit] Just reviewed a PC power supply specs, and the ATX power connector has ground (black), +12v (yellow) and -12v (orange) cables... I'll keep looking into that solution.

[edit2] Also here is the diagram of the Aura Interactor amp :

I found another solution: hack into my Logitech Z-640 5.1 subwoofer unit to connect the bass shaker in place of the subwoofer speaker. It's half way done, just a few solders to make and I'll test it. Will update once it's been tested.

In the meantime, I found a couple of cheap amps on ebay: the first is 2.1 so it has a 50W subwoofer connexion, the second is 175W with a low/high pass filter. My Bass Shakers are 100W and fully enclosed (very heavy) so that should do it, but I'd love to be able to test them with the Aura amps too...

Hi
I had a look on my aura power supply.
The Specs are 2x11,5 V~ 1250mAh

I don´t know if this is useful for you.
regards
kai

I got the butt kicker gamer £149.99 from uk. This is more than good enough for racing games.

CXC used butt kicker. Very great product.

Thanks, but it's a special dual rail power supply that is very difficult to find. The only place I found them is in Australia and thus the price is not worth it due to shipping. Anyways, even without the shipping, it would cost me 50$ for 2 small PSU, which is inconsistent with my DIY philosophy.

In the meantime, my Buttkicker Gamer 2 order has been cancelled, they never arrived from the USA to RennSimulator.de.

I hacked a bass shaker into the Logitech Z640 subwoofer unit, but wasn't happy with the power. Would have been nice to get this to work successfully as it was a nice integrated solution : 5 small speakers and the bass shaker as the sub, all the filtering is made by the Z640 amplifier... Too easy to be true.

All the ebay cheap amps arrived, the sound is ok but doesn't feel powerfull enough. I gave it a try with X-Sim Basshaker plugin on my secondary DAC on DiRT2 with Chris (sim-parts) profile that has some bass shaker maths, but I hated the feeling !
The thing was heavily vibrating at fast frequencies and only disturbed me.
I guess that some research about maths and soundwaves will help to build a good profile, but maybe it's only a matter of amplification, so I ordered a T.AMP S150 at Thomann, like Chris, that will be perfect for my 2 bass shakers (100W @ 4 Ohm) that are bolted directly on the seat (bottom and back). The amp should be there tomorrow if UPS didn't crash in the heavy snow

But that will only work with X-Sim Bass Shaker plugin, and I'd like to be able to use the shakers like a Buttkicker on any sound source, so I'm back to my Aura Interactor amps hacking. I'll use them simply as filters, on low volume, between the DAC and the T.Amp, because they surely won't have enough amplifying power for the 100W bass shakers.
As I can't find a readily available original Aura power supply, I'll build it myself with the schema I posted above, it should be quite easy and apart from the 1N5404 (already ordered on ebay), I have the rest of the components in my stock.

The perfect solution would be to find someone with good electronic skills (mine are newbie level at best) that could hack into the Aura PCB to remove the power amplification stage and thus allow the use of a standard 12v power supply... I'm sure it shouldn't be difficult for a skilled engineer or electronician. I'll check my IRL address book as I don't know of a community that could help me with that (Hello guys, can someone please do this for me please ? I'll be back to check what you came up with in a week 8) .)

I'll update my progress on this thread once I got something significant working.

Cheers,
Silly(c)One.

Yay, the S-150 arrived in 24h from Germany. I love to shop in your country, guys : the best engineering, great prices for the quality, and the shipping is very fast as we are neighbors

It's a heavy piece of equipment, the toroidal tranie is simply huge... Compared to the cheap Chinese amps at less than 10€, I feel confident that my butt will be kicked 8)

In summary to my purchase of the Buttkicker Wireless Kit.....

Ive gotta say it when its coupled with the right car the effects are awesome. The rumble of the Ford V8 is a definate improvement to my sim and it really aids in properly locating apexes etc. Road textures are now apparent and I can feel when the tires lock under hard braking. With the F1 however it tends to be unnoticeable at idle but tops out making this harsh metalic sound when the rev limit is hit? I guess this is where the bass extension is at its greatest on this particular car.

With the volume at a realistic level I find it tops/bottoms out resulting in unwanted noise coming from the Transducer. This happens long before it or the amp over heats which I am yet to experience.

My only negative is that its not quite powerful enough with some of the cars. I wish I had bought the BKA-1000 and one or two of the LFE Tranducers so I could experience the full potential of the device with out any distortion/bottoming out etc. Otherwise its a worthy improvement to my gaming experience.

is there buttkicker good? http://www.thebuttkicker.com/gaming/index.htm

thanks

good sharing