Tactile Immersion - General Discussion - Hardware & Software

[RCHeliguy]

Heh I’m aware and am a fan of your build thread, but I don’t have access to the machine-filed plate mounts you fashioned to make that possible.

You don't have access, because you need to build them yourself.

The BK can be attached to profile bolted to your seat brackets with profile corner brackets. You could buy a steel LFE mount that bolts to that.

Not being pushy, but just saying there are off the self parts available for that.

 

[Alexi Törnqvist]

I just got my things setup. Pretty darn cool - those things can really rattle your bones. However, I got a bit of an issue. There's this high-ish pitched noise coming from the shakers.

It's just constant tone that sounds kind of like a ground loop. Everything's connected to the same outlet though.

Tried line out from both motherboards sound card and USB DAC, but it's the same result in both cases. The sound does go away when I unplug the cable though.

Must be either faulty amp or cable picking up some noise, right?

Ps. Dang, seems to be the PSU. Moved the cable aside a little bit and it changed the pitch of the noise. Definitely something funky going on there.

 

[anton_Chez]

Same thing happened with my TST 239. Had some feedback if the gain was up high enough on the amp. I didn't get it with the BK units, probably because their effective hz range would not allow the signal to come through. I ran a speaker wire from my PC case to the amp via a couple of chassis screws and the noise is like 80-90% better at a high gain. At a normal gain, it's pretty much gone.

When you say PSU, do you mean the PC PSU? I recently changed mine from a 650W to an 850W and I wonder if that might have been the cause of mine as well? It's definitely coming from the PC. When I connect the unit to my phone output, there is no noise.

 

[Alexi Törnqvist]

Same thing happened with my TST 239. Had some feedback if the gain was up high enough on the amp. I didn't get it with the BK units, probably because their effective hz range would not allow the signal to come through. I ran a speaker wire from my PC case to the amp via a couple of chassis screws and the noise is like 80-90% better at a high gain. At a normal gain, it's pretty much gone.

When you say PSU, do you mean the PC PSU? I recently changed mine from a 650W to an 850W and I wonder if that might have been the cause of mine as well? It's definitely coming from the PC. When I connect the unit to my phone output, there is no noise.

I tried running speaker wire fro the PC chassis to amp (basically just put the wire around a chassis screw and touched the amp chassis with the other end). Didn't make any difference. I suppose this indicates that it's not a grounding issue?

What I mean is I moved the cable on the amps PSU. I can wiggle the connector a little bit and it changes the pitch of the sound.
I just tested with output from a phone and the noise was gone. It's strange that this amp/cable/whatever should pick up interference when nothing else does. I mean, I have speakers (granted, they are balanced) connected to the same DAC I tested with. Usually I run a headphone amp through the same line. I also have a pair of wireless headphones run through a USB dongle, and a Quest 2 headset through USB-C. I've tested headphones through the motherboards output too.
All of those things work fine, yet this amp/cable/whatever somehow picks up some kind of noise/interference. Weird.

By the way, unrelated question: Is it bad for the shakers to run too high frequencies? I seem to recall that it's inadvisable. When I play around with the effects in Iracing there's a "game audio" slider, which basically adds some flavor through the game audio - like some engine vibrations. The cut off is at 200Hz so I can clearly hear the engine sound.

 

[blekenbleu]

Is it bad for the shakers to run too high

By definition, "too high" implies not good.
Peeling the onion, bass shakers useful response is negligible above some frequency.
Energy above that frequency gets converted to waste heat, which is never good and can damage.

 

[anton_Chez]

I wouldn't think 200hz is going to damage any bass shaker or transducer unit. Even if you can't really feel up that high on a given unit.

 

[Alexi Törnqvist]

By definition, "too high" implies not good.
Peeling the onion, bass shakers useful response is negligible above some frequency.
Energy above that frequency gets converted to waste heat, which is never good and can damage.

Yeah, I phrased that poorly. So the potential issue here is overheating and thereby damaging the shakers?
I've touched the shakers after some 30-40 minute stints, running at what I feel is a rather high volume, and they're not even a little bit warm.

Are there any other indicators to tell if you're driving them too hard? With regular speakers you can hear distortion, but I doubt I'd notice that with shakers.

I wouldn't think 200hz is going to damage any bass shaker or transducer unit. Even if you can't really feel up that high on a given unit.

I've played around a little bit with low pass filters (Equalizer APO/Peace) and it seems a bit tricksy to get a good transition between what I feel and what I hear. Engine RPM for example is great when I feel it, but the top end feels a bit off - whether I hear it from my shakers, headphones or both.

I'm also looking into software for other sims and perhaps complementing the Iracing LFE effects. Is Simhub the best free alternative out there, and are there unique selling points for paid software like Simvibe? Seems to me they can do pretty much the same thing.

 

[Atak_Kat]

When I play around with the effects in Iracing there's a "game audio" slider, which basically adds some flavor through the game audio - like some engine vibrations.

I do this as well sometimes, but I use VoiceMeeter to do it. I run tactile through SimHub. Then in parallel I can feed in some game audio if I want, just for some other fun. The game I do this most with is Horizon 5. Lots of lower range audio there to have some fun with.

Not sure what your other issues could be. Must be frustrating. Have you just tried to move the amp to a different spot? is the amp itself somehow getting interference from another device??
I run lots of wires close/around various power supplies etc. I've often been nervous that some sort of interference may show up, but so far I've been lucky not to find any.

 

[Atak_Kat]

Is Simhub the best free alternative out there

Cannot say if it's the best. But I can say that I am so impressed with this sofware I have purchased/donated many times over. It's extremely powerful if you have the willingness to do a bit of tinkering every now and then. The great thing is that it is CONSTANTLY under improvement and development. It takes some time, but it is constantly moving forward.

Tactile support is only 1 piece of what SimHub can do. There is SOOOOO much more to do with it, if you enjoy DIY projects.

 

[RKH916]

I made a thread about this but it got deleted?

I was wondering if anybody could give me some insight into Sim-3D seat rumble kit vs. Buttkicker 2? I already have a Buttkicker 2 installed on my NLR F-GT cockpit, but was wondering if attached the Sim-3D rumble kit (2 motors) to the back of the seat might be a better option? Or, would it increase immersion by running it with the Buttkicker?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

I'm also looking at the Sim-3D pedal kit to install on BJ Sim 200kg loadcell pedals. Would all of this together be too much tactile feedback?

 

[miwashi]

The Dayton DAEX32 EP-4 40ws are back in stock at parts express, but not the DAEX32QMB-4s. Is there any consensus on which ones are better for this purpose?

 

[Danstorm801]

Looking for SimHub channel / effect mapping help…. I tried searching this thread and can’t find an answer to what I’m looking for…. 2 Dayton Pucks, 2 BST-1s. Planning to mount 1 puck under the pedal plate, 1 puck to back of seat, BST-1s under the seat (with the seat mount isolated from the frame).

So here’s the question: What effects should be mapped to which shakers? For example - should I map the gear shift effect only to the seat and ABS to the front puck, etc.

There are some setups and effects settings on YouTube, but most are using a 4 corners or front / rear only setup.

Thanks.

 

[anton_Chez]

Few things to consider. Firstly, where is the location of the unit that you'd like to feel the effect from? Front suspensions obviously would want to be at the front in a multi channel suspension setup. The other thing is what are the capabilities of the units. If you're using low hz for gear shift, choose the unit that has not only the location you desire but also the capability to produce the hz used in the effect.

 

[DH73]

Hello all!

Just ordered a NX1000D and waiting it to be delivered.

Could I wire one TST 239 + ButtKicker BK4-4 on each channel of this amp? My plan is to have this on a front/back setup.

Or mixing different specs of shakers of the same amp channel a bad idea? And I should really order another of these amps. ?

Cheers!

 

[Peter Winkler]

Hello all!

Just ordered a NX1000D and waiting it to be delivered.

Could I wire one TST 239 + ButtKicker BK4-4 on each channel of this amp? My plan is to have this on a front/back setup.

Or mixing different specs of shakers of the same amp channel a bad idea? And I should really order another of these amps. ?

Cheers!

works well - the behringer has a great dsp interface to set accordingly - in addition you have the front vol to adjust without the dsp interface

 

[DH73]

works well - the behringer has a great dsp interface to set accordingly - in addition you have the front vol to adjust without the dsp interface

works well - the behringer has a great dsp interface to set accordingly - in addition you have the front vol to adjust without the dsp interface

Thanks for the reply Peter!

Is there a place where I can learn more about how to configure this setup accordingly? I would like to find some guidance on how to do the wiring. And also I'm not sure what I need to change on the DSP interface. For me this is more confusing than having two amps, so wanted to understand how it really works and if it is a good idea.

I intend to bolt both shakers on the back config (back and under fiberglass seat) and front on sprint pedal plate.

Appreciate any pointers, or comments if this setup makes sense?

Cheers!

 

[anton_Chez]

The NX series of amps have an internal switch for impedance of different units. So if you have both a 2ohm and a 4ohm unit connected, one to each channel like I do on the NX1000D, the amp recognises this and assigns the correct signal for each unit. The only thing you need to do in the software or the amp itself is limit the dB per channel so that you don't get too much power going to a unit by accident. This has limited functionality in itself, as a fellow member has experienced a blown TST unit even though the amp was set to the correct power limit. So just be careful with the input gain knobs on the front, sometimes you can kick them by accident if your amps are on the floor like some of us.

The amps work extremely well in this regard and it is even more useful should you have a 6000 model which has 4 channels. You could effectively have a 2 ohm, 4 ohm and 8 ohm units all connected at once and there is no issue at all with it. The software has a drop down box that allows you to select the impedance of the units connected and this gives shows you the amount of power going to each unit. You don't need to select it per se, it just gives an indication of the amount of power each unit will get. 4 ohms will give less watts than 2 ohms, 8 ohms gives less watts than 4 ohms, etc. It's just a visual aid to allow you to set the gain correctly per channel.

 

[Alvaro de la Orden]

Here is the insert for the back piece. Same idea as the side pieces. I cut a big piece of plastic (Polystyrene about 1.2mm thick) and mounted the exciters to the back of it. The plastic in the side pieces is thicker and more rigid, but for this I wanted the whole thing to be able to bend/flex more, so I used something thinner. The plastic goes into the covering, then the foam padding squished behind it.

One thing that might not be clear from the prior pics and these. The exciters I'm using are 'Visaton' (locally available) but they are fully open so I found that in this situation, when you have your body weight compresses the cushion, it can interfere with the movement and even block them. I solved it by putting a make-shift plastic ring around them. Material used = old small peanut butter plastic jars. Perfect diameter. The side cushions I used the jar, cutting a section to be fit around the exciter (you can see in the pictures from my other post). For this back piece, I used the lid (the blue piece in the pics), which is just the right height, and I cut out the centre so they can still freely move and don't bottom out.

Also a picture of the seat, in case it’s not really clear what I’m doing here. Those padded inserts are standard with the seat I have, so when put back together everything looks absolutely stock.

Haven’t tried it out yet, but maybe later today. I’ll have to swap the connections over from the side wing ones though. I only have the one Nobsound amp so I’ll need to order another one.View attachment 547294View attachment 547295

Great work, I can see you also fly.
Do you use simshaker for aviators??

 

[RCHeliguy]

Great work, I can see you also fly.
Do you use simshaker for aviators??

I'm getting ready to set that up myself and would be happy to hear any pointers on it. I've owned it for about 3 years and never set it up.

 

[Alvaro de la Orden]

Wotever's dual-axis DIY Belt Tensioner

PM me for the password or look for yourself on the Simhub Discord, it is open to everyone.

I was thinking about getting a G-Belt or PT Actuators unit, but I am very happy with the results i get with this one.

View attachment 545013
View attachment 545014
The box is not part of the how-to so i put together my own design, as are the 3D-printed belt rollers, which are taken from somewhere else.

If you put some love into the details like the electronics box and belt guiding, it is a pretty polished product and it is part of Simhub which was also appealing to me.

What's the budget for that? $500
I think I bought a couple of 35kgs rc servos but put the idea on hold