READY TO RUMBLE – How to Install and Setup Budget BASS SHAKERS

Today we’re adding a simple and effective set of bass shakers to a sim rig. These tactile transducers let you feel those ultra-low frequencies, so you can experience feedback like ABS and gear shifts to road bumps, right in your seat and under your feet.

Parts

For this project we need a few items – 2x Dayton Audio BST-2 Tactile Bass Shakers, 1x compact Nobsound USB Amplifier that has a built in sound card, some extra speaker wire (either 14 or 16 gauge) to extend the wire connections if needed, and various bits of mounting hardware like bolts, mounts, or brackets depending on how we set everything up.

Location

For the setup, the shakers can be positioned on the left and right side, front and back, or even in all four corners. For our project, we’ll be placing one shaker at the front and one at the rear of the sim rig.

Front Mounting

Starting off with the front mounting, on the underside of the pedals there are 4 outer holes that are used to bolt the pedals onto the rig and there’s an additional sets of threaded holes which is an ideal location to attach a board with the bass shaker.   

From these inner mounting points some measurements are taken and a MDF board is cut out to size. In the board some holes are drilled for the bass shaker and for the pedal mounting points.

If you want the board can be painted black or covered to match the rig, next the bass shaker is installed with 4 bolts to the MDF board and the complete board is attach onto the bottom of the pedals. This whole pedal unit with the bass shaker installed is ready to go and bolted back onto the Sim rig. 

Under the pedals I’m using some rubber shock bushing to help isolate the bass shaker effects to the pedal rather than traveling through the whole rig.  These are installed on all 4 corners of the pedals and along with the bushing we need some rubber washers to eliminate metal on metal contact points.    

Seat Mounting

Taking a look at the mounting rear shaker some good locations would be at back, the side or even underneath seat. But for all of these direct mounting points we will need to drill holes into the seat. So to keep the setup somewhat simple and reversible, were using a similar approach as the front mount, and using a MDF board to install the shaker and then mount this to the underside or the seat rails.

With it mounted to the rails we may want to add some rubber spacer between the bottom of the rails and the contact points to the main frame. This will help keep the bass effects going through the seat rather than the main frame.

Wiring and Installation

Ok, moving onto the wiring, for the front bass shaker we installed to the pedals this is connected to the red and black terminals on the left side of the amp. The second rear bass shaker under the seat is connect to the right-hand side of the amplifiers red and black terminals. At the bottom of the amplifier the USB cable is plugged in and connected to a PC, and at the top the power supply is connected. Now as the rear bass shaker is further away than the front, the wiring is extended with some of the extra speaker wire.

Software

To control and send the games data to the bass shakers were using the free and powerful Sim hub software. So with Simhub downloaded and installed lets setup up the software. On the left hand side select Shake-it Bass Shaker.

Now the first thing to do is click on Sound Output and find the USB sound card amp we plugged into the PC this is listed as Speakers (USB2.0 Device). Turn this on then expand the tab. We’re using a Front/Rear Setup so we will select this. Now the setup can be further customized in the custom channel map which allows us to individually map effects for either the front or rear bass shaker. For example as we have a 2 channel amp with 2 bass shakers, we may only want the ABS to be sent to the front shaker so we turn this on for channel one the front shaker, and off for channel 2 the rear shaker. This makes it’s fairly simple process to fine tune and customize the setup.

But for now we’ll leave it on front and rear setting and have a look at the available effects in the effects profile.

For the effects we have a list that we can select from  ABS, engine vibrations, gearshifts, road impacts, speed, and wheel slip to name a few. These can be toggled on or off as desired, and within each effect it has basic customization, like the effect frequency, the volume, and duration. So it can be easily tune and each effect can be quickly tested to see what works best.

Now for the effects its best to only use a few and tune these to complement the feedback of the wheel base, otherwise using too many effects may be more of a distraction than help with the racing.  I ended up only using 3 effects, ABS sent to the front shaker so it can be felt at the pedals, a pulse for the gear shift and an effect for the road impacts sent to both shakers.

Over all it’s a fun and budget-friendly project to give your Sim Rig some cool tactile effects! And a great way add to the racing experience without breaking the bank.

Product Links

Watch the detailed build video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSE8KQI6ihM

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