[WIP] the new a** kicker...(attention 2MB thread with pics)

[sharky]

EDIT 08.21.07:




added a clip... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEB5QYi7tbk

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Hi Guys!

I am building my new motion simulator. it is a improvement of the first one!
For this i am using a ACTIVE subwoofer (active means that it has its own amplifier inside) wich was taken from an old surround system. dvd player + surround system for only 99 euro. so it is a really cheap part. but it works great for me because ite speaker itsef has a very low movement (tthat means that i don't have to remove the membran) and it has its own amplifier! the speaker is a 120W speaker!

problems: the amplifier turned on when i turned on the dvd player so i have to figure out how to turn it on with a switch. and it used a 9 pin connector to send all the surround signals to the amplifier.. i have to figure out wich one is the signal wire for the subwoofer. hopefully it has the LPF inside (lowpass filter) because if the LPF was inside the dvd player i have a problem.. there is no vulume regulation! i have to invento something.. maybe a potty on the audio in wire.. dunno.. i will try.

so the first pictures:

this is the baby i destroyed for this.


this is the backside of it in wich is the amplifier. on the right you can see the 9-pin connector.


here is the inside of the amplifier. in some way i have to figure out how to solve the problems mentioned above


this is the backside of the amplifier. i am going to screw it onto the side of the housing after i ahve unmounted the whole thing


this is the speaker. the membran is higher than the speaker mounting so i decided to cutt out of the housing the hole and use that for the mouting on the chair.


the speaker from the side... (nice magnet.. )


the speaker from behind.. 120W...


on the bottom of the case there where those little soft parts wich i unscrewed and i am going to use them on the side of the case on wich i mount the amplifier.


this is the side pannel i unmunted for the mounting of the amplifier and the hole i have cutted out for the speaker. same for the next pic.





i am going to update this post soon.. come back and check it out! bye

sharky


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UPDATE 08.18.07 1.36 PM (my time.. )

after searching around for 2 hours i solved some problems...
1) wich is the sub signal.. it was simply. it is printed on the circuit..
2) how to switch it on... i discovered that from the cable comes a +10 V signal witch triggers a relasi on a whole different circuit. so it took me a while to find that it worked that way. if you look at the picture below you see the connector where the cable with the +10 comes and just below the relais witch triggers the 230 V from the wall. i simply bridged the relais (see second picture.) now i really hope that the +10 is used ONLY for that because else i have a problem..




thread will be updated soon.. bye
sharky


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UPDATE 08.18.07 2.56 PM (my time.. )

ok guys some news here...


i screwed the before mentioned parts into the side of the case, wich now is the groundplate of my amply


then i screwed the ampl onto the ground plate


after that i connected the 8 pin wire and cut off the other end. with a tester i figured out that the brown was the ground and the blue is the SUBWOOFER + wire. so i unisolated them and cut awa the others.


then i soldered a potty to the + wire and a jack to the potty and the - wire.
this step is not a clean work because i have to test several pottys. as soon as i find a suetable i make it better.


i removed the led-light from the original casing and put it on the top of my amply in order to see when it is on.

for today the news are finished.. i jus make som etests to see if everything works and tomorrow i will post the final part and a video showing the result.

bye

sharky

[sharky]

i haave tested with a 50 K potty but it was way not enough so i added a second one but it sitll isn't enough.. i think i need around 500 k or more..i think that i will go for a 1 m...

[sharky]

ok now i figured out what i need... i need a 220 Kohm resistor with a 2 megaohm potty right after that.. so i can change the resistance from 220 ohm up to 2200 ohm..

bye
sharky

[sharky]

ok guys the rig is finished! Thanks to likay for his help on the electronic part! finally i used a 180 k ohm resistor and a 10 kohm potty connected i a different way. here are the last pics and as soon as i figure out how tovisually show how much the chair kicks and vibrates ill post a video. i LOVE farcry and flatout2. when you shoot it kicks hard, when you drive ti is smooth.. simply amazing! in flatout when you drive you feel the motor and when you hit somebody it kicks REALLLLLY hard. i attached a 175 g wheight this time made of lead and its simply amazing. combine this with 3D and immagine what you have... (as long as oyu immagine i play.. )

the pics:


this is my wheigt. obviously in DIY stile selfmade..


at the bottom i took off the color and made some punctures for the glue. i used a "liquid metal" 2 component glue.


this is the mounting under the chair. (IT MUST BE VERTICAL! else the wheight will damage the coil and it could blow up...)


Below you see my room. two pics after a whole day of work.





----------------------------- THE RESULT --------------------------


this is the volume controller with the potty wich i made with the help of likay (thanks). i usually cover every electronic circuit i make with hot glue. dunno why but i like it.. it covers up the mess i make and looks more professional.


this is the amply witht he cable going to the computer


the kicker mounted unter the chair.


the golden part you see inside is the cup with the lead in it. as you can see i finally removed the membran because the air could not exit and it had no reason for staying there... but this time i did not remove the second lower one.



this is all.. as soon as possible i am going to post the video...
bye

sharky

[Freke1]

Nice work. It's a good idea to add some realism I think.

[sharky]

my personal thought is this: if normal gaming is 5% of realism and real life is 100% of realism than the following thigs add the following ammount of realism:

stereo3d 30%
vibrating chair 30%
speed simulating fan 15% (only on coasters or similar games)


for me this thing really makes the different as much as the stereo 3d thing.. else i wouldnt have build the second one..

bye

sharky

[Jahun]

I got a commercial variant of this thing, but great DIY post!
Not really a reason to buy them commercially I think, besides my laziness

I actually got 2 they are both mounted under my sofa. It's really a cool thing, but they need sort of a good amount of tweaking, sometimes per movie/game. You don't want a non stop rumble on any sound or too silent.

Ow btw Sharky I have it connected to my not amplified subwoofer connection on the 5.1 receiver. It then goes to its own amplifier. That way I didn't need a low pass filter and it only reacts on the Lfe channel (so a man with a low voice doesn't rumble your butt )

edit: haha *that* does look like the room of a serious DIY'er

[sharky]

i AM a serious DIY guy...

i tried it with various games.. the only thing is the background music wich rumbles every time. i usually switch it off during game play. else it works very good because it acts acording to the volume, and so if a voice is far away nothing happens...

i think this is my best DIY rig of my life. i mean the one with the best time/functionality result. it is nearly always on.. tonight i am going to post a video witha cup of water to show what happens...

bye

sharky

[sharky]

as promised here is the video of the rig in function...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEB5QYi7tbk

i expect you to rate it with 5 stars..

bye

[sharky]

as i wrote, i had to remove the membran but that caused me a big problem:

the coil is not stabilized anymore. that means that if i play to much the ric can catch fire under me.. now i have to stabilize it someway but don't know how.. anymody an idea? i was thinking of a big soft spring between the wheight and the chair... let me know what you think and if you have some ideas for places where to find that..

also it would be great if you have an idea for something to place there instead of the box. i tried with a water pump wich has a peace of steel inside wich accelerates to the top when it gets current, but it was to slow and did not have enough force.. let me know..

bye thank you...

[thud]

Wow, cool stuff sharky!

> my personal thought is this: if normal gaming is 5% of realism and real
> life is 100% of realism than the following thigs add the following
> ammount of realism:
>
> stereo3d 30%
> vibrating chair 30%
> speed simulating fan 15% (only on coasters or similar games)

stereo headset with sub-woofer (eDimensional) 5%
game controller with Force Feedback (XBox 360 is the best) 5%

--- My $.02 obviously

[sharky]

heheh what is that force feedback exactly? does it move? (i man for the headset...) well then we should reach 100% really quickly.. other suggestions for adding rality?

[Jahun]

You can always try the Buttkicker way, not moving a cone but a piston with a coil...

check:

http://www.thebuttkicker.com/

afaik the heaviest kicker available..

[sharky]

hi! thank you for the hint.. the problem with this is that it uses a spinning motor like the cellphone. (rage demon has one and told me how it works) and with that you don't get the correctfrequency.. it vibrates, but if oyu have the correct audio frequency too then the vibration is the correct according to real life.. i was thinking of a little arm with a wheight at the end of it and ancored at the other end, and in the middle a coil with the magnet... need to test it...

[thud]

> heheh what is that force feedback exactly? does it move?

Sort of.

A good sub-woofer has big honking magnets in it, so you can get lots of
movement there ... to give you an idea, the earpieces are huge, maybe
four times as big as a cheap headset (it also comes with a pretty hairy
disclaimer about hearing loss too) and can be a little uncomfortable
until you get used to them (they pretty much need to rest on a solid
bit of bone for you to get the full effect).

A good stereo headset is great, you can tell where the bad guys are.

The real plus for the force feedback is when you're in anything that has
an engine. Then it really adds to things. For instance, in the Bioshock
cutscene when the big daddy comes stomping up, that's better with a
sub-woofer. But a sub-woofer is probably only really worth the money
for engine rumble.

I have the original headset, if I was buying now I'd get the later
version, which was designed by a fellow modder (to yourself - actually
I found out about it because I was looking at his really cool XBox 360
gamepad mods) and looks uber-cool.

--- My $.02 again

[sharky]

so actually it is a bigger "woofer" inside the hadset witch also gets oyu some vibrations?

[Likay]

Now were headbangin'!!!

[Jahun]

hi! thank you for the hint.. the problem with this is that it uses a spinning motor like the cellphone. (rage demon has one and told me how it works) and with that you don't get the correctfrequency.. it vibrates, but if oyu have the correct audio frequency too then the vibration is the correct according to real life.. i was thinking of a little arm with a wheight at the end of it and ancored at the other end, and in the middle a coil with the magnet... need to test it...

Hmm I don't think so.. all I read about the buttkicker, is more or less exactly what you say that you want to try. A arm (piston) with a weight at the end and acnhored on other side. With a magnet around it. Afaik, that's precisely what the Buttkicker is.

Besides that, it is being advertised as being really nicely linear, and used in the music scene... I don't see how a spinning motor would work for this..it kicks in the direction it is suspended.. it's not a rumbler or anything.

But if it is, please enlighten me I have a voice coil transducer here, and if the buttkicker is not "musical" I feel better about mine

[sharky]

oh i am not informed about it.. i even did not read anything about it.. i just told what a owner of this rig told me.. but i am going to try it... i will keep thsi updated... maybe this weekend i start to work on it..does somebody have any ideas on how it could be done?


bye

igor

[sharky]

i got some positive results.. by simply inverting the speaker cables the power of the vibration is much higher and the coil does not touch the magnet anymore.. this is because if oyu change the polarity then the speaker instad of pushing the wheight outside, it tryes to push it inwards.. that keeps everything compact and centered...