DIY Buttkicker

[gecko]

A while back I heard about something called buttkicker that translates game sounds into vibrations in your seat. It's used in a few commercial level flight simulator boxes, but it was pretty spendy. A few days ago I ran across an interesting device called the Aura Interactor. It's a cheap plastic backpack with an amp and a speaker that pummels your back with vibrations from the sounds of whatever system you plug it into. It came out in the 90s and apparently flopped because it made people sick from blasting their abdomens with 90s quality video game sounds (imagine that). But I figured I could make use of it, and at less than $10 the price was right for an experiment. I've since found you can get one new for about $15 on ebay.

I had no use for the backpack part, so I took it apart to get at the speaker. Disassembly took about 2 minutes with a phillips screwdriver and a small socket for the four nuts. With the backpack split open, the speaker and wiring lifts right out - no need to disconnect or splice wires as all. I drilled a shallow hole in the bottom of my wooden chair to allow clearance for the speaker's central nut, and screwed the speaker to the bottom of the chair with four wood screws through the rubber grommits already on the speaker. I got out an old 3.5mm headphone splitter and plugged it into the speaker port on my PC, and plugged my speakers into one side and the interactor into the other. Plugged in the amp, turned it on, and fired up CFS3. At a power setting of about 4 (it goes up to 10) I get some nice engine vibrations through my chair and can feel a kick from the larger guns as well. The unit is fairly quiet if it's mounted securely to the chair and not turned up too high, and I don't notice any sound from it with my speakers playing at a normal volume. It took about an hour from when I first opened the box until I was up and running.

Still getting used to it, but I think I like it. Doesn't feel exactly like when I'm flying real aircraft, but it isn't bad at all, and it gives you little more sense of immediacy as you fly. The only drawback was my wife spent the evening in bemused wonderment at what a dork she married, but I think I'll survive.

[sixstrings5859]

A neat idea. Must give it a try. Cheap too !! My wife has already figured out what a "plane" nut i am so no surprises there! Thanks for the heads -up.

[mongoose]

So I am wondering which model you got on eBay for $15?

EDIT OK my son pointed me in the right direction with "haven't you read the post?" Must look for the Aura Interactor. Duh!