Built a New Rig with tactile feedback, in a dedicated room.

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hawkeyez

hawkeyez

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the-1st-hawkeyez
Built a new rig, super solid, doesn’t move. Seat was free, metal was $150, side table was $20, tv stand was $60. Nobsound amps and pucks were about $200 collectively? I can’t remember the price I got them all for about $20-$30 each. 3 amps, 6 pucks, still have to put a puck under the pedals, fasten pedals with bolts, paint rig.

Running SimHub. Effects are, Road Vibration, Road Bumps, Gear Shifts, Speed Curve, RPM
indicator and Wheel Lock. Custom settings. I had the strength up but it takes away from the wheel so I lowered the effects to where I feel it blends well. Amps are just over half volume, nothing in SimHub is running at 100%, most is 50% and lower, the gear shift is almost at 100%. Two pucks in the seat, two lower back, one upper mid back. There will be one under the pedal board soon.

Seat reclines and can move back and forth. Wheel angle can be adjusted via loosening two large bolts. Easy to grab onto and get in and out of the setup, hence the things sticking up on either side of the wheel, I hang my headphones on the one pillar. I’m going to raise my tv up and then raise the rig to make it even easier to get in and out of. My last one I had to roll in and out of haha

One downfall to getting the pucks almost within the seat is the seat was a comfort level of about 10/10. Could sit in it all day. Now the comfort level is about an 8/10. The seat is firmer because of the pucks. I peeled back the upholstery to get the pucks into the back of the seat. If I could get them in there without losing that super comfortable seat I would but the trade off is worth it and being a stiffer seat it will probably help me take some breaks once in awhile. Haha. Can still sit in it for a few hours no problem though.

*** Reason for posting, to share just because, and incase anybody else is building a rig, they can steal any ideas they might like, improve on anything, see what they might not want to do or ask me any questions they might have. If I have time I might measure it up and draw up rough plans but I’ve found the DIY rigs are very personal, built specifically for the person that will be doing the racing. Our torso’s, legs and arms are all different lengths so measurements probably aren’t much help to anyone anyway.
 

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jonoholland29
ah man that's sweet. I wish I could get some rumbles in the butt/pedals - bit beyond my knowledge and budget though
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Apparently I don’t have an ideal setup, lol, but I think it rocks.

The amps are Nobsound 50w I believe, they’re off Amazon.

The pucks/shakers are TT25 Dayton Audio, 8ohms, 25w?, I matched the ohms to the amps.

Each amp is stereo so you can run two pucks off one amp. You need a laptop to run SimHub, those amps plug into the laptop (they each have their own sound card).

Setting up SimHub was as easy as going into some settings in Windows (I had to follow a video as I’m not familiar with windows) change a couple numbers and reboot the laptop and the shakers started as soon as I entered a race.

As for setting up its personal taste IMO, try not to overlap frequencies too much. Start with one main effect, whatever it may be that you want your focus as. Set it how you want. Shut it off, move onto another effect. Keep doing that until you’ve got it how you want it. Then blend them, sometimes blending them you find some sort of cancel on another out so you tweak some more or sacrifice a couple effects.

I found things that always run like engine vibration and simulated road texture cancel out or reduce other effects so I got rid of simulated road texture. I kept engine vibration down at my feet and put rpm effect in my back. It’s cool, as you wind the car out the vibration moves from your feet to your back, I can almost tell when I should shift off the vibration in my back alone. I centered everything around gear shifts and built up around that. It does a pretty good job making it feel like you’re in a car. Blends with my wheel nicely.

Total cost was $300 Canadian. But I wouldn’t hesitate to tell somebody to grab one amp and two pucks (match up the ohms) and put one under your pedal board and one under your seat. That would be like $100 and you’re setup. Even just putting kerbs, gear shifts and rpm as your only settings you’re still ahead of most people.

Tip, I siliconed around the wires coming out of the pucks to reduce the chance of them breaking. Another tip, don’t be too excited to turn them way up. I don’t think that feels realistic. My amps are about 60% volume and I think only have one effect at 100% in SimHub. As for mounting, I used a hole saw, cut out some circles in like 1/4 thick MDF, luckily my seat has these wire mesh things I just slipped the boards between them and the cushions. Seemed to work out, I thought I was going to have to crank the amps but I can feel them at half volume easily enough. The only thing with doing that is, it took a little bit of the comfort level out of my seat. I could sit in it all day long with them out, now after about 3 hrs I just start thinking I should get up and walk around. So not too bad. I only race for about that amount of time anyway so it’s worth the comfort sacrifice for me. When you first sit down it’s not like it’s not comfortable, I think I just eliminated some of the seat cushion sag.

If you decide to look into it, feel free to ask me any questions.
 
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hawkeyez
Thanks, saw them under vintage car signs on Amazon. I think all of those were like $15?
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One of my relatives used to work at Champion way back in the day. So that brand will always hold a special place to me! I might even throw their decal on liveries I make/modify. :D

e2fa844a53d0a8c0edf12870d47fddf5_photo.webp
 
Talon16
One of my relatives used to work at Champion way back in the day. So that brand will always hold a special place to me! I might even throw their decal on liveries I make/modify. :D

e2fa844a53d0a8c0edf12870d47fddf5_photo.webp
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Cool pic, I always love seeing the glowing rotors in replays hahaha. And the flames shooting out the tailpipes. Looks like a close race!

Yeah I have a Polaris XLT Special, I was having difficulty getting it to run perfect, I read somebody had online said use champion with those sleds! It does have the plug number under the hood for champion, but they’d always cross reference to NGK at the store. I decided to specifically get Champion and it could be in my head or a bunch of other things I did to it but the thing runs like a top now!
 
hawkeyez
Apparently I don’t have an ideal setup, lol, but I think it rocks.

The amps are Nobsound 50w I believe, they’re off Amazon.

The pucks/shakers are TT25 Dayton Audio, 8ohms, 25w?, I matched the ohms to the amps.

Each amp is stereo so you can run two pucks off one amp. You need a laptop to run SimHub, those amps plug into the laptop (they each have their own sound card).

Setting up SimHub was as easy as going into some settings in Windows (I had to follow a video as I’m not familiar with windows) change a couple numbers and reboot the laptop and the shakers started as soon as I entered a race.

As for setting up its personal taste IMO, try not to overlap frequencies too much. Start with one main effect, whatever it may be that you want your focus as. Set it how you want. Shut it off, move onto another effect. Keep doing that until you’ve got it how you want it. Then blend them, sometimes blending them you find some sort of cancel on another out so you tweak some more or sacrifice a couple effects.

I found things that always run like engine vibration and simulated road texture cancel out or reduce other effects so I got rid of simulated road texture. I kept engine vibration down at my feet and put rpm effect in my back. It’s cool, as you wind the car out the vibration moves from your feet to your back, I can almost tell when I should shift off the vibration in my back alone. I centered everything around gear shifts and built up around that. It does a pretty good job making it feel like you’re in a car. Blends with my wheel nicely.

Total cost was $300 Canadian. But I wouldn’t hesitate to tell somebody to grab one amp and two pucks (match up the ohms) and put one under your pedal board and one under your seat. That would be like $100 and you’re setup. Even just putting kerbs, gear shifts and rpm as your only settings you’re still ahead of most people.

Tip, I siliconed around the wires coming out of the pucks to reduce the chance of them breaking. Another tip, don’t be too excited to turn them way up. I don’t think that feels realistic. My amps are about 60% volume and I think only have one effect at 100% in SimHub. As for mounting, I used a hole saw, cut out some circles in like 1/4 thick MDF, luckily my seat has these wire mesh things I just slipped the boards between them and the cushions. Seemed to work out, I thought I was going to have to crank the amps but I can feel them at half volume easily enough. The only thing with doing that is, it took a little bit of the comfort level out of my seat. I could sit in it all day long with them out, now after about 3 hrs I just start thinking I should get up and walk around. So not too bad. I only race for about that amount of time anyway so it’s worth the comfort sacrifice for me. When you first sit down it’s not like it’s not comfortable, I think I just eliminated some of the seat cushion sag.

If you decide to look into it, feel free to ask me any questions.
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I think my first step would be to get a windows PC! I couldn’t fina any specs for Simhub but one of those mini PCs running windows would work right?

I’ve only got a playseat challenge and have to put it away after playing as we have young kids. Did you need an amp?
 
jonoholland29
I think my first step would be to get a windows PC! I couldn’t fina any specs for Simhub but one of those mini PCs running windows would work right?

I’ve only got a playseat challenge and have to put it away after playing as we have young kids. Did you need an amp?
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I don’t know much for computer specs. My computer is from 2009 running windows 10, back then it was like $380 so couldn’t be that great? I think mine is a 2.0ghz celero processor, 3GB of ram if that helps.

The Nobsound is the amp for the pucks. That’s those little things with the knob on the top in the second picture beside the lamp.

Hmm the Playseat might make it a challenge to mount a puck on the seat? What wheel and pedals are you using?
 
hawkeyez
I don’t know much for computer specs. My computer is from 2009 running windows 10, back then it was like $380 so couldn’t be that great? I think mine is a 2.0ghz celero processor, 3GB of ram if that helps.

The Nobsound is the amp for the pucks. That’s those little things with the knob on the top in the second picture beside the lamp.

Hmm the Playseat might make it a challenge to mount a puck on the seat? What wheel and pedals are you using?
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I’m using a G29. I’ve seen these on a U.K. suppliers website
IMG_1493.jpeg
 
Looking at it, if I had that setup, I’d only be running a puck under the pedals and one on the seat anyway. If you’re using a G29/G923 I think you could maybe get creative and actually mount the puck to the bottom pedal plate. Not sure how much clearance you have under the pedals and the floor though. The puck is 25.4mm thick. They come with a circular plastic mount, but then it’s a bit thicker yet.

As for the seat, not sure. I’d either go under that thick strap under your legs or maybe it can tuck up inside the top piece so it’s in the middle of your back? Maybe some Velcro? Biggest concern is making sure when you fold it up the little wires coming out of the pucks can’t get stressed. As I said I siliconed mine. But with the Playseat, I’d be siliconing the wires before mounting, then mount them and get creative with keep the wirings in place when it folds up.

The other option would be leave the seat, and try and mount the puck to the bottom of the wheel. But I know you said it would be good to have it under the seat. That’s a tricky one, that seat kind of looks like a sling. So you might have trouble placing the puck without feeling it directly through the material against your butt or back.
 

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Help me with the electronics - they’re just speaker wires right? 5 ohm as they look quite thick I could maybe fashion some kinda of quarter inch jack so I can disconnect the wires when packing it away?
 
That’s all I used. Speaker wire. I soldered it all together though and made sure the wires don’t get stressed when I move the seat. Looks like you can maybe use banana plugs on that Reckhorn one. Which are essentially just plug in and out. I looked it up, says 4ohm, so I would think just find a 4ohm amp that matches up the wattage close.
 
hawkeyez
That’s all I used. Speaker wire. I soldered it all together though and made sure the wires don’t get stressed when I move the seat. Looks like you can maybe use banana plugs on that Reckhorn one. Which are essentially just plug in and out. I looked it up, says 4ohm, so I would think just find a 4ohm amp that matches up the wattage close.
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And it’s not using an audio output from the PS5 right? It’s just using the telemetry data from simhub? (which is connected to the PS5 over the network)
 
My issue was I kept finding 8ohm amps and 4ohm shakers. Finally saw 8ohm shakers come up for the 8ohm amps I had found so I went that way.
 
jonoholland29
And it’s not using an audio output from the PS5 right? It’s just using the telemetry data from simhub? (which is connected to the PS5 over the network)
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Coming from SimHub. I use the wireless pulse headset which cuts all audio going to my tv or stereo. Sometimes I run my stereo and not my headphones and really crank it up for fun. But the headset actually sounds quite good.

That’s right, I made sure I was plugged into the same router on both my laptop and PS5. Some guys do it over wifi but I was able to just plug them straight in. I had to open ports I think it’s called. That’s the part I just had to look up as I didn’t quite understand it. I made one mistake, when entering the two numbers separated by a comma, the first time I made the mistake of placing a comma and then space and then the next number I couldn’t get it to work, tried everything again and decided to not put a space after the comma between my two numbers I had to enter and voila it worked. Was always taught in school, comma, space, text lol
 
There is a thing called the HF8. It’s $300 Canadian. The only thing is, I don’t know how it hooks up to a PC. I don’t know if it’s a USB and each shaker shows up independently in SimHub or what. If it was as simple as plugging a USB into a laptop and choosing which shakers you want to do what, that might be the simplest way to go for the playseat challenge and possibly the cheapest?

As for folding it up, I’d ask the manufacturer about that, maybe it’s not intended to fold in half, you could just remove it when it’s time to pack it in.
 
hawkeyez
Coming from SimHub. I use the wireless pulse headset which cuts all audio going to my tv or stereo. Sometimes I run my stereo and not my headphones and really crank it up for fun. But the headset actually sounds quite good.

That’s right, I made sure I was plugged into the same router on both my laptop and PS5. Some guys do it over wifi but I was able to just plug them straight in. I had to open ports I think it’s called. That’s the part I just had to look up as I didn’t quite understand it. I made one mistake, when entering the two numbers separated by a comma, the first time I made the mistake of placing a comma and then space and then the next number I couldn’t get it to work, tried everything again and decided to not put a space after the comma between my two numbers I had to enter and voila it worked. Was always taught in school, comma, space, text lol
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Do you need an amp for each speaker or can I just set them up as left and right like stereo?

I've seen the HF8 but not heard of anyone using it with GT7
 
jonoholland29
Do you need an amp for each speaker or can I just set them up as left and right like stereo?

I've seen the HF8 but not heard of anyone using it with GT7
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Yeah I have limited knowledge on the HF8, might be worth researching.

How it works in SimHub is you select how you want them configured. So my upper mid back and my feet are off one amp. Then each effect but not all, you can choose 4 corners, front and rear, left and right, or mono. I have two stereo pairs, so my butt and my lower back are left and right, I believe I have an effect set to mono I can’t remember off the top of my head.

But there’s a page where the amps show up, you open up one of them, in there you turn each effect on and off and also its strength or volume.

So say I put gear shift as Mono, then I go into the other tab or page and if I want I can apply the gear shift to every puck, or just my back and my feet which I think is how I have it. It’s a bit confusing at first but you figure it out pretty quick. Less confusing with less shakers I think.

I watched a YouTube video of a guy setting his up just out of curiosity on how you applied effects. So I kind of knew what it was about before I had it all setup.
 
hawkeyez
Yeah I have limited knowledge on the HF8, might be worth researching.

How it works in SimHub is you select how you want them configured. So my upper mid back and my feet are off one amp. Then each effect but not all, you can choose 4 corners, front and rear, left and right, or mono. I have two stereo pairs, so my butt and my lower back are left and right, I believe I have an effect set to mono I can’t remember off the top of my head.

But there’s a page where the amps show up, you open up one of them, in there you turn each effect on and off and also its strength or volume.

So say I put gear shift as Mono, then I go into the other tab or page and if I want I can apply the gear shift to every puck, or just my back and my feet which I think is how I have it. It’s a bit confusing at first but you figure it out pretty quick. Less confusing with less shakers I think.

I watched a YouTube video of a guy setting his up just out of curiosity on how you applied effects. So I kind of knew what it was about before I had it all setup.
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Sorry, for my amps, I have a left and right, so four terminals. Two terminals +/- go to one shaker, two terminals +/- go to another shaker. So you see three amps on my side table. Each amp is running two shakers and in SimHub you can apply different effect to each one. Sometimes you have to get creative with it.

I have left/right in the seat, and in the lower back. So effects like kerbs and speed curve I have set to left and right. I think I have wheel lock set to mono, it makes the puck under my pedals rumble and both pucks under my butt.

I’d have to boot up and look at my settings. Can maybe do that later and it can give you a better idea of how SimHub works.
 
hawkeyez
Sorry, for my amps, I have a left and right, so four terminals. Two terminals +/- go to one shaker, two terminals +/- go to another shaker. So you see three amps on my side table. Each amp is running two shakers and in SimHub you can apply different effect to each one. Sometimes you have to get creative with it.

I have left/right in the seat, and in the lower back. So effects like kerbs and speed curve I have set to left and right. I think I have wheel lock set to mono, it makes the puck under my pedals rumble and both pucks under my butt.

I’d have to boot up and look at my settings. Can maybe do that later and it can give you a better idea of how SimHub works.
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I won’t be doing this anytime soon so no rush. I think that means I can get away with one amp then
 
MadMike008
I’ve got several from Carney and they look similar.
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I think you may be right. I didn’t realize how much those were! Got it for either birthday gift or Xmas gift from my mom and dad. Surprisingly all my cars fit, no more, no less. It ended up being just enough. My dad messaged, ”you filled that thing up?!” Lol
 
I don’t know if I have anything too special in there but the AC Cobra blue near the bottom right, that thing has actual rubber tires. There’s a couple other gems in there but we played with them in the sandbox everyday so they’re not in great shape hahaha
 

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