Simshaker Wings + Buttkicker MiniLFE is bliss

[Thorne]

After having read a number of bass shaker propaganda posts over the years, I warmed up to the idea and took the plunge.

 

God, damn. This thing is awesome. The immersion factor is huge - especially, as others have noticed, in VR. But the feedback is even better - the fact I can, for example 'feel' how much G I'm pulling in a turn, thus giving me a continuous indication of what my airspeed and available energy are has become an essential sensory addition to my sim experience within a few short hours of using it.

 

There are of course other examples of how the tech helps, riding the edge of a stall is much easier, one no longer has to wonder if the gear is actually coming up or going down as the process is illustrated by a series of satisfying clunks, and hits to one's aircraft are clearly felt. The interesting phenomena here, is that the lines between what is immersive, and what is useful become completely blurred. The same engine vibrations that make you feel like you've got a boosted V-12 directly in front of your seat also clue you in to throttle setting and potential damage.

 

For those of you wondering, I'm running a single stick-mounted Buttkicker Mini LFE, in mono, from a Fozi M02 100w bassamp. The whole setup was $150, and easy to set up. Despite the Buttkickers maximum rating at 250w, and the amp only providing 100w (probably less in reality) this thing absolutely bumps. I have yet to dare turning the volume knob past two o' clock.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Thorne

[Donik]

Is that not producing all kinds of jittery input into your controls?  I had thought about doing essentially the same thing, but thought it would cause too much issue.

 

I've got a buttkicker gamer 2 on my chair and have been trying to come up with a reason to add a second module somewhere

[Thorne]

Glad you asked, I had the Mini LFE on my chair before I switched it to the stick. There's no jitteriness or rattling in it's current configuration, in fact it's extremely smooth; I attribute this to my hand being directly on the stick, which transmits the vibrations more accurately at lower levels due to it being a solid structure. Additionally the hands are much more sensitive to small vibrations than other body parts, the result being I find I pick up more nuance and react more quickly to tactile coming through the stick than the chair.

 

I would go ahead and pick up the LFE and mount it to your stick if your stick is solid enough to handle it. The VKB pictured above is all metal with the exception of the grip which might be what made this enterprise so successful.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Thorne

[MAJ_Piranha_]

Would it work if I did this setup mounted on the bottom of a Virgil warbrd stick /base attached to a Virgil v4 desk mount or would the vibration be too much for this setup?  Anyone else have this setup and recommendations?

 

bottomline: I’m trying to get some haptic feedback for when I’m in a turn fight and I’m about to stall / pull g forces / fire gun, etc. 

[SCG_Tzigy]

One BK on the chair, one on the stick. Awesome

[Youtch]

Nice setup.

 

If i may, one question: the support structure to your stick is it something you built by yourself?

[SCG_Tzigy]

Its a Wheel Stand Pro. Its awesome, well made, solid.

[Thorne]

5 hours ago, Piranha_ said:

Would it work if I did this setup mounted on the bottom of a Virgil warbrd stick /base attached to a Virgil v4 desk mount or would the vibration be too much for this setup?  Anyone else have this setup and recommendations?

 

bottomline: I’m trying to get some haptic feedback for when I’m in a turn fight and I’m about to stall / pull g forces / fire gun, etc. 

 

Yeah should work perfectly - that's essentially the setup I've got. You'll find you and feel the feedback much more clearly through the stick.

[CosmicXSolitude]

7 hours ago, Piranha_ said:

Would it work if I did this setup mounted on the bottom of a Virgil warbrd stick /base attached to a Virgil v4 desk mount or would the vibration be too much for this setup?  Anyone else have this setup and recommendations?

 

bottomline: I’m trying to get some haptic feedback for when I’m in a turn fight and I’m about to stall / pull g forces / fire gun, etc. 

so i just got this setup today with simshaker but ill admit the stall effect is nice however the best way to really counter this in combat is a force feedback stick. not so much because of the feedback more because of the lack of spring in the stick and the resistance of the aircrafts personal limits when pulling. unless I'm in a p47 i can almost never get a plane to stall with force feedback. now yes the elephant in the room is FF sticks are hard to get unless you wanna spend 2000$ usd on a modern one but if you ever run into one in the future I'd recommend that route with sim shaker as well

[Youtch]

10 hours ago, SCG_Tzigy said:

Its a Wheel Stand Pro. Its awesome, well made, solid.

How sturdy is it when you go crazy on throttle and stick with extension?

[SCG_Tzigy]

2 minutes ago, Youtch said:

How sturdy is it when you go crazy on throttle and stick with extension?

No issue whatsoever. If anything, the extension-stick interface loosens sometimes w my nonintentional twisting in hard ACM... ?

[Varibraun]

17 hours ago, SCG_Tzigy said:

One BK on the chair, one on the stick. Awesome

 

5 hours ago, Youtch said:

How sturdy is it when you go crazy on throttle and stick with extension?

 

Tzigy has my identical 2 BK setup, including the Wheelstand Pro (the only difference is I use a Virpil CM2 base with my Warthog stick) and I completely agree with him that it works wonderfully (I am sure MonsterTech MTSF frame would be the same with 2 BKs and it is more adjustable, but it is a LOT more expensive than the Wheelstand Pro).  

 

12 hours ago, CosmicXSolitude said:

FF sticks are hard to get unless you wanna spend 2000$ usd on a modern one

 

I didn't even realize there was a modern FF option.  I wonder if any of the 3 or 4 high end controls companies will eventually give us that option again?

 

 

[CosmicXSolitude]

1 hour ago, Varibraun said:

 

I didn't even realize there was a modern FF option.  I wonder if any of the 3 or 4 high end controls companies will eventually give us that option again?

Yeah there is its made by a Swedish company and it's marketed for professional flight sim companies. The name of the stick is Brunner CLS-E, its compatable with virpil sticks and its also not quite normal DirectX Force Feedback so you got to get an Adriano micro to talk with their program named ClS2SIM and a coders program that was made so it could be played with gsmes like il2 called BrunnerDX and make the computer think it's a DirectX FF stick. 

[Youtch]

2 hours ago, Varibraun said:

Tzigy has my identical 2 BK setup, including the Wheelstand Pro (the only difference is I use a Virpil CM2 base with my Warthog stick) and I completely agree with him that it works wonderfully (I am sure MonsterTech MTSF frame would be the same with 2 BKs and it is more adjustable, but it is a LOT more expensive than the Wheelstand Pro).

Wheelstand sells adapter for Virpil or VKB bases?

[Varibraun]

 

44 minutes ago, Youtch said:

Wheelstand sells adapter for Virpil or VKB bases?

 

Sort of - For my Virpil CM2, I was able to use the Wheelstand center joystick adapter (basically made for the Warthog) with the Virpil Universal Baseplate.  Very easy assembly (but you will need to cut down the center pipe if you want to use an extension):

 

https://wheelstandpro.us/z-joystick-adapter-js-returns-refunds-unavailable-for-parts/#reviews

https://virpil-controls.us.com/vpc-universal-compact-base-plate.html

 

1 hour ago, CosmicXSolitude said:

Yeah there is its made by a Swedish company and it's marketed for professional flight sim companies. The name of the stick is Brunner CLS-E, its compatable with virpil sticks and its also not quite normal DirectX Force Feedback so you got to get an Adriano micro to talk with their program named ClS2SIM and a coders program that was made so it could be played with gsmes like il2 called BrunnerDX and make the computer think it's a DirectX FF stick. 

 

Ahh...thank you for educating me.  While out of my current budget, especially since I just ordered the updated Virpil CM3, it is really good to know that FF still lives on.  Do we know if anyone has reviewed or posted about using this in IL-2?

Edited September 1, 2022 by Varibraun

[Youtch]

50 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

For my Virpil CM2, I was able to use the Wheelstand center joystick adapter (basically made for the Warthog) with the Virpil Universal Baseplate.  Very easy assembly (but you will need to cut down the center pipe if you want to use an extension)

With 10cm or 20cm extension? I am looking to install it with a 20cm extension.

 

Many thanks for the info, unfortunately it does not look like it is as easy for vkb gunfighter base as it is for virpil.

[CosmicXSolitude]

1 hour ago, Varibraun said:

 

Ahh...thank you for educating me.  While out of my current budget, especially since I just ordered the updated Virpil CM3, it is really good to know that FF still lives on.  Do we know if anyone has reviewed or posted about using this in IL-2?

No but feel free to inbox any questions as I've used it for over a year now

[Varibraun]

5 hours ago, Youtch said:

With 10cm or 20cm extension? I am looking to install it with a 20cm extension.

 

I have a 10cm on mine currently, which would probably be fine without cutting down the pipe, but due to an old shoulder injury I like to have my grip fairly low.  With a 20cm, I think you would definitely need to cut it down.  @SCG_Tzigy can weigh in, but from his photo it looks like he may be using a 10cm at around the lowest height without cutting the center pipe.

 

4 hours ago, CosmicXSolitude said:

No but feel free to inbox any questions as I've used it for over a year now

 

Thank you, I won't bother you until I have made my other big purchases over these next few months as I upgrade my CPU & GPU.  But I am definitely intrigued since I thought FF was relegated to ancient plastic sticks.  

[Thorne]

On 9/1/2022 at 2:53 PM, Youtch said:

With 10cm or 20cm extension? I am looking to install it with a 20cm extension.

 

Many thanks for the info, unfortunately it does not look like it is as easy for vkb gunfighter base as it is for virpil.

 

Its not so hard to make a custom stand out of plywood - I'm currently making something akin to that, I'll post pictures in the next couple of weeks

[FlyinCoffin]

how did this story end?

 

 

Iam playing with the idea of a Dayton 25Watt bass shaker under my stick. while I have 50watt bass shaker in my back.

 

But I fear that the screws of the stick will loosen one day

Edited December 25, 2024 by FlyinCoffin