Buttkicker

[Shrubbo]

Any good ? would you say that its worth getting?

 

That would totally depend on what you define as "worth". The buttkicker is not the be all and end all of cool gadgets but is is cool. For example at first thought I would not rate it up there with TrackIR, ... at first thought....

 

Anyway.... I got mine for near half the normal price, still not cheap as such but good enough that I would buy it for the hell of it and overall I would have to say I am very happy with it. It does exactly what I expected it to do.

 

I found the key is setting it up for each game by twiddling the nobs on it a bit. Not difficult but needs a twiddling to get it good me thinks.

 

Now back to that "...at first thought..." and what I mean by that.

 

My room is very hot (Was a 40+ day) and while the air con was on this room doesn't have air con (YET!) and faces the sun (God wtf!) so with 2 computers, 4 monitors, amps, stuff, things, etc all running plus stinking hot ambient it was pretty hot (You get the picture yet)

 

Been playing for quite while and had the buttkicker cranked up to "probably break something" power setting and the thermal cut out kicked in and switched it off. I knew exactly what had happened and was not worried at (Was expecting it in fact) but I was surprised by the sensation (Or lack thereof).

 

It was like playing without trackIR, yeah quite playable but screw that crap. I went and got a drink and waited for it to cool down.

 

Understand what you are buying firstly and know what it is going to do for you then you won't be disapointed, quite the oposite. For me the truth is that it is better then I expected it would be and don't like the idea of it not being there. In fact it is there now, rumbling away to some music I am playing... and the wife isn't yelling at me from the other room... yet :D

[rapid]

Yeah its as i thought its ok but because it uses sound to activate your kind of limited.

[HitchHikingFlatlander]

Each to there own bud but I agree with diveplane and will explain why :)

 

Ok firstly I have only had it for a bit over a day but If you wish to buy the buttkicker gamer NOW is the time to do so. The reason being is it is being fazed out for a new model this year. I just bought the old model for 1/2 price so if you want one look around.

 

Anyway onto the impressions.

 

1: When I first unpacked the box I thought wow there be a lot of stuff in here for the cash (Go 1/2 price ftw!!)

 

2: When I plugged it in I got the same impression as tutmeister. It was rank just vibrating away and I can't say I was real happy with it.

 

3: It is programmable in a way. You can activate a "low filter cutoff" and also a "high cutoff frequency" button with a dial that has adjustments from 50-110 + it also has a "volume" control. Tho volume would be better thought of as power imo but that would depend on how you look at it I suppose.

 

Number 3 is the key. Once I started playing with those I ended up loving the thing. At present I have low filter activated High cuttoff button in and the dial set to 50. The "Volume" needs to be matched to my speaker volume of whatever at the time. I did infact dial in the buttkicker with the actual game volume off and only the buttkicker working.

 

I can feel the gentle thump thump of the rotors and it picks right up if I load them up. Gear coming up a deaf guy would notice etc. OMG the gun almost hurts hahah.

 

All in all it is not 100% perfect because it works off exactly what a subwoofer would but I am infact very happy with it. So is everyone else I expect because to have a subwoofer that powerfull would invite the police turning up I would think :)

 

The best way I could think of describing it would be this way...

 

Ever been to an imax theater and felt the chair shake with what is going on? As I understand it there is a high probability you where actualy sitting on a buttkicker. !!

 

Remember tuning is the one and only key if you do it right then I 100% recomend this thing. Last night when Iron Man went supersonic I spilt my god damn drink!! Now I am actualy very happy about that :D

 

 

I agree with Shrubbo you have to do some programming or dialing in (a better term) to get it set up right. Once set up properly it works like a charm.

 

I dont use mine on an office chair but in my mini pit. I built a special mount for it and buttoned up all the loose ends thru my pit to get rid of the unwanted shaking/vibrating. Personally I think when mounted right in a simpit is where the BK shines and its hard to think of simming without now.

 

In all if you spend the time setting it up it works like a charm and its well worth even the full price. See below for how I set it up, about $10 in parts to mount it!

 

Heres a repost from another forum of my pit in its most recent set up. I'm in the planning stages to do a proper pit but I'm not ready to start it yet.

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2423369#Post2423369

Above is the link to my simpit in its old digs and config.

Heres the new and improved (only slightly improved) pit in its new digs that is Hitchs home theater/Office/Sim & Gaming room:

I mounted the pit to an old cubicle tabletop and added castor wheels for easy moving and I also

re-routed the wiring to be a bit neater. The wiring looks good but this morning the mouse didnt work (gotta unwire that now arrrgggh!)

I remounted the joystick to be in a better sturdier spot I still have to adjust a few things though with the ergonomics.

I mounted the Buttkicker Gamer I got under the seat. The tactile feedback translates well throughout the pit so you feel the gun shaking and flak bursts as well as the feel of the engines running. The new spot for the joystick gets a much better effect than the previous spot it was mounted.

You gotta have a spot for 7 USB devices soon to be eight.

This would be the eighth device. It used to be my old Logitech Wingman joystick that I hacked apart and soldered in new buttons. Right now its got 7 pushbuttons and in the end will have 4 (on)off(on) momentary toggles for 8 more buttons and I have to get some potentiometers for the 4 axes that will be added. I'll probably mount it behind my throttle and use it for engine managment controls.

Now the new diggs:

Every home theater need seating. sorry for the mess the rooms still a work in progress.

The new screen (well new used) it doesnt retract anymore but thats ok I'm gonna add some curtains around it to give that movie theater look you may be able to see the speakers mounted in there eventually I'll run the wiring through the ceiling.

Same thing on the wiring for the projector I'm gonna run it thru the ceiling. I'd would have done it already but its spooky up there! This dude is on his last leg, I'm amazed that the lamp hasnt given out yet (rated for 2000 hrs/ has almost 4000 hrs) it was a great value.

New set up fits right into the corner just like I planned (good thing I measured last lol).

My custom desk in the closet. The monitor floats on a swing arm and everything else sits on a glass top. Looks a lot nicer when its picked up again sorry for the mess. Everything that runs thru the ceiling will eventually meet here with no wires showing (hopefully). Yes my computer chair is an ottoman........ great for the back! That would be the newer PC in there too!

Hope you enjoyed maybe in the next few months I can start and finish my collective control project for the Black Shark helo sim! Thats gonna be a project, I'm also thinking of hacking a keyboard and doing something similiar (but on a larger scale) as my other custom joystick project. Yeah you thought you were a nerd huh.......................... :mrgreen:

PS this is mainly for flight sims but I can play all games on it.