Final Assembly

We now have all the parts fabricated, painted and the bass shaker installed. It is now time to put it all together and test it.

The bass shaker subwoofer amp was connected to the surround receiver's Low Frequency Effects (LFE) port using an RCA Y-adapter. From the LFE port, One end of the Y-adapter went to the subwoofer and the other went to the Aura bass shaker. The Yamaha receiver has a great bass management system using what is called YPAO. The receiver uses a mic placed in the seating location to optimize the front, center, rear and subwoofer levels. The YPAO did a great job of setting the bass for the main sub which in turn was a perfect setting for the shaker.

Given the cost for the project, we didn't want to spend extra for a wireless steering wheel and pedals. The future of this setup would be to add a wireless wheel and pedals so we didn't do too much extra work on wire management. The wires were made a little more presentable recently since it was a eye-sore.

Game Play

The racing simulator project was a success. The frame is solid and has no extra play to distract one from the racing immersion. The force feedback wheel and bass shaker gave a deeper illusion that one was behind the wheel of a real car. This setup has come a long way from the TV tray we started with.

Final Thoughts

The TerraSpeed project was fun to build and even more fun to use. The sliders and support beam can be easily removed and the seat used for watching movies and TV shows on the Home Theater system. It is amazing feeling the rumble from the explosions in action movies. Listening to Rock music you get the feeling of being in a concert without having to turn up the stereo so loud as to knock the pictures off the walls.

Thanks to 'Skot' for his amazing metal work & welding skills and donating his time to assist on this project.