Find your way into flight simulator cockpit construction
6.10 Vibration system
Vibrations can be generated by means of devices called tactile transducers. They produce in general vibrations between 1Hz en 800Hz. It is all about the subtlety to add a tactile sense (feel the sound in your body) that is missing when sound is played back in a standard way. Tactile sound should not be confused with devices called "shakers" that generate vibrations based specifically on bass. When positioned in the cockpit at the right places in the chair itself or in the floor (feet, chair section) and applied in a moderate way, the cockpit should come to life. The touch of your flight controls, the feeling in your back and feet will convince you that you are on the move...
A sound based approach is the TST229 [Clark Synthesis], it is one of a range of tactile transducers. This devices is easy to install. A very instructive tutorial is included on the site. An other example is bass shaker.
A vibration system that does not use speakers, but that uses embedded electro motors to generate vibrations is the ButtKicker (ButtKicker). Instead of producing sounds it sends vibrations through seats and floors directly into the listener's body. The perception is stated to be better and the sound pressure of the bass disappears. When using headphones the listener perceives powerful, musically accurate audio, but no one else hears anything. The sound is completely isolated to the listener. A similar solution is the Body Shaker (FL electronic). More game oriented is the TFS2 [ivibe]. This system comes with a controller and a seating unit. The seating unit contains several vibration devices so that to a certain extent direction of vibrations can be / are simulated.
A very basic home build vibration system can be found at Nico's flightplank (dutch).
