Theater Seats and Linear Actuators - the 4D experience (1 Viewer)

[Jay1]

Hi,

I am new to this forum so please feel free to point me at the correct thread if something has been asked/answered before.
I did a little searching and have not found anything about this topic.

I have a 7.1 setup run off a pioneer amp - I am using a PS4 for blue ray output to the amp and am driving a Panasonic projector for 120" of home theater fun.

I also have split my HDMI output to a second amplifier that drives my bass shakers in my theater chairs.
I have two rows of theater chairs - each with 3 seats. The rear ones have been raised via bed lifters.
I have mounted Bass Shaker Pro's to each of the chairs (6) and have also added the original auora bass shaker to the common arms of the chairs (4). I find it makes a huge difference in the experience of action movies and also PS4 games.

I was recently at a theater for the new Marvel movie and got to experience the Dbox seats. Pretty cool. It got me thinking.

I am now considering getting high-speed linear actuators with a 1" to 2" throw. Since I have 8 legs on the theater seats I would need 16 of these (8 for each row). For those of you not familiar with these you apply 12v and they go up, and -12v makes them go down. The actuators have limit switches - so once they are fully extended or retracted they cut power

I have looked at linear actuators and found a ton on aliexpress and ebay for <$30 each.

My initial design is to feed the actuators a constant -12v (fully retracted) through a relay. When the bass hits it would flip to a positive 12v giving the chairs a lift and of course when the bass stops or intermittently stops it starts retracting when the relay is released. Ideally it would be nice to be able to adjust the lift to bass intensity but I am not quite sure how to do that.

Has anyone tried anything like this ?

 

[Sam Posten]

Nope, not me but please keep us posted! welcome to HTF~

 

[Stonepilot]

So what would trigger the actuators if that's not encoded into the media? I get the games have it programmed, but would it be triggered off the bass?

 

[Jay1]

So what would trigger the actuators if that's not encoded into the media? I get the games have it programmed, but would it be triggered off the bass?

Bass is what I was planning.
Same as the existing bass shakers but with more thrust.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Some Blu-rays include D-Box info on the discs, so if you have a compatible system, you can get the same motion effects as seen in theaters.

 

[Jay1]

Some Blu-rays include D-Box info on the discs, so if you have a compatible system, you can get the same motion effects as seen in theaters.

I don't want to come across as cheap but you would need the Dbox decoder hardware along with their motion system. You are probably looking at about $3500 just to start.
I was trying to address 2 rows of home theater seats (6 chairs) and my hardware bill would be north of that.

My real concern however is the mixed reviews about Dbox. Some people complain about motion sickness etc and I would hate to lay down this kind of money for something that may or may not be used.