I'm new to the pinball world, but do a lot of reading and research and wondering if you HAVE to use the shakers that only the manufacturer sells? I see that places sell the shaker motor interface boards like the one shown here: http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1637

All it looks like to me is a resistor and a couple of fuses along with a specific type of connector that goes on both ends of the board. Just wondering what would keep you from just using something like this: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=299-028

It is obvious to me that the connectors used to connect into and out of the "interface board" handle enough juice to spin the off balance motor that they use. Those Aura shakers are self contained units so they would not need a "guard box". Being that they are 4ohms I imagine they'd work perfectly. If somehow they needed to be 8 you could wire up 2 and up it to 8 ohms.

I'm a PC repair person by trade and tinkerer by nature. Maybe nobody has ever attempted something like this, but seems to me that Stern is making way too much off of their "shaker" enhancements. I mean.. an off balance motor powered by electricity is an off balance motor and since the interface board is available separately it sure seems like all you'd have to do it just separate the hot and ground on the output side of the interfact board to the shaker's black and red input and you're done.

Total it up and you're looking at potentially a mod that would cost $68 bucks before shipping and likely under $88 after shipping.

Any input would be apreciated.

So I take it that nobody has ever tried this before?