Comments on: Building capacitive sensitive floor tiles

By: iSingBass

iSingBass — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:40:11 +0000

I just pulled out my old broken-down (yet very authentic-feeling and -looking) homemade pads that I made several years ago. They used sheet metal plates separated by electrical tape as switches connected to the button pins of a USB gamepad. Now on the other side of an engineering degree and feeling nostalgic for some DDR, I think I might try something like this. Thanks for the headstart!

By: gwenannwilson

gwenannwilson — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:44:49 +0000

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By: Dennis Gentry

Dennis Gentry — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:43:53 +0000

Why are PD0(RXD) and PD1(TXD) tied together? Does USB require some large drive current?

By: üav

üav — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:31:26 +0000

re:Mechanical Engineer
So it can works with a lighter weather-stripping, such as really thin paper and plates made with silver leaf ?
I’m gonna test that.

By: Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical Engineer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:52:56 +0000

re: uav condenser microphone
Not having built and tested it, or even done any modeling, it is my opinion that the weather stripping in this “cleaver” (maybe clever?) build would provide too much damping to get any usable signal out of it as a microphone.

By: üav

üav — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:29:31 +0000

Can it be turned into a condenser microphone ?

By: ebidk

ebidk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:39:26 +0000

Also, I’m with all the people who want to do home-automation/-security with this. Too bad I only have one room so there’s little of interest to do with this for me for now.

By: ebidk

ebidk — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:37:46 +0000

@StrangeRover

“@ Hitek146 An “analog to digital convert” is someone who traded in their vinyl records for CDs. ;)”

Or more on-topic-y for the site: someone who switched from analog to digital computers.

By: venetian

venetian — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:12:34 +0000

built in burglar alarm

By: MDude

MDude — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:39:09 +0000

@pascal

A matrix of these might make a nice foot-operated keyboard. Couple that with a nice LED display system and you’ve got the beginnings of a giant computer! Now I just need to design an opto-mechanical mouse around an exercise ball.

The first thing I thought of, though, was having one of these trigger a set of huge air blowers and/or pop-up targets like in Evil Genius.

By: chee

chee — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:17:56 +0000

cleaver

By: Stefan Rehm

Stefan Rehm — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:15:33 +0000

@pascal: You might use the 74HC4051 as multiplexer or any other part from the 74-series with analog switches (e.g. the 4066 quad analog switch). Wiring multiple sensors in a matrix might also be doable, need to think about that ;)

By: Revlurch

Revlurch — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:25:01 +0000

We actually had something similar used in our Martial Arts studio with smaller tile areas that would digitize footing, weight distribution, and certain other information. We later incorporated motion capture camera’s and used it all as teaching aids to correct forms and such.

By: Andar_b

Andar_b — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:24:15 +0000

As someone stated above, the “real” pads are a b1tch to maintain, because they used such a weak design.

By: twistedsymphony

twistedsymphony — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:14:32 +0000

when will someone build a home-made DDR pad that uses the REAL sensors from the actual ARCADE machine:

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/gameparts/50103200.htm

really that’s the problem a vast majority of the 3rd party sensors… and that’s what separates the home experience from the arcade one in terms of pad-accuracy.