Interactive Beer Pong (Beirut) Table

Step 3 Wire the pressure sensors

 Force Sensitive Resistors (FSR) are very fun, very sensitive sensors to use. When force is applied to the circle of the sensor, current is allowed to travel through the sensor depending on how much force is applied.

Wire each sensor as shown below. Be CAREFUL when soldering the wires to the leads of the FSR's because if you melt the plastic you risk ruining the FSR. (I ruined one...so my fourth cup doesnt work :( . Test them using a simple bit of screen output code shown below:

int fsrCup0 = 0; //force sensitive resitor for top cup

int fsrCup1 = 1; //fsr for middle left cup

int fsrCup2 = 2; //fsr for middle right cup

int fsrCup3 = 3; //fsr for bottom left cup

int fsrCup4 = 4; //fsr for bottom middle cup

int fsrCup5 = 5; //fsr for bottom right cup
int myCups [] = {0,1,2,3,4,5};

void setup(){
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){

for(int x = 0; x <= 5; x++)

  {

    

    Serial.print (analogRead(myCups[x])); //a print out of the 6 cups pressure for testing purposes

    Serial.print("\t"); 
    Serial.prinln();
}
}

While this program is running just push on the sensors to make sure that they are working. Aren't they awesome! Wire everything to the breadboard and get ready to attach everything to a board!

Note that all 6 analog inputs available on the Arduino will be used for just these 6 sensors. There are many way to expand the analog inputs on an Arduino, but I would recommend using a 16:1 multiplexer giving you 16 analog inputs out of one (and 3 digital inputs).