Musical MIDI Shoes

Step 2 The Interface

You can do this project with just a breadboard and the Arduino, but for the sake of tidiness and portability, you should build a little interface. All you need to do is mount the Arduino in a project box, drill 4-6 (dependent on how many sensors you want to use) holes for the 1/8" audio jacks, one hole for an LED, and a square hole for the Arduino's USB jack. Then solder everything up and you'll be good to go!

Each audio jack in the interface should have a 10K resistor and a lead for analog input connected to one terminal, and a lead for the 5V supply connected to the other. What terminals you use will depend on whether you have a mono or stereo jack. Both will work, stereo will just provide an additional, unnecessary terminal. The way this works is, we apply 5V across the FSR, so when we press it, it allows a little bit through, and the Arduino can look for this and send a signal to the computer.

Now, grab your soldering iron, some hookup wire, follow the schematic and the diagram, and you'll be fine.

You could definitely add a lot of extra LEDs and whatnot to this box, i.e. one for every sensor or something. Additionally, it would be pretty straightforward to make a very simple shield for the Arduino using a protoboard and six or so male header pins. You could even get a more robust one made professionally by some PCB company on the interwebs. The prototype shown in this instructable is a pretty basic setup, so there's lots of room left for expansion (literally, there's plenty of free space in that box).

Comments

[carml]

Where did you get the Arduino and how big is it.