Automatic clash & lock with a pressure sensor?

[bazuka]

For an EL blade, I can imagine it'd be pretty simple by sanding down the adaptor for the blade. That way, when the blade itself is engaged it would press against the sensor, triggering and holding the clash & lock. Any ideas?

Here's what I'm referring to...
http://www.parallax.com/images/prod_gif/30056.gif

[TimeRender]

This may very well be the most promising thing I have ever seen in the new technology forum. Excellent find, Bazuka.

[bazuka]

Thanks for the comment, it looks like a lot of people read this.

Does anyone know how Erv's board handles the clash & lock button? Does pressing allow voltage through, or does it stop the voltage? It looks like that sensor would work if it lets voltage through.

[TimeRender]

The clash button is normally open, so yes this could work on Erv's board.

[xwingband]

That'd no longer work well for Erv's board since the clash button operates as two now.

Erv did do that once for a saber. He said due to the need for it to be customized to each saber he wouldn't offer it. Maybe for Corbin's this would work but mounting is still the obstacle.

[TimeRender]

True, now it is blaster deflection and blade lockup. Still it might work if the pressure strip wasn't too sensitive. You would just need to add a switch in addition to it. Seems like Marsupial was working on something like this with some success. Might want to ask him about it.

[LAN-ED-TUL]

that kinda looks like what i was lookin into a ways back, a pressure switch.

like a tape ribbon that when pressed on, makes the contact inside it.

i remember we were lookin at that for a activation switch possibility once before. but it didnt pan out very well.

[Eandori]

Yes this IS as great find!

here's how I think it could work....

I looked up the specs for that sensor here: http://www.tekscan.com/flexiforce/flexiforce.html
and it seems like the resistance simply changes as force is applied to that strip. Now you can't put that in your blade, because it will block light and give you a long dark strip. But most of our setups have 2-4 inches of blade tube inside the emitter of our sabers. If we could apply a couple of short strips of this stuff to that hidden section, we might be able to get pressure readings off the blade.

Mount one 2" strip along one side of the saber bottom, then mount another strip 90 degree's away (not directly on the other side.) That way, you can sense pressure both on X and Y directions.

Now you want to remove "false triggers" and you ALSO want to remove that pressure that's right on the line of triggered and not triggered. There is an easy circuit that fixes that in electronics called a Schmidt Trigger with Hysteresis on the active high and low threshholds. (don't think I spelled it right, but that's what it is) All you need is a couple of resistors, a few, potentiameters, a few op-amps, and you can get a Schmidt Trigger going. For mass production, you simple build the circuit the dial the potentiameters to match the sensitivity of each unit.

That really might work.

[erv]

I've used a similar sensor for my automatic lockup system but it was a tape, not a single pad sensor.
It's true however that it won't work diretly now with crystal focus, Xwing is right : the aux button mixes several effects. On the vader I've use for my experimentation, I did not have the aux button, so I just modified my old duo (dimmer board + sound board) to get an additionnal analog input and sample the sensor. The hysteresis was programmed in software, plus a few tricks to make sure there will be no silly triggering.
I'd say that an automatic lockup sensor is cool in theory, but really hard to use in real situations, like dueling on stage for instance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsd_wRuIYrE

Erv'

[Novastar]

Indeed... sadly, I'm agreed with Erv on this one... :(

It's sad since... yeah, it would be AWESOME if that worked very accurately for staged work.

Maybe SOME day... maybe SOME day... :D

[Marsupial]

I did some experimentation, and my blade lock-up sensor is compatible with the MR clash sensor, meaning I can hook-up my lock-up as a replacement to the clash.

This also means I now have to change the driver & LED of my prototype saber to accomodate a MRFX board so I can film the result and show you guys.

As far as I can tell, from the trial and error on the MRFX, if you clash longer, the clash FX is just trigerred over and over, so the lock-up should in theory be credible. Still have to do more testing.

Helas, I'm moving and all my saber stuff is boxed already.

[Novastar]

That sounds promising... keep us posted when you complete the move, Mars.

Oh and congrats ON the move, heheh

[Corbin_Das]

Yeah,
Mars was doing something similar to this a couple years ago, though not with those types of tape switches. It's a cool idea, but it's not perfected yet.

Corbin

[Marsupial]

Hehe... I need to have a metal proto done, my handmade sculpted PE piping proto isn't the best, but we do with the tools available don't we? It works good, with no sound it lacks in effects. When I'm done with moving, I'll try to capture the effect on camera. (I can't untill I unpack the props and material)

With it being connectable to the MR, I'm eager to continue work on it. Added sound FX to the pressure sensor WILL make it worth the effort.

Over the last 2 years I had quite a bit of thinking. Lucky for us, the PolyC tubes have lots of flex, leading to a wide possibility when it comes to sensing impacts and pressure on the blade.

all can be done without using pressure tape, I can assure you :)

[Novastar]

Good news, this is...

--Yoda

:)