conduction sensors
makey makey
Design your own controller with everyday materials like foil, velostat, playdough, graphite pencils, water or any other conductive material. Lots of info and examples on their own site: https://makeymakey.com
No need to install drivers , makey makey is plug and play.
Attach it through usb to your computer, close a circle of conduction bij connecting 'ground' and 'another trigger' & it shows up to be an external keyboard. Read the signal in an app like wordpad/texteditor to make sure you have the right connection.
In data flow software (like Isadora & touchdesigner) the makey is read through nodes like a 'keyboard In watcher' or 'KeyBoardIn'
Remember to always playtest your setup, as using a keyboard as input may also lead to unexpected/unwished results (like you interface being all over the place :)
Also see this page: aan-de-slag-met-makey-makey
Borrow Makey from the uitleen at IBB of PASTOE
or the Blackbox @ JK
Or in a tech case!
see ipac for a makey on steroids
IPAC
your external keyboard, made of anything conductive
aka the makey makey on steroids :)
The I-PAC2 has 32 inputs which are all programmable and are marked as 2 joysticks, 8 buttons each, plus coin1, coin2, start1, start2 and MAME control keys. Any inputs can be assigned as a shift key to access an alternate code set. I-PAC is the ONLY keyboard encoder where each input inputs has it's own dedicated microprocessor pin. No interaction or delays, vital for multi-button games such as fighting games. I-PAC is much more than a keyboard encoder! Pins can be configured as mouse buttons or game controller buttons, plus power and volume control. I-PAC is the ONLY keyboard encoder which emulates a USB keyboard and yet breaks through the USB simultaneously-pressed-switch limit of 6 switches (plus ctrl,alt,shift) which afflicts all USB keyboard devices. I-PAC is the ONLY device to have a shift function which allows ANY input to be assigned to a shifted secondary keycode and the shift button can have it's own function too so no need for a dedicated extra control panel button. I-PAC is the ONLY device to have a self-test LED which not only gives an instant visible check of your installation but also can indicate which connection (if any) is causing a problem. I-PAC retains it's programming after power off. Not all keyboard encoders do this!
read up on specs here or here:
https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac4-board/
download custon software: https://www.ultimarc.com/download.html
mapping:
| INPUT | NORMAL CODES | CODES WITH SHIFT (hold 1 player start) |
|---|---|---|
| COIN 1 | 5 | |
| COIN 2 | 6 | |
| START 1 | 1 | |
| START 2 | 2 | ESC |
| 1 RIGHT | R arrow | Tab |
| 1 LEFT | L arrow | Enter |
| 1 UP | U arrow | Key Below ESC (Volume, gamma, etc ) |
| 1 DOWN | D arrow | P (pause) |
| 1 SW 1 | L-ctrl | 5 (Coin A) |
| 1 SW 2 | L-alt | |
| 1 SW 3 | space | |
| 1 SW 4 | L-shift | |
| 1 SW 5 | Z | |
| 1 SW 6 | X | |
| 1 SW 7 | C | |
| 1 SW 8 | V | |
| 1 A | P | |
| 1 B | ENTER | |
| START 1 | 1 | |
| START 2 | 2 | Esc |
| 2 RIGHT | G | |
| 2 LEFT | D | |
| 2 UP | R | |
| 2 DOWN | F | |
| 2 SW 1 | A | |
| 2 SW 2 | S | |
| 2 SW 3 | Q | |
| 2 SW 4 | W | |
| 2 SW 5 | I | |
| 2 SW 6 | K | |
| 2 SW 7 | J | |
| 2 SW 8 | L | |
| 2 A | TAB | |
| 2 B | ESC |
Bare conductive
we have a separate page for that! https://bookstack.hku.nl/books/bare-conductive