Project development: Creaky Floor

[bluebunny]

I was in Japan a few years back and visited a very old home where the floors were made to be intentionally squeaky to act as a form of burglar alarm should anyone attempt to gain entry in the middle of the night. The squeaks sounded almost like chirping birds 

A friend of mine had the whole of his front garden covered in gravel for the same reason.  Then complained when I walked small sharp stones onto his pristine wooden floors...   

[anotherjim]

... I've been cutting-up a floorboard for a noisemaker front panel of late.

And you covered the hole with a rug, right?)

A friend of mine had the whole of his front garden covered in gravel for the same reason.  Then complained when I walked small sharp stones onto his pristine wooden floors...   

So next time you hop over there - go barefoot. Then they'll complain about the blood...

[marcelomd]

I was in Japan a few years back and visited a very old home where the floors were made to be intentionally squeaky to act as a form of burglar alarm should anyone attempt to gain entry in the middle of the night. The squeaks sounded almost like chirping birds 

regards, Jack

From Wikipedia:

Nightingale floors (鴬張り or 鶯張り, uguisubari) About this soundlisten (help·info) are floors that make a chirping sound when walked upon. These floors were used in the hallways of some temples and palaces, the most famous example being Nijō Castle, in Kyoto, Japan. Dry boards naturally creak under pressure, but these floors were built in a way that the flooring nails rub against a jacket or clamp, causing chirping noises. It is unclear if the design was intentional. It seems that, at least initially, the effect arose by chance. An information sign in Nijō castle states that "The singing sound is not actually intentional, stemming rather from the movement of nails against clumps in the floor caused by wear and tear over the years". Legend has it that the squeaking floors were used as a security device, assuring that none could sneak through the corridors undetected.

[PRR]

A friend of mine had the whole of his front garden covered in gravel for the same reason.  Then complained when I walked small sharp stones onto his pristine wooden floors...   

School I used to work for did it different. The back garden was "carpeted" in round river-stones. Ideal for breaking into office windows.

A few blinking lights deterred the vandals for a few years.

[EBK]

Dropping a note here, mostly for myself:

I need to add the trim components to the schematic.  It is a 10k trimpot in series with a 2.7k fixed resistor and a toggle switch.  This entire combination is placed in parallel with the FSR.  When connected by the toggle, it reduces the effective resistance of the FSR when no force is applied.  For the circuit, this mimics the condition where a bit of force is applied.  Adjustable from (basically) none to enough to light the second bar.

When no bars are lit, there is no audio output. When the first bar is lit, the output is a buffered version of the pedal input.  When the second bar is lit, the output is buffered version of the return jack signal.

[EBK]

Edit: cleaner schematic.

[EBK]

A quick and crude demo with a clean input and a noisy fuzz connected to the send/return (yes, I know. I buffered a fuzz...  ).  It shows that the pedal works.  I'll make music with it later.

If you missed the description of how this works:
Think of the LED bars as being numbered from 1 to 10, top to bottom.  When an odd bar is lit, you hear the input jack signal.  When an even bar is lit, you hear the return jack signal.  The bar graph also serves as a force meter.

[bluebunny]

[duck_arse]

what does the bargraph on the sausage indicate/quantify?

[bluebunny]

what does the bargraph on the sausage indicate/quantify?

Ten scorch marks = I think Eric has his full weight on it.

[EBK]

That demo video is also a demo of my Cuban cigar box amp, by the way (as picked up by my tiny cell phone mic and compressed by my phone and YouTube  ).

[EBK]

Some more fun noises, this time with a flanger:

[EBK]

For completeness, here is the Creaky Floor by itself, with nothing plugged into the send/return jacks:

[fowl]

The socks sound just like the shoes.

[EBK]

I started to record one barefoot, but decided against it.   

[anotherjim]

I started to record one barefoot, but decided against it.   

Will your toenails grow back after you made picks out of them?

[EBK]

Yes, but I'm still keeping my socks on. 

[EBK]

Minor update:  I cleaned up the schematic above.

[lubdar]

I was just directed to this project, and Whoa!!! very interesting!!!

[Phend]

EBK; You have exactly 14 days to get this done before Halloweeeeeen.
(I was going to say your pedal stinks but see it might not be the pedal after all)