DIY Motion-Control: AD accelerometer evaluation board.

[bwanasonic]

For anyone interested experimenting with accelerometer control of effects, I'd thought pass on this quote from an email I got from Bob Chidlaw, discussing the Hot Hand effects:

As a hobbyist, you might be interested in buying an accelerometer board directly from Analog Devices.

http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0%2C2877%2CADXL320%2C00.html

For $30, you get a small evaluation board (less than 1" x 1") with a five pin connector on it.  Give it +5 V, and you get both accelerometer axes signals out, centered around 2.5V, with a range of 174 mV per g force.  You get a range of +/- 1 g just from tilting it.  Vigorous shaking can produce several g's.  We used these for a year or so, with various kludgy schemes to wear it on the hand.

I wasn't sure if it was OK to reveal the basic mechanism of the Hot Hand stuff, but Bob assured me it's common knowledge, and is proudly touted in their press releases. One thing I forgot to mention about the Hot Hand units, is they have an expression out jack that is a standard 1/4" jack that puts out the accelerometer info in an adjustable range, going up to 0 to 4 V. Can't wait to try one with my Blue Ringer.

Kerry M

[sta63bmx]

That is fascinating.  Analog Devices makes a lot of the parts that I throw away from things I salvage.   I never cease to be amazed by how much functionality people can cram into an IC or a small board, and how many times you think "Gee, I'd like to do such and such" and somebody already makes a chip for it.  I've learned the hard way a few times about the difference between spending a couple months trying to do something your own way and just buying an existing circuit and adapting it to your needs.

You could try mounting the device on your foot and using it as an expression pedal, or (better!) make something you could put on your head and then you could put your headbanging to use.  Now THAT would be cool.

[Eb7+9]

also ...

http://www.memsic.com/memsic/products/evaluation_boards.html

[bwanasonic]

You could try mounting the device on your foot and using it as an expression pedal, or (better!) make something you could put on your head and then you could put your headbanging to use.  Now THAT would be cool.

If you get a chance to try the Hot Hand, you may find that foot-control suddenly seems rather quaint and old fashioned! The level of articulation is much greater than I've been able to achieve in 30 years of using foot-control. For most people, the fine-motor control of their fingers is much greater than that of their feet! 

Kerry M