Motion activated sound issue HELP

[danbrookwell]

I had a circuit made for a haunted house I work on that utilized a tin foil step plate to trigger a sound effect. The circuit works by the guest stepping on the plate, which sends a signal to a series of relays that then use the ps2 keyboard keys [CTRL] followed by [P], which when connected to the PC are the keyboard shortcuts for windows media player to play the sound. Everything seems to work fine with the circuit (i can ear the relays when someone steps on it) but the computer doesnt seem to be recognizing the device as a keyboard.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible as we are opening tonight with this new device...

Thanks and sorry to be so abrupt,
Dan

 

[cpf]

Did you reboot the PC with this keyboard thing attached? If you manually trigger the key contacts does it work?

 

[danbrookwell]

If i reboot the PC with only the circuit plugged in I get an error saying theres no keyboard. If i plug in my USB keyboard while the circuit is in as well and do the CTRL-P command on that it works fine. It seems like the computer just isn't recognizing the CTRL-P command from the circuit.

 

[FMEng]

Try booting with a different, un-altered PS2 keyboard plugged in and see if the computer recognizes it. That would tell you whether it is a computer issue, or a problem with your circuit design.

 

[cpf]

If i reboot the PC with only the circuit plugged in I get an error saying theres no keyboard. If i plug in my USB keyboard while the circuit is in as well and do the CTRL-P command on that it works fine. It seems like the computer just isn't recognizing the CTRL-P command from the circuit.

If it's saying there's no keyboard, then whatever you've got rigged up to act like a keyboard has ceased to perform as such, hence your problem.

For future reference: a much more flexible (and reliable) way to do this sort of thing while keeping it simple and DIY is an Arduino reading your input/s and sending a serial message to the PC, which is running gobetwino (or similar) to take that message and turn it into keystroke/s. Very little programming required, and you can read directly from nearly any type and number of sensors without the need for relays or timing circuits or...

 

[danbrookwell]

I got it working thanks FMEng

 

[Van]

Easier than the Arduino route ( but still fun and crafty) I present: The MakeyMakey !
Designed for doing exactly what you are trying to accomplish.

< technically it IS Arduino based but it's prebuilt and YOU don't have to do the coding>