Our first XPort assignment was to create a physical client for a networked Pong game. Anything would work as long as you could make the virtual paddle move left and right. My idea was to use a urinal, to allow players to urinate on two sensors to move left or right. (Yes it’s been done before.) I found a kids “training” urinal, which made for an easy-to–hack controller. My original intention was to use force-sensitive resistors (FSR’s) to trigger left/right movement, and they worked well in testing. However, I was unable to complete a working controller. Here’s what I learned:
- FSR’s are extremely fragile (I broke four and ran out of replacements)
- You can’t use the terminal “screen” command to listen in on serial communication between an Arduino and an XPort. If you do, the commands will never be received by the XPort!
- Vinyl tape stuck to plastic is not particularly watertight.