Playin' around with VSA

OK, so in the past I've used I.R. sensors & pressure mats to trigger props. It's always worked OK, but there have been times when the triggers failed, or the timing was off, or (worst of all) the props have been too frightening for the young TOT's & I've wished they didn't fire. I like the of manually triggering the props, but don't want to be tied to a wired control panel. I could use a simple wireless remote, but why do that when I can do it a much geekier way?



The routines in the video are just audio only examples, but they are .vsa files. I'm using Monkey Basic's awesome Helmsman to pre-load the VSA files, and a free program called EventGhost to trigger them. EventGhost has a web server plug-in that lets you create web pages with buttons on them that can trigger events on the computer. (EventGhost can do lots of other things, too. The learning curve is a little steep, but once you're past it you can do some really cool stuff.)

The video's just a proof of concept & I still have a few bugs to work out, but it works!
Once I get the kinks worked out I'll write up a how - to.