At first I felt this device was primarily a grade school level "curiosity" that allowed for creative construction of circuits using produce... once I got over the fruit and vegetable piece I began to see the potential for MakeyMakey to become a generic input device for Arduino, with which you can use ANYthing as a "switch" to generate input.
Thinking about the challenge of "grounding" the typical MakeyMakey fruit keyboards led me to realize that the only requirement is that the input device complete a circuit - this opens up the possibilities for materials, and a quick look around my shop yielded everything I would need for a DIY joystick. I wasn't sure about the galvanized nails and sheet metal, so tested the conductivity beforehand. MakeyMakey sure doesn't require much current to "trigger" a signal! A little bit of creative drilling to insert the spring and provide enough space underneath for the center screw to move a bit as the handle is tipped. An improvement that could be made is in the connection between the two metal strips, ground wire and handle. I think soldering that piece together would probably take care of it, but the holes in those strips also widened out enough that they are no longer held tight against the bottom of the handle. Room for improvement...
I didn't explore the MakeyMakey/Arduino link for this project, but I know that is something I need to pursue further at some point!
The Scratch project was pretty quick to put together: the big jump in my Scratch skills lately has been the incorporation of conditional statements, variables and sensing to push my "interactive" games forward!
Dan's "Interactive Art" gives us a great avenue for trying some of this with students: I suspect we can enlist our Art teacher to collaborate on an Interactive Art exhibit... maybe even try out some Wired Apparel?
MakeyMakey Beginnings
DIY Joystick project
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