Setting Up Capacitive Touch Sensors

In the past week, we had an issue with setting up the capacitive sensors in the studio. To double-check if our issue was due to the studio's network or not, I took the sensor with me to try the same setup at home. After a few tries, I was able to make it work. Here are the detailed steps I followed:
  1. Make sure to download the latest version of Thonny. I originally had an older version, and until I updated the software, I wasn't able to proceed to step 2.
  2. Set the Thonny interpreter to MicroPython. Go to Tools > Options > Interpreter and set it to MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico). I left the remaining settings as is. Restart Thonny to make sure everything is set.

  3. Connect the capacitive sensors to the computer. The files and settings in Adafruit should appear at the bottom of the Files window in Thonny. (Open files window from View > Files.)

  4. Open the "settings.toml" file from the left window. Set the SSID and password to the same network that the computer is connected to. Leave the Web API password as is.


  5. Open the "code.py" file from the left window. On line 13, change the udp_host IP address to the IP address of the computer that will receive the data. Do not change the port number on line 16, but keep it in mind.

  6. Save both files and re-run Adafurit. Press the STOP button on top of the Thonny window to reboot.
  7. Disconnect the sensors from the computer and plug into a power source. Just a regular portable phone charger with a USB port will do.
  8. Launch TouchDesigner and create a "udp in" DAT. Set the port number according to the code (8888). From the dropdown, select "one per message" for Row/Callback format. Set the local address to the same computer IP address from the code.

  9. All done! Now hope for the best and see if the sensors work and data shows up in Touch. If it doesn't work, double-check the code for IPs and port number, make sure Adafruit is running before unplugging from the computer, and the portable battery is actually charged.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DMX in Unreal Engine

Image
Though I dived into Unreal DMX setup without confirming if my lights were properly connected, I eventually figured out how to get them to work through the engine! My main sources were the Unreal documentation and this specific  tutorial on Youtube. There are many tutorials that show cool DMX stuff that can be done in Unreal, but I've realized that only a limited few actually show how to pipe in the equipment into Unreal Engine or set up the network connections. Here are the steps I followed to get the lighting to work with Unreal: Creating a project and enabling plug-ins. I chose to create a DMX template project, which already came with all necessary plugins enabled. Changing project settings. I created a new "Output Port" and adjusted the settings based on the hardware and network I used. (The first 3 ports are the pre-existing ones from the project template.) - Net3 Gateway uses sACN protocol instead of Art-Net. - "Network Interface IP Address" is the main ...
Read more

Final Tests on CRMX

Image
Putting together everything I've researched and learned so far, created a mini set with DMX lighting on finals week. I've started by gathering all the equipment and setting up all the connections. After a few iterations, my final set included a camera, 5 Aputure lights (controlled via CRMX), and a big screen displaying the Unreal Engine scene for background. For my first test, I wanted to use a scene of a city with multiple, moving light sources. Looking through the Epic store, I found the free Soul City sample and decided to use it for its night scene. I've set up my scene in Unreal Engine and parented a Cine Camera and Scene Capture 2D camera to a locator. These cameras were facing the opposite way from each other. This way, the Cine Camera would render the scene behind the actor and put it on the display screen, while the Scene Capture 2D camera would calculate lighting information from the scene in front of the actor and send it to Pixel Mapping. To make the world move...
Read more

Pixel Mapping

Image
Here is one of the ideas that got stuck with me since the first week of class: taking the light information from a camera or a specific point in space in Unreal and doing some calculations to send the average color into a DMX light in the studio. While looking for information or ideas on how to achieve this, I've come across an Unreal feature called Pixel Mapping. And yes... this feature was exactly what I had been thinking of creating all this time, so turns out I don't have to reinvent the wheel! Here is the Unreal Pixel Mapping documentation with more detailed information. Since this feature didn't seem too complicated to set up, I wanted to give it a try and see how customizable it can be. This process simply has 3 main actors... 2D Scene Capture Camera: This camera is how the artist can decide which area in the scene will be captured in view and used for color averaging. Render Target: This actor takes the output from the camera and turns it into a texture. Pixel Mapp...
Read more