Thread: need help making a pressure mat

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I have a prop thats a guy in a coffin using 9vdc and he sits up in his little coffin and talks to people. he has a little try me button that someone has to stand and push to trigger him as the sensor on him doesn't work for crap.
We have tried striping and splicing the wires with one of spirits pressure mats to the wires from the try me button and it doesn't work and we have tried stripping and splicing with a screaming doormat wtih the try me switch and that won't work either. My husband works with electronics so he has some experience and can't figure out why the circuit won't complete. Any ideas would be great. Thank you.

well i am no electronics expert but could the mats and such be causing too much of a drop in current? Does it work if you short the wires?

Well....

I'm hoping someone has an answer for this... I'm sitting here with the wires for a pressure mat from Spirit and a dog skeleton that doesn't work very well ( unless you use the try me button ) in my hand right now, and my attempts to wire them together have been less than fruitful : )

The mat works, the dog works ( sort of ), I can't get them to work together. : (

Any help would be great !!!

I called the Spirit website customer service line and they told me the mats will not work with anything other than the Hovering ghost, The animated tombstone lifter and two other things that I can't remeber now. (I am assuming some other battery operated type things)
I told her that is the way it is described on the web site and she informed me she was not corportate and did not make the decisions of how things were described.
I am just counting myself lucky that I can use it with my hovering ghost that I got.
The ones they sell at Harbor Freight had the same funny little phone jack type end so we didn't want to try that one as it seemed the same.

Heck, I had already cut the wires any way... I had no plans to just plug it in and use it as is ... LOL. I really didn't think it would be that easy. Boy that sure would be nice . : )

The fact that you're using DC voltage, couldn't you just take say, a black garbage bag, glue some aluminum foil inside the bag on the top and bottom. Then solder or tape one of the "Try Me" button wires to the top piece, other wire to the bottom piece.
The use some cotton material (like those cheap Xmas tree skirts) of some of that batting material that looks like white cotton candy in between the two sheets of foil ( to keep it seperated). Cut some holes here and there in the cotton/batting so when the mat is stepped on, contact of the two aluminum foil sheets can be made.
I don't see why this wouldn't work. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure I've seen similar mats built this way.

Or just try this same set-up using the mat you've already got. Just cut it open a rework it. I've got one myself and I'm going to try it.

I always thought the 'try me' buttons were wired to a separate 'temp' battery of a slightly lower voltage than their normal operating voltage. Your probably experiencing too much voltage drop through the wire because of its length. I'm curious, does the 'try me' button work with the proper operating voltage applied to the item?

No, the "Try Me" button is hooked to the same batteries that power the prop.

UPDATE:

I just made one of these mats like I described and it worked perfectly! The only thing I did differently was to first tape the two the aluminum foil pieces to some thin cardboard of the same shape. Then taped one wire to one foil piece, the other wire to the other foil piece.
I had some thin cottony Christmas material ( I think it's for laying out before putting your Dept. 56 houses on. Looks like snow..). I cut a piece of that the same shape as the foil, then cut out circles (about the size of a 50 cent piece) all over the cotton material. Sandwiched that in between the foil sheets, taped it up and tested it. Worked like a charm! Took me about 20 minutes to make.
I think I'll make some more.............

This sounds too good to be true ! : )

I get out there and give it a try, thanks for all the help ! You rock Dave !

Drop me a PM if you have any problems. It's really very simple to make.
I guess the hardest part to find is the batting/cotton material. But, hey, all the stores are stocked for Christmas!! LOL
I tested mine on one of those Striking Snakes form Walgreen's and it worked super!