Thread: VSA Trigger Help!

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Hi, new to the forums and this problem has been driving me crazy. I have a 3-axis talking skull and my own VSA routine but no way to trigger it during the haunt. I've been googling like a madman and the only things I've come up with are the Exorcist thing from skulltronix (too expensive) and the Helmsman program, which requires a PC with a built-in parallel port -- I haven't seen computers with those for 5 years.

Is there any way to trigger the VSA routine with a floor mat or handheld trigger (on a modern computer), or am I going to spend Halloween behind a curtain pressing the enter key manually?

I know that MonkeyBasic (Helmsman) was working on a USB based trigger but it appears it is not out yet. I am not sure if there is a way you can assign another input.

You could get a cheap usb keyboard & hack it so your trigger closes the enter key. You'd have to open it up & figure out what connections on the controller board you'd need to connect to emulate pressing the enter key.

The only thing I can think of off hand is since VSA is an active x control you can write a script to trigger it in Visual Basic.
Then if you can find one locally, an X10 starter kit can also utilize active x.
Using both drivers the script can watch for input from the X10 line and trigger your VSA program.

This may sound overly simplistic and may not be feasible in such a short amount of time but I am throwing it out there anyway.

A program like girder will listen for X10 signals and may be able to trigger VSA as well using macros.

I'm sorry this info is a little late to help you (I just recently joined!) but there is a product out there that is used by people who build PC based arcade cabinets, called the I-Pac.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.*

It's a board that connects to your PC (I suggest the USB version) that emulates a keyboard. You can program its various terminals to be any key strokes you wish (Enter, Spacebar, etc). From there, all you have to do is wire it up to what ever switch/button/pressure mat/motion detector/relay you want.

For a short term solution you can just hack up a keyboard, USB push button, or even a mouse button.