[Lynn]

I need to connect a mat switch to an MP3 player! When someone steps on the Mat the MP3 player will play.

Has anyone tried this? I can't imagine that its not been done but I didn't see much on a search....
I have the really cheap mp3 player that has an on off switch on the side and the round button on the front that is for play/pause, volume up/Down and FF to the next song or back to the last one. Its about an inch and quarter square.

Anyone know of a hack that they have seen, or know how I can do this? I am ready just to start taking it apart and see what I can come up with but I thought it would be good to check here first. No sense in doing this the hard way if someone has already tried it!
Thanks in advance!

 

[J-Man]

There are really cheap mp3/wav players on ebay that use a micro SD card, much more suited for the purpose. What you have could possibly be hacked but not all of those types are. That being said, either way you'll need some type of controller to trigger the player, just a step mat won't do it. The step mat will trigger the controller and the controller will operate the mp3 player.

 

[Kwll2112]

Just an out of box thought…
If you only needed the sound to be heard when someone steps on the mat and it didn't need to start playing from a certain point, you could wire the mat to make the connection to the speaker. IOW, when someone steps on the mat, the circuit to the speaker is closed and the audio would be heard. The issue, of course, is that the sound would come on at whatever point the track was at.

 

[J-Man]

And, it would be dependant on that person staying on the step mat which in itself can be quite annoying.

 

[Lynn]

Well, I have an amp that the speakers will play thru... and it is an amp that I will play many sounds to many speakers so just turning "on" the speaker wont work.

If an mp3 player has only one sound on it and you hit play and the player is set to just play the one song and not repeat, wont it play the one song and then stop until you push play again? Guess I need to check it out.,,,,
If that's the case... wouldn't the player play the sound until its done and then when someone steps on the mat it would play again until its done?
I'm probably trying to make this simpler than it is.

 

[Lynn]

So... the sound will only play as long as someone is stepping on the mat?

 

[J-Man]

Does the player play the track when you press and HOLD the play button? Is the play button also the PAUSE button? Again, most likely it won't work without some type of controller.

 

[Lynn]

Yes, if you push the play button it plays, push it again and it pauses. you don't have to hold it for it to continue to play....

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

the mat has to act as a momentary switch, meaning it makes contact for just a moment in order to trigger a sequence from a transistor, relay, 555 trigger, or another type of control. The simple fix you are looking for doesn't really exist. if you could hack the mp3 player so that you could find the circuit that triggers the play button, you could use the mat as the play button. the problem is that you would need another mat to pause the player. This won't work because it won't reset to the beginning of the track.
the simplest trigger would be a 555 timer with some transistors, but i am thinking you want somethong you don't have to solder together.

 

[DustinBurgin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgbCJzd7Oys&t=164s

I've been doing something like this for my props.

 

[Bosco P. Soultrane]

Yes, that is very cool, but good for background sound, if you want a repeating triggered sound it doesn't work for that.

 

[DustinBurgin]

I normally use a track that dosent matter where it picks up during the loop. Like if it's a zombie prop I will have a zombie moaning track playing. Yeah it's a bit generic but it's cheap and easy.

 

[J-Man]

Yes, if you push the play button it plays, push it again and it pauses. you don't have to hold it for it to continue to play....

Yeah, that won't work with just a mat switch. As Bosco has explained, you need a momentary trigger which again, needs some type of controller as I mentioned at the start.