Pi-powered Wonder Pop Controller
Let me start by saying that I am responsible for the title of this blog post. The build’s creator, the wonderful Nicole He, didn’t correct me on this when I contacted her, sooooo…
Anyway, this is one project that caused the residents of Pi Towers (mainly Liz and me) to stare at it open-mouthed, praying that the build used a Raspberry Pi. This happens sometimes. We see something awesome that definitely uses a Raspberry Pi, Arduino or similar and we cross fingers and toes in the hope it’s the former. This was one of those cases, and a quick Instagram comment brought us the answer we’d hoped for.
I’ve shared Nicole’s work on our social channels in the past. A few months back, I came across her Grow Slow project tutorial, which became an instant hit both with our followers and across other social accounts and businesses. Grow Slow uses a Raspberry Pi and webcam to tweet a daily photo of her plant. The tutorial is a great starter for those new to coding and the Pi, another reason why it did so well across social media.
But we’re not here to talk about plants and Twitter. We’re here to talk about the Pi-powered Wonder Pop Controller; a project brought to our attention via a retweet, causing instant drooling.
The controller uses a Raspberry Pi, the Adafruit Capacitive Touch HAT, and copper foil tape to create a networked controller.
“I made it for a class about networks; the idea is that we make a physical controller that can connect to a game played over a TCP socket.”
Now, I’m sure someone will argue that it’s not the licking of the lollipop that creates the connection, but rather the licking of the copper tape. And yes, you’re right. But where’s the fun in a project titled ‘Pi-powered Lickable Copper Tape Controller‘? Exactly.
The idea behind this project is a nice starting block for using capacitive touch for video games controllers. While we figure out our creations, share with us any interesting controllers you’ve made.
… or make one this weekend and share it on Monday. I can wait.
*Continues to play with the sun on Nicole’s website instead of doing any work*
8 comments
Matt Richardson
I saw this and immediately thought that this MUST be an ITP project. And sure enough!
Alex Bate
I just wanted the lollipops!
shannon
Why is it that this contains copper tape, but the beet box and fruit piano don’t? I would expect some conductivity from the lolipops.
Also, that last post. As much as I liked your kittens, you can’t just post them willy nilly like that. Unless you provide a Pi tie in, you can throw off the kitten balance of the interwebs causing a cuteness singularity. Just be careful. with great cute comes great power.
Alex Bate
The kitten balance? I dunno, Shannon. I though the internet was 100% kittens and we should feel honoured to simply exist alongside them.
Shannon
Oh NO! It’s too late! :-)
WhatJustHappened
Those kittens are about probably the only things that makes sense in this now increasingly insane world.
Doug
I don’t have any hard data on lollipop conductivity but I think that the boiled sugar and 0 water content probably makes it a good electrical insulator instead of a conductor
Vehicle Black Box
Love Raspberry PI 3. Thanks for the wonderful projects and support. We ourselves developed a Vehicle Black Box and it’s doing well. Raspberry PI 3 wifi+bluetooth helps us add more features to our IOT.