The Question--What to Sense?

So, this week I decided to use the Step Response as my Input Device of choice. It will work well within my final project, "The Alternative World Chess Set", which will basically track when the pawn gets to the other end of the board. If you're curious why this is significant, my Ongoing. Final Project Progressions page shall be more explicit.

So, after working through the rationale of the step response and the mechanics of how it works, physically, I went to begin the design of a circuit board for this process.

I went ahead to the mill and trace of this board, which were both successful in their first attempts. Seriously, WOHOO! I was going to use the pre-provided .c and makefile in my first attempt, and then perhaps try out Processing. Alas, as most things, I didn't get past this.

What I realized through this process is that there was a fundamental flaw with the design of my board. Part of this was a fundamental misunderstanding and rationale for some of these components. If I had to explain my board, and talk you through why the Resistor here was connected to the component there, and the why this Capacitor is connected to this Resistor and not that one, I honestly couldn't tell you.

So, what was unleashed through this process, is that I am seriously circuit-challenged. My background in physics isn't too bad, but the process / toolchain, from drawing this out in terms of voltages, etc., to the actual board schematic and design, is rather rocky. In some ways I feel like I've skipped several grades from Physics 197/198 in undergrad to this. Eeep!

Next steps are to further unpack this whole process, and work to incorporate this Input Device with the Output Device week, and focus on my foundational understandings. Wish me Good Luck!