I have been promising a few people I would produce some sort of guide as to how I built my gloves. I thought it best to start a new thread, because my previous threads had become a bit cluttered. But please still refer back to those as well
I have put up a really rough and ready web-site which I believe will provide links to a set of videos to show how I made and use my gloves. Nothing fancy, so I'm not sure for example what will happen when 2 people try to view a video at the same time. I'll try to keep them short, so if you go to view one and can't, make yourself a nice cup of tea and try again.
The first video - an introduction - is available now. I'll try not to take too long doing the rest. This video shows what I refer to as the Mk4 glove. A few bits change for the Mk5 - notably the tactor housing and the resistor box. But they are more similar than different
The purpose of this first video is to show what a klutsy odd method of building these gloves I have come up with - since it may well not appeal. It is very much a lego building project. Fairly simple, but hardly elegant
Anyway - the glove building project can be found here curepd2.com
Please note this is just a detailed explanation of what I have done for those who expressed interest. I make no claims regarding any use it is put to, and indeed would caution that my own experiences have not been straightforward
Written by
WinnieThePoo
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OK - I've uploaded a couple more videos. I might re-do number 3 but it's alright. I also plan to add some text which explains without mumbling. I will update the parts list spreadsheet. It may take another week or so, but it should explain how they are made
Richard, who is the right professional figure to make gloves? A biomedical engineer ? I found difficulty with an electrical engineer who offered himself but with the supervision of a doctor. In fact, he argued that use by the patient can be risky without the presence of a doctor. What do you think about this? Thank you
I think there are 2 issues. Making the gloves, and supervising their use.
Anybody can make the gloves.
Ideally their use should be supervised by a medical professional (in my opinion). The problem is , of course, that none of the neurologists or mds know anything about coordinated reset. I was fortunate to have supportive medical professionals - but in the end they were not much use when I encountered problems
Making the gloves - any competent hobbyist. So far, I have demonstrated that the "brains" is a question of buying the right boxes on Amazon, and linking them up with standard cables from Amazon
Next comes the gloves - which my wife made for me, but I reckon I could have managed if I had to - maybe not as neatly
Other than that - there are some plastic parts to have 3d printed. If you ask around, you may have a friend with a 3d printer who would print them for you. But there are always professional printers. I used Xometry xometry.eu/en/3d-printing/ who can easily supply you in Italy
Then there are 3 soldering projects - resistor box, glove RJ45 box and tactor / exciter. There is no need for any electrical knowledge - although I will show in a video how to carry out some basic circuit continuity checks with a 20 euro multimeter. The soldering is a bit fiddly - but if I can do it, anyone can. Again - you may have a friend who does a bit of electronics as a hobby. Otherwise , a local electrical repairer might do it. Once you've learned the basic technique, just follow the video.
If you are going to do it yourself buy some decent wire-strippers and a proper solder station, and a "no hands" device to hold components.
On behalf of myself, Richard, Thank you SO VERY much for your EXTREMELY kind efforts in doing this for ALL of us on this forum who are SO very interested in any/all information in making the gloves. You and your team are truly appreciated for this helpful information. All of us will never know unless we try, so it is VERY much appreciated and worth the effort to at least try IMO. Thank you Again! Melodi 😁
Video 5 - the horror show. Don't worry, I won't give up my day job. I will probably try to produce some notes to go with that one. It shows how a tactor is made, but probably makes too many assumptions
A few more tweaks. The T bars are to press only on the solder tags, and not compress the exciter mechanism. I can now use shorter M3 bolts. Probably a bit rash doing the "how to build" demo on a version I hadn't built before. Also, the 9mm devices seem much less sensitive than the 13mm ones and I need maximum power. Since they are rated at 1W 4 ohms. I have ordered some 5W 10ohm resistors and will use 2 in series with 2 exciters in series. If I've done my sums right, that should be 1W per exciter and 2.6W per resistor. I tried them direct from the amp with the volume control down, and they are surprisingly good. (Am sure I must have done that long ago before I bought them, but they spooked me a bit just clipped into the existing glove). There will accordingly be a bit of a pause before the next video
Video 6 is in fact, for now 3 videos. A bit messy and rambling they nevertheless show how simple it is to build these gloves if you can use a soldering iron. That completes building the glove. There is just the resistor box to do now. The resistors arrived in the post literally 10 minutes ago, so I should have a video done by the weekend at the latest. Hopefully they make sense
first of all I can tell you that your videos will be very useful to me. A person I know is evaluating the feasibility of making Tass's gloves. He asks me for information about the intensity of the stimulus to which I don't know how to respond and which I try to address to you. The question is this: considering that a vibro-tactile device must be driven with an alternating voltage at a certain frequency, what are the amplitude limits of this voltage? What are the limits of amplitude of this current? We know from the literature only the frequency limits: 10-300Hz. Thanks for your kindness.
It's not easy to give a definitive answer. Maybe some of the engineers can give you an answer. The frequency of the signal should be 250hz - about a 3rd octave B note. The power needed to drive a device at that frequency will vary from device to device. My new exciters are driven at their maximum amplitude by 1wRMS of power (15vx0.5amps.)Now Peter Tass, using a device which vibrates perpendicular to the skin measures amplitude by measuring how much the tip of his contact point moves in and out in mm of travel. (I, and I think everyone else, interprets that as unloaded movement. That is how far the tip moves in free space - NOT - pressed against the finger tip
With my new exciter at full 1w RMS power the movement is about 0.3mm. So to get nearer to 0.1mm I will be setting the volume controls at 9 or 10 o'clock
Provided the device is operated within its design limits the precise voltage and current are not the best measure of amplitude.
The tass lra is unusual in being more like an exciter than traditional lra. Most LRAs will be buzzing too loud long before 0.1mm of perpendicular motion is achieved.
we are moving forward based on the videos and information you provide us. Is what you call an exciter actually the vibrotactile device? Is there a specific model you are referring to? Are they the same ones that Dr. Tass uses? Thank you very much Richard.
I have a parts list which needs to be updated. The exciter is the component which makes the vibrations. It is basically a loudspeaker driver without the cone. It is the device I solder a connector to in video 5. It is a Dayton DAEX-9-4SM. You will need 8 (I would buy 10 because you'll break 2). You can get them from here
You will need some items 3d printed. I can supply you with stl files. I just need to finish building these and have a bit of a tidy up - to create a full current set of 3d printing items
They are not the ones Dr Tass uses (which cost $300 each, if you can get them) - but they work on the same principle - a small diameter contact point, pre-loaded against the skin, which moves perpendicular to the skin surface, and is mounted in an enclosure which damps extraneous noise
I'm hoping to publish a parts list and outline build instructions later today. The exciter driver is a 4 channel amplifier - which will be on the parts list
Good morning Richard, could you kindly provide us with some more details on the signals generated by the driver and on the control unit that coordinates the driver's activity? Thank you very much.
The control unit is a raspberry pi 3. It's a small inexpensive Linux computer. All it does is to play a 6 channel audio file of which only 4 channels are used. It plays 100ms bursts of 0db 250 hz sine waves in one of the patterns used by stanford and Peter tass
I think if you take a look at the parts list and build description it will make more sense. I am on a 10 day break in the UK. I will try to get the last video done as soon as I get back
Hi WTP. Thank you for all of your efforts on this project, I believe it's going to help a lot of Parkies have a better life. As I mentioned in another post, I have built and been using the buzz box with some good results. I will be building your gloves next, but had a question- Would the Arduino Nano work to drive the audio amp? Also, will you make the 3d files downloadable? Thanks for all you do and congrats on the new addition to your family.
But wait, there's more! Your chosen amp is back ordered, what kind of output do we need? Parts Express has plenty of small stereo amps that might fit in the footprint of your four channel amp. If I wanted to blow my fingertips off, for $129 I could get 4x 140 watts! JK.
I appreciate a few people are waiting and I will try to get this moving next week when I get home.Most of the material I have shared has been for the mk4 glove which I am wearing as I type. But I plan to use the mk5 gloves going forward.
And the videos, the parts list and the build description refer to the mk5.
But I haven't actually built a pair yet. I am waiting for Mrs WTP to make some new smaller pod holders for me
I will share online stls of all 3d printed parts and the ac3 audio track. But I don't want to be trying to support 2 designs simultaneously. Amplifier next
That amp looks fine. As I start going through the parts list I'm finding some links are clickable and some not, even if I save another copy to edit. I'm not smart enough to figure out what's going on in xcel.
Here you go, these links are good: 1,7,8,10,13,16,17,21,23,26,41, which are all blue. All the other links are black and do not work. When I get a chance I'll try to put together a parts list for US Amazon.
I have added the links to the bottom of the Word document which describes the build. Can you take a look and let me know if any aren't working for you please?
The 9mm exciters need 1w RMS power and are not capable of handling in excess of 1w power. My resistor box achieves that for the 50w amp I am using because a friend spotted it and said "that would do". So you could just as easily use 2 stereo amps or 4 mono ampsIt's probably better to be able to control the gain on each channel independently which my 4 channel amp allows. I might get a 2nd amp and battery so I can adjust each fingertip individually instead of in pairs.
If your chosen amp has a power output which is not 50w into 8 ohms then you need to adjust the circuit. (if it is more than 50w you could just keep the volume turned down)
I'm experimenting with a 3 finger option this morning. I realised there was a connection fault on the invoice finger of the left hand and I don't have the tools with me to fix it so I have disabled and unpoppered both index fingers. It's. much nicer to use like this
Hi Winnie, I'm working on getting the parts ordered from Amazon US. One I'm not sure about is the rj45 to PCB. Does this look right: amazon.com/Network-Ethernet...
Thank you, Winnie. I will get all of my parts on the way tomorrow. I got my first batch of 3d parts, but they didn't realize there were multiples required of some of them. I'll post pics tomorrow.
Ah. Sorry. Yes I should have made it clear that you need 8 sets of the tactor housings, contact points - and a few sets (16) of the T bars - although you can cut those out of stiff carboard. I also discovered that the "winged" RJ45 housing lid prints messily. It works, but its not pretty. The wings were below the plane of the housing in the middle. I've redone it and will update the website.
Hi Winnie, just to clarify things- could you look at this picture and cross reference my letters to your descriptions or part numbers? I'm a little confused about the tactors, though that may become clear when I get the actuators Thursday. Thanks!
This illustrates the point. Bringing the pattern on the right hand to the left hand gets 1 to pinkie instead of 1 to index. Turning the pattern upside down fixes it
There are 8 wires connected to the rj45 socket on each hand. 4 pairs. Look at my right hand. The 1st pair, ch1, go naturally to my index finger. The 4th pair ch4 to my pinkie. Now across the fingers of my left hand is that same arrangement. But now the far left pair, ch1 goes to my pinkie and the far right pair, ch4 to my index finger. Back at the amplifier there are only 4 channels. We want the same signal., the same channel sent to the same finger at the same time. If I wired up the rj45 the same on both hands I would need to cross the wires over to make ch1 play on the index finger. But if I leave the wiring the same and turn the rj45 upside down, as illustrated below, now ch1 is the index again and ch4 the pinkie. So there are 2 versions of the rj45 box. The box is fixed to the glove by elastic straps over the "wings" on the box. The right hand glove has the wings on the base of the box. The left hand box has the wings on the lid. So the left hand box is fitted upside down.
OK, I more or less understand that. Can you still cross reference your 3d part numbers to the letters on my photo? I'm still not sure which part is "the box". I claim cognitive problems!
Briefly A&J house the resistors to control the power going to the exciters. It's the last video I have to do and I'll do it this weekendF is the contact point that is stuck to the exciter
"I"are t-bars used to keep the exciter in place by being dropped into the slots in D which is the middle slice of the exciter housing. E is the lid and H the base.
G is an rj45 box made from a winged box and a winged base. It needs splitting into its 2 parts and combined with B and C to make a winged base and a winged lid rj45 box
Thanks, Winnie. My actuators did arrive, but I didn't walk down to the Post Office in time and they close at noon on Saturdays. I'll pick them up Monday, but I'm still missing the Dolby box. I need to re-watch all the videos to see where that multiplug (input to the resistor box) came from.. I don't see it in my big pile'o'parts.
I think you are referring to the plug on the back of the amplifier. You can connect the wires using the screw terminals, but if you pull gently the plug will come out
I still havent built my Mk5 gloves. I havent done a full set of finger pods - partly because the DAEX -9-SM is very delicate, and I broke one of the wires on the first prototype (which, to be fair, has had quite a lot of rough handling). Investigating the best way to make them properly robust distracted me. I think a small rubber band is the solution!
But I have now tested the Mk5 resistor box. I had a fault on the Mk4 gloves (which are the ones I am using at the moment) and it was in part due to one of the RJ45s on the Mk4 box. So I plugged in and tested the Mk5. Fortunately it works beautifully. However, I had a bit of a panicky moment when I forgot that the drivers are wired in series. If one of them is not plugged in, the other one won't work. The Mk4 box is wired in parallel so you don't get that problem. Just bear in mind when testing that both hands have to be plugged in or nothing works!
Hi Winnie, my nephew noticed when printing the plunger that sticks to the actuator, that it's actually two pieces that are stuck together with support material, rather than one piece. Is that what you intended?? There is no strength at all as support material is intended to easily come apart.
Oops. Not quite sure how that happened. I have, I hope, uploaded a corrected version. I have also uploaded a corrected version of the resistor box lid with the bar for holding the RJ45's on the correct side this time. It's an easy fix without reprinting. Stick on a suitable bar with superglue. I used 2 tabs from "one-shot" eyedrops, but an ice-lolly stick, or a strip of thick cardboard would all do the job. It's just to make the support bar a bit fatter on the RJ45 side. But I have uploaded a corrected version if you prefer to print that
For bbc680 - it's the only way I can share pics. These are all the components. The red wire is longer than the black, by about 40mm. Red to one end. Black to the other. The black wire goes vertically up, and the red wire is soldered to go vertically down.
The exciter slots into the base. The red wire goes underneath and joins the black wire at the end furthest from the wrist so they can go up and back over the assembled housing
I think this picture explains my rj issue. My connector is much longer than yours. Back to Amazon.. Thanks so much for the pictures, they are really helpful.
Sorry. Not sure what happened there, but I think I've fixed it. I need to find some time to tidy this up. It's too scruffy. But you should find a link to the disk image now with the videos
I am aware of another issue I need to fix. My resistor box uses 10 ohm resistors (2 in series per channel). I was explaining the calculations for the system to another person making the gloves and realised they should have been 15 ohm resistors. I don't see it as too serious, because I am using the 10 ohm resistors, and nothing has blown up. But I'll probably change it when I eventually get this project properly finished (probably October)
Got the file, thank you so much. For others, note that the file is 19 Gb, so it may take a while to download depending on your internet. It took 20 minutes for me. Judging by the file size I would guess this would be for 2 hours of play?
I like your website as is! It gets the job done and reflects the DIY mindset of substance over excessive style.
Thought I'd jump in here and share some links to some of the components WTP uses that are available here in the U.S. since I'm in the process of building his glove system. (After building and using another buzz glove system, I've decided to pursue his. I'll explain why in a separate post at some point).
Currently awaiting arrival of the audio exciters and a new 3D printer to really get going but here's what I ended up ordering to match Winnie's components:
Poyiccot RJ45 Breakout, RJ45 Screw Terminal Adaptor - 2 2-packs (these are different than Winnie's but they're what I've used on current gloves and seem to work well)
Hope that helps others in the U.S. who may be interested in building Winnie's glove system.
I'll do another post in a few weeks once I've got it built and running. For now, aside from wiring up the resistors and wiring on the board, I just have to wait for the final parts to arrive.
Thanks again to Winnie for all of the detailed instructions, videos, parts list, etc.
A bit belatedly I have just checked the items linked to and they are all correct. you will have to modify the resistor box and rj45 housings for the solderless connectors. and there may need to be a bit of software configuration change for the touch screen, but we'll make it work, i'm sure
Yeah, was planning to make a few minor tweaks to the resistor box. The touch screen actually did work. But like you say in your video, it needs configuration work. For now I'm gonna just do like you and use a mouse rather than fiddle with it.
Wondering if you can clarify a thing or two about building the resistor box.
First, we need to drill holes through the + tracks that the resistors are installed in. Is it one hole per track or two and where on the track should the holes be? I've been assuming that we need to drill two breaks in each track, one for each resistor on that track so that the current flows through each of the resistors and not along the track? So, basically drill each hole in each track underneath where each resistor will go? Is that right? So, total of two hole per track x 4 positive tracks = 8 holes?
Second, (forgive my extremely weak understanding of circuits) based on your diagram, it looks like the left-most track with resistors feeds both the left and right hands via the left-most socket in each RJ45?
So, starting at the yellow wire coming out of the amplifier socket on the left side, current will flow up the left-most positive track, through the two resistors on that track and then into the purple wire going to RJ45 Right on to the audio exciter and then back out the blue wire on RJ45 Right, back to the left-most + strip on the veroboard, then over to the blue wire going to the RJ45 Left, on to the audio exciter and back out through the light purple wire that goes to the left-most negative strip on the veroboard and from there back to the amp, thereby completing that circuit? Then similar for each of the other +/- pairs. Have I got that right?
2 holes per track, to break the track in between the resistor connections, and force the current to flow through the resistor. I don't drill a hole - just enough to break the track, but it doesn't matter if you drill a hole all the way through.
Gosh - what a flaky schematic. The exciters are wired in series in this version (mk5). So the current flows out of the positive terminal of the amp , through the resistors, then the wire to the right RJ45 then the left RJ45 and back along the negative track to the negative amplifier terminal. 4 sets, 1 for each finger. Of course, to be pedantic, its an AC current, so it flows backwards and forwards along that path. The important thing ,is you need to drill another track-break between the wires of the right hand RJ45
Talking colours, looking at the right track, (no idea why I reversed the colour scheme between amplifier connections and RJ45 connections - very confusing)
out of the blue (amp,2nd from right) up through both resistors, out the brown, back through - hold on. I'll redo the diagram and come back...
Thanks! Maybe in the new diagram some way of designating where the holes in the tracks go would help. Maybe add red dots on the tracks where the breaks are?
So. break the copper track at e6 , e15, e21, g6, g15, g21, i6, i15, i21, k6, k15, and k21.
ok - the current flows out of the amplifier blue wire, through both resistors, up blue to RJ45(right) back another blue from RJ45(right) up blue to RJ45(left) back green from RJ45(left) to track "L" and from the other end of "L" to the other amplifier terminal through green
absolute phase is not important. it doesnt matter if green is connected to + on the amplifier and blue to - or green to - and blue to +. if they were a loudspeaker system it would matter - but its not important for the gloves.
So I finally have all of the components and everything connected as I understand it. I went to do a simple functional test and ... no joy, no action in the audio exciters. I've confirmed that the Raspberry Pi is outputting the audio file by connecting it to a TV via the HDMI - the audio file was audible through the TVs speakers.
In my test I have the Pi connected to the audio extractor input via HDMI. The audio extractor connected to the amp via the RCA cables SR SL FR FL sockets and the amp connected to the resistor board and the resistor board connected to the audio exciters via RJ45 connectors and ethernet cable. I haven't actually built the gloves yet, just have the audio exciters in their housings and wired up to RJ45 connectors.
All of the electrical components showed power on. I tried a couple of options on the amp - there's a little push button on the back - I tried both in and out states. I tried adjusting the volume knob on the audio extractor as well as the knobs on the amp (didn't crank it up to 11 though).
Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot? My guess is that I've messed something up on the resistor board. Visual inspection shows the wires and resistors soldered in and the breaks are in the right spot. I did a very simple multimeter continuity test and the tracks show connectivity from one end to the other.
My main suspicion at the moment is that maybe I've used too small a wire gauge from the amp to the resistor board. I used, probably very stupidly, 28 gauge wire because that's what I had lying around. WinnieThePoo mentions using 5 Core cable in his video which I think might be 16 gauge. Could the 28 gauge wire be acting like another resistor and limiting the current to the board way too much?
Any other ideas?
Thanks.
Amp connected to resistor board and ethernet to audio exciters
The gauge of wire used won't affect it. If you have a regular hi fi loudspeaker available connect it to one of the amplifier channelsBut first I would check the hdmi extractor is producing a signal. Does your TV, or anything else have rca inputs? If so, connect each of the 4 hdmi extractor outputs in turn and confirm they have a signal
Yeah, I've got to RCA inputs on the TV. So connect one pair of RCA leads from the audio extractor to the TV vs the amp. What kind of signal should that produce (in other words how will I know there's a signal)?
I connected the Pi up to the extractor via HDMI cable and the extractor RCA leads to the TV and got no indication. I had previously connected the Pi to the TV via a different HDMI cable and tried that again and got the audio file playing on the TV. So, I used that successful HDMI cable to connect the Pi up to the extractor (instead of the one I'd been trying) and got a green light for the first time. So, bad HDMI cable was part of the problem. But I'm not getting any audio out from the TV when the extractor is hooked up to the RCA inputs on the TV.
To me it sounded just like when I play your audio file on my computer or directly from the Pi to the TV. I connected the two speakers' wires to one set of amp outputs and it worked and then tried it through the other set and it worked. I did find that pressing the little button on the back of the amp either in or out altered the signal and sound sound it essentially sounded like half of what it should.
you could attach a spare exciter direct to the power amp with the volume turned right down and then increase the volume gradually. but before you do that, turn off the amp and measure the resistance between + and - on each channel. it should be 20 to 50 ohms
first - lets check for a signal out of the hdmi extractor into the amp. with a lead like the one in the picture plugged into the amp and a mobile phone / tablet or pc, you should be able to hear the extractors play music
with a lead like that and a "sound box" (Alexa, PC desktop speakers) , you should be able to hear sounds from the extractor . you can only test 2 channels at a time. test them all sequentially
ok. if you can get sound out of every channel using hifi speakers, you've done the hard part. lets have a look at what the resistor box problem is. can you provide some photos? with the volume turned right down, plug an extractor in direct to test its working
Ok, some new info after trying a few of your suggestions. I connected an audio exciter directly to the amp with volume at 0 and slowly increased volume. Result: Success! Felt the audio exciter activating in the housing. I repeated that for the other channels and got the same result.
Prior to doing that I had the amp off and measured the resistance between the RCA + and - for each of the channels. The multimeter seemed to take awhile to settle in, but as best I can tell it came in around 8 or 9 ohms. But, I'm not totally confident that I'm measuring that right.
But given the success of connecting the exciter directly to the amp it seems the board, and/or the wiring to and from it, has to be the culprit. Here's some photos of that.
15 ohm is good. you should be able to measure points in the circuit. across R1 15ohm. R1+R2 30 ohm. E1 4 ohm. R1+R2+E1 34ohm. whole circuit (terminals 1 + 2 on the amp block) 38 ohm. disconnect the amp block plug from the amp for that measurement
I wonder if its a "mirror" issue with your RJ45 connectors. Especially if you are testing one channel at a time. I'll see if I can show what I mean here
Box end 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Glove end 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The cable will join "straight". So the left most terminal at the box end (1), will be connected to the left most terminal at the glove end (8). Just connect a pair of terminals at the glove rj45 with a bit of wire, and measure at the other end to confirm continuity. Make sure that you "map" the connections to achieve the circuit you intend.
just measure either side of every hole and confirm "open circuit". (Sorry, i was forgetting you have components on the board - this is a pre-soldering test). if you measure either side of the hole, you should get the component value
then measure adjacent tracks for more than 2 ohms resistance
It would seem odd that you make the same mistake on all 4 tracks. That said, close up, some of the soldering might be bridging 2 tracks. You need to test for no continuity between tracks. It would be good to trim the surplus component wire with a pair of snips, and make sure that there is no solder leakage which bridges tracks. You can clean between tracks with a penknife tip
Just also check for each channel that you have about 4 ohms resistance at the rj45 holder when its plugged into the exciter using the ethernet cable - measured across the terminals
If you cannot measure a resistance in the exciters at the glove end rj45 - try bridging the other end with a bit of wire between the terminals, instead of the exciter, and confirm continuity
Thanks for all of the suggestions Winnie! Basically sounds like I need to do a bunch of measuring from one end to the other. Hope to get to some of that today but my available time the next couple of days is going to be somewhat limited so it may take me a few days to get very far into debugging this. Questions though, if one finger and track has a problem like a discontinuity, would that prevent the other three fingers from working? I think if one finger on one hand doesn't work that the corresponding finger on the other hand wouldn't, but curious if it's an all or none situation. Thanks!
Yes. Be systematic. Make sure you don't have a short across 2 rails. Trim the excess component wire. Scratch between possible track shorts with a penknife tip
As you say, if the left index finger is missing the right index finger won't work. However, if the left index finger is shorted, it won't work , but the right finger still will.
The channels are independent. So the fact that the index finger isn't working shouldnt affect middle, ring, and pinkie. The only thing I can think of is that if you have a pure short, that will trip the amps protection circuit (I hope - the alternative is it blows the amp). It is quite possible that the protection circuit shuts all 4 channels. So check carefully for shorts.
deep breath. if you only connect 10 +11 to the amp - does that track work?
you should also be able to test on the copper tracks, the resistance across each exciter
and just to be thorough test the resistance of each resistor using the wires coming out of the component - on the other side of the board.
you may need to remake some joints. lead-free solder is not easy to use. you need a hot tip. i use 380C.
but first, check the good track on its own works. and maybe use that to test all 8 exciters are working
looking at the board, a few of the joints look iffy. reheat them and get the solder flowing all over the component wire. the first joint on rows 4 & 5 is how all joints should look
Thanks Winnie. I didn't get much further in my testing yesterday, but planning to clean up a few solders next, as well as connecting exciters directly to the one good track. Here's my updated data.
Another option if I still can't clean up this solders is to just start again with a new board.
Success on 3 out of 4 tracks! In my latest test I connected an audio exciter directly to the wires at the of the board (omitting the RJ45s and ethernet for now) on the 3 tracks that now seem to behave. In 3 out of 4 tracks I got buzzing on the audio exciter. The last problem track, Track 16 seems to have an issue with Resistor 2 that I haven't been able to clean up. May need to just pull the resistor out completely, clean up the solder and try again. Will tackle that tomorrow. But, feeling good that I've got 3 of them sorted now. Thanks for the suggestions and tips Winnie! Slowly getting there.
Successfully resoldered the Track 16 joints, got good resistance readings across the track and tested an audio exciter connected directly to that track. So, all tracks now have passed that test. Time to try another full system test with the 8 exciters connected via ethernet cables to the resistor box. I was about wire up the board to the RJ45 connectors and remembered a question I had about your diagram.
Should the blue wire in Track K row 20 go to slot 8 in the right RJ45 connector (instead of 7 as shown on the diagram) and swap the one in row 22 over to 7 instead of 8? The other yellow and blue wires follow that pattern pattern of the wire in row 20 going to an even numbered slot and the one in row 22 going to odd numbered slot. Or does it even matter?
This marked up diagram may help explain my question.
yes it should . but it doesn't matter if it doesn't (other than to give away how scruffy I am.)
it affects "phase" - which matters in audio but not here. The signal is AC - "alternating current". so the signal goes forward and pushes the loudspeaker cone out , and then goes back and pulls the cone in. for our exciters it does that 250 times per second or 25 times per 100ms burst. it really doesnt matter if it pushes first or pulls first. it will feel the same
but if you have 2 big bass speakers in a room. moving the air in waves as they go in and out, if they both push together they make a loud noise (in phase), whereas if one pushes while the other pulls (out of phase) they partially cancel each other out.
Update on the build progress. After doing a bit of resoldering on the tracks and replacing a broken audio exciter, I ran another functional test today.... Success! On to finishing up attaching elastic to housings and prepping it for first use - hopefully tomorrow or next day.
Thanks for all the help Richard. Happy to report that they gloves have been operational for about 10 days now. Going to start refining the actual gloves to make them more ergonomic and robust. I initially used stick-on velcro which kinda works - for a little while. Going to have to learn how to sew and sew on the velcro I think. Yet another thing to learn. 😜
I've been experimenting a little with calibrating the strength of the exciters. I think you've mentioned in a separate post somewhere that you try to set the volume/intensity so that you can just barely detect the vibration on each finger. Is that correct? Currently I've got all of the volume knobs on the amp at about 9 o'clock, though one is perhaps one click stronger.
That's great news. Congratulations. Yes - "less is more" for volume. You should definitely be able to feel it - so don't go too quiet. I am using 13mm exciters and a parallel resistor board wiring at the moment and I'm at 11 o'clock (with the volume on the hdmi extractor spun fully clockwise)
That's the tough part. It's pretty inconsistent. My wife is the one with PD. On a good day we can get 3 hours in - a 2 hour session in the afternoon and then later a 1 hour session at night. But some days when she has a lot going on ends up only being the hour in the evening. I'd like to see her get more time on the gloves, but unfortunately haven't been able to fit it in. So, hoping that we some some benefit, albeit at a slower pace. I do think I see some improvements. Her PD mostly presents as Bradykinesia, rigidity, and it has weakened her voice substantially. And it just kinda seems to sap her energy, here 'thereness.' But there are times with the gloves when her voice has been much improved and her presence is vastly better. So, even if it's a slower rate of improvement, I'll take it.
Yes. As I posted many times, 4 hours a day for 4 months is serious commitment. And its recommended to be upright - not sleeping. Its easier if you learn to master voice recognition. Try and manage a 4 day blitz of 2 hours morning and then 2 hours evening and then stop for 4 days. make notes each day. But there's no getting away from it. 4 hours a day is HUGE
I was asked last night in a private message for a photo of my prototype solderless replacement for the 4 channel 50w amp and resistor protection box. This is it. It works, but I need to sort out cabling better. Really I need a 3.5mm TS to TRS adapter, but I can't find one anywhere.
Update on the new prototype amplifier. It works! It' not got much reserve of power, but the output is enough. I am waiting for one more cable to arrive before closing the lid on it, which will be more robust
The good points :
It requires no soldering
It's probably cheaper, although I think the $1.75 I paid was probably an Alibaba introductory offer.
The not-so good points
It's still quite fiddly
It's a bit of a cable birdsnest - although I think maybe it would be possible to reduce the cables by 1 per channel
It's frustrating to have to make tacky TRS to TS converters in 3.5mm - but I just can't find a commercial plug (see photo)
Hi Richard. Thanks for sharing the photos. I tried to message you twice yesterday but deleted both messages from a twitching finger so I just called it a night...
I listed the last two in case you want to try a different cable connector combinations it opens up more possibilities. Correct me if I'm wrong because I'm still trying to figure it out but:
One channel from audio extractor sending mono signal thru a plugged in RCA to TS cable. Then plug the TRS to TS adapter to that cable. Then plug the TRS to TS adapter into the amp jack. Then the mono signal gets sent to each speaker output, one to each glove. Is this right? I'm going to click reply, afraid of deleting I'll add more in bits if needed.
Edit added.
1ft RCA Male to 3.5mm 1/8 inch Monaural Mono Male Plug Jack Connector:
Thanks for the feedback and links. Brilliant. I can get them on amazon.com and they ship to france in an acceptable time.
i have atm, 2 sets of 2RCA to stereo 3.5mm TRS. Each stereo trs plugs into a splitter to 2 mono 3.5mm TS plugs. it would probably be better to have 4 mono RCA to 3.5mm TS plugs. I then need those adapters with 3.5mm mono TS sockets to 3.5mm stereo TRS plugs.
i have cottage made those adapters for now using TS to 3 screw terminal block and 3 screw terminal block to 3.5mm TRS stereo plug. Because these are fragile and bulky, I need a 3.5mm TRS female to 3.5mm TRS male extension to plug into the amps. 90 degree plugs are a good idea and would enable a smaller case.
in essence its very simple. each of 4 mono rca's needs to feed a stereo 3.5mm to plug into one of the 4 amps. each amp feeds one finger, left glove from left channnel, right glove from right channel. Simples!
It wasn't easy, partly due to 3d printer hot-end issues, but I think the new smaller mk5 is going to transform glove use. Maybe it's so different it should be designated mk6, especially in combination with the new 4x2 amplifier arrangement. It is bloody fiddly to assemble...
2 vibrotactile glove exciter housings. New mk5 (Mk6??) and old Mk4
Looks great. Would I be able to get a copy of the file to this latest Mk5.1 or Mk6? Would like to print a sample. And the size or source of the screws. I sent you my email before in chat. Or if you could upload it ssomewhere I would be grateful. I received my exciter a few days ago.
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