I’ve been looking all over the Internets for what I think should be the dirt-simplest thing in the world. Maybe I just don’t know what terms to search for, but I’ve been striking out for 3 solid days now. I’m hoping someone here has the answer I’m looking for.
I’m trying to build a pedal board for a guitar rig (yeah, I know…not exactly a robot but, I think the interface I’m looking for lends itself to robotics, and controlling).
Reader’s Digest version of what I’m trying to do…
I’ve got 24 (or 16, if that’s my limit) momentary buttons on one side of the room…I want to trigger 24 (or 16) relays on the OTHER side of the room…and I don’t want to run a 25-wire cable to do it (twisted pair would be nice).
Pressing button-1 makes relay-1 go “click”, releasing button-1 makes relay-1 go “unclick”…etc. on down the line. That’s all.
I know I could get a PIC microcontroller and, with a USB interface, and a little bit of Python programming, while utilizing an unused old P-III computer, running a custom-kernel version of Linux, I could…
No, no, no, no, and seriously, no.
I don’t need continuous controller data, I don’t need memory storage & recall, nothing. Contact open, contact closed…that’s it. It’s even low-current (<1A).
To me, this seems like a little project board that someone should be selling…an input board, and an output board…sold as a pair. $20.00. If the board only does 8 relays…fine…I’ll buy 2.
Is there, or is there not, a simple way to do what I’m trying to do?
Any and all input (no pun intended) is appreciated.
-Greg
(P.S. I’m pretty electronics savvy so, if there’s a circuit design someone could point me to, I can build it…but my first choice is to buy, if at all possible)