Newbie - Need a vibrating device to connect to a computer via parallel port

Community General Discussions
1

Hi,

I am wondering whether you guys have any vibrating devices that can be connected to a computer via parallel port. I am new at this and have no idea regarding these things, so please excuse me if I sound stupid.

I am looking for something that can vibrate when a signal is sent to it. To be more specific, I am trying to run an experiment where participants are told to watch a clock for a certain period of time (on a computer) and try to catch when the clock skips. When the participants catch this skip, they are instructed to hit the keyboard or a mouse or some kind of input device. Obviously, over time, the performance of the participants will deteriorate; they will start missing the clock skips. So I am trying to incorporate a vibrating stimulus into the experiment. A few seconds before the clock skips, I want to make something vibrate for the participant. But I don’t know yet what kind of device to use. Maybe a controller or a joystick or just a vibrating motor that I can attach under the keyboard or something of that nature. But the way that I am going to send the signal to the vibrating device is probably going to be through the parallel port.

Any suggestions on what devices to use that can accomplish this?

Thanks.

2

Instead of creating your own hardware, you could use a gamepad that includes “force feedback” (i.e. vibration). That way, it can be used as an input device and you can (programatically) instruct it to vibrate.

You will not find a game-pad that connects to the parallel port through, you will need to opt for USB. As a matter of fact, very few things connect to a parallel port and very few computers actually have one.