Bunker Project Log

This weekend, I convinced the wife (but no one else, dammit)?to play “Arkham Horror” with me. The general populace at Boardgamegeek regards it highly, and she had read good things about it, so we were good to go.

?I, having learned of her mercurial, fruit-fly-like attention span, made sure to read the rules. Twice. I also did all the setup, which was like planning a wedding. This game is big, and there are zillions of chits, lots of dice, and… seriously, more than 15 different decks of cards… tiny, unshuffleable cards.

?The Spread (notice?the baggies of chits all over the place.):

In order to keep it interesting, I gave each of us two characters, a male and a female, one more combat-based, the other sneakier and more intelligent.

Macho Man

Spiritual Lady

To make a long story short, we didn’t get very far, but I really wanted to, so I took a table cloth and just put it over the game setup just the way it was. (I have a 3-year-old who loves to eat game pieces, so obfuscation was key.)

Anyway, since I am walking on thin ice?and the wife really hates it when board game guts are scattered all over the dining room table, I am giving up, and putting it all away. This goes in the failure pile. Boo.

I had my first real roadblock today. Pottse was reading a Musician’s Friend? catalog, and I was reminded of the pedal that came with my crappy Midi keyboard. (Of course, I could have used that if it weren’t buried with all the rest of the crap in the storeroom… do you see a trend here?)

?Anyway, I dug through the catalog and found the keyboard?sustain pedals. I’m not the most music equipment savvy guy, but I am pretty sure they are just a switch with a 1/4″ plug. This serves?my purpose well, and they are anywhere from $13-20 for the cheap ones. Right within my threshold of pain.

?So, I did the exact opposite of what I usually do, and bought the thing at a Guitar Center?brick and mortar store after having checked it out online. Luckily for the big gigantic megacorp, they are?owned by the same place, so it’s all good.

The pedal of excititude (Yamaha FC5 Sustain Footswitch), in vivid color:

I plugged this in to an 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter and tried it out. The menus promptly went berserk, scrolling endlessly up.

Now, because I am an arrogant, know-it-all moron, I immediately assumed that because the jack was Stereo, and the Plug was Mono, I just had to suppress the second switch input. I tried this by wrapping the 1/4″ plug in a narrow band of electrical tape. This wouldn’t fit in to the adapter. I considered nail polish, but that would take too long. Ultimately, I opted on ripping the guitar open and snipping one of the leads. Brilliant.

Okay, the deed is done, and I go back to try again. Same thing happens. However, this time it occurs to me to put the Pedal on the groovy multimeter I spent all that money on all those years ago. The verdict? The switch circuit stays closed until pressed, at which point it opens. This would be the opposite of my need.

This leaves me with a few options. A relay (too slow?), a transistor (too complicated), ripping apart the switch and making it work the way I want it to (too expensive, and may not work anyway), and finally, ditch it and try something else.

I think I am taking the last option for the moment. But, I did notice that some of the other Keyboard pedals had potentiometers in them… perhaps this is a possible whammy solution? The mind reels…