Building Adaptive Video Game Controller using Raspberry Pi

[GKK]

Hello,
My son wants to build an adaptive video game controller using a starter raspberry pi kit for his school science project. He was thinking of making a foot pedal controller. Can anyone provide instructions for this and let me know what materials he may need?

[bfinio]

Hi,

Since this is an "abbreviated" project on our site, we don't have an exact step-by-step list of instructions you can follow. However, have you watched the video embedded on this page? It provides an overview of the materials and how to build a controller:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... controller

That video does not show the Scratch code, but we have 8 other Raspberry Pi/Scratch projects on our website with example code. These will show you how to use buttons/switches and other parts like magnet sensors and light sensors:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... spberry-pi

Note that the instructions for these projects were specifically designed for our older Raspberry Pi kit which used Scratch 2. Newer versions of the Raspberry Pi will come with Scratch 3 and while generally the same, the interface may look slightly different. It looks like you need to activate an "Extension" in Scratch 3 to use the GPIO pins:

https://en.scratch-wiki.info/wiki/Raspb ... _Extension

but there are some reports in the forums about this extension not working on certain Raspberry Pi models/versions of the operating system:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=361350

We cannot provide direct support for Scratch/Raspberry Pi software issues ourselves, so if you run into trouble with that, you will have better luck asking on the official Raspberry Pi forums. However, your version of the Raspberry Pi might still come with Scratch 2 installed, and if not, you should still be able to install it manually (you will have to Google instructions for how to do this), in which case you could still follow our instructions.

Hope all of that helps!

Ben