Analog Button-Box Interface for Arduino

HOME > Creative Technology > Analog Buttons

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This design is useful to interface a number of push-button switches with a single analog input pin on a microcontroller such as the Arduino. It's different from the many digital multiplexer or shift-register schemes that are used with microcontrollers, because it's analog, uses just a few resistors, and connects to an analog input pin. The usual methods require an additional chip, usually either a multiplexer or a parallel-in shift register. The analog method has the limitation that you can't detect multiple, simultaneous button presses. But that doesn't make it useless — in fact, many personal stereos (Mini-disk and MP3) use this method to connect the playback controls to the stereo.

...

Links

Sony RM-X2S XMMS driver, which shows the use of a Sony RM-X2S car radio remote control. This type of wired remote control is a resistive button-box, just like we have described on this page. The linked page containes a pinout for the 3.5mm jack plug on the remote, as well as resistance values for the various controls. The controls are all those normally associated with a car radio, such as volume, mute, tuning and input selection. A secondhand RM-X2S control unit could be re-purposed for use with a microcontroller as a generic input device. The RM-X3S and RM-X4S are newer versions, but with different labels on the controls.

Return to Creative Technology page

Return to John Honniball's home page