Depending on the pressure sensors we decide to go with; a number of different schemes need to be implemented in both software and hardware to read the sensors. For basic resistive sensors this is pretty easy. A simple resistor divider network can read the a voltage change in the sensor. For basic capacitive sensors the scheme is a bit more complicated. My favorite method is an RC oscillator (Usually some kind of simple op amp circuit) and measuring the frequency shift in oscillator. Things get more complicated when the sensor needs to provide a location as well as a force measurement. Making a scheme to read location based force readings is a project in itself and will be gone in greater detail when we go over construction of the force sensors.

The controller we are using is called the CACU. This stands for "Costumed Actor Combustion Unit" and it was designed to make actors in theater productions glow in various ways (With the (un?)fortunate side effect of setting arts students on fire. Ha. Ha. You probably think I'm kidding). It was made primarily for use by the Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS) for use in their productions. It also was junk. The first version had an XBee port, 8x 4A FET drivers (For LEDS) and 8x Triac Drivers (For EL WIre). All of this was powered off an Atmel ATMega644 at 8Mhz. 

The most recent version of the CACU is actually pictured in this project description. It features the Atmel ATSAMR21E16A  and 8x 4A FET drivers. It also has an RS485 port and wireless (as ATSAMR21E16A has zigbee compatibility). There is also a blue tooth version for street performances and an AVR version for lameness. It is also tiny compared to the previous version at barely 2 inches square.

Since this is primarily for driving tons of LEDs, it is not ideal for reading sensors. The design can be modified for sensor readings depending on the pressure sensors we decide on.