Alright, let me tell you about my boxing gloves rumble project – basically, I wanted to make some boxing gloves that actually rumble when you punch something. Sounded kinda crazy, right? But I thought it would be a fun little experiment.
First things first, I grabbed a pair of cheap boxing gloves. Didn’t wanna ruin anything expensive in case this thing went south real quick. Then I started looking at vibration motors. I ended up ordering a bunch of different sizes and types from an online store; the plan was to test them out and see which ones gave the best rumble without being too bulky.
When the motors arrived, I busted out my soldering iron and started wiring them up. My initial thought was to attach one motor to the knuckles area and another on the wrist for maximum rumbling effect. I played around with different wiring configurations – series, parallel – to see what would give me the strongest and most responsive vibration.
Next up was figuring out how to trigger the motors when I landed a punch. I considered using a pressure sensor inside the glove, but it seemed a little too complicated for a first attempt. I eventually went with a simple impact sensor – basically a small switch that closes when it detects a hit. Glued those bad boys inside the glove, right behind the padding.
Power was another issue. I didn’t want to be tethered to a wall, so I needed a battery pack. I found a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack that fit nicely into the wrist area of the glove. Hooked it up to a mini-circuit board with a power switch and some basic circuitry to control the voltage going to the motors.
Time to stuff everything inside the gloves! This was trickier than I thought. The motors, sensors, wiring, and battery pack all took up a lot of space, and I had to make sure they wouldn’t interfere with my hand movement or get crushed when I punched something. Lots of careful placement and electrical tape involved.
I sewed up any openings I had made to hide all the electronics. Now it was finally time for a test run!
So, how’d it go? Well, the first few punches were… interesting. The gloves did rumble, alright! But the vibration was a bit weaker than I’d hoped, and the impact sensors were a little finicky. Sometimes they’d trigger even when I barely touched anything, other times they wouldn’t trigger at all on a solid hit.
Time for some tweaking. I adjusted the sensitivity of the impact sensors and swapped out the original motors for slightly bigger ones. This made a noticeable difference. The rumble was stronger, and the sensors were more reliable. But, I noticed the battery life was kinda short. The bigger motors were drawing a lot more power.
To fix the battery issue, I swapped to a slightly bigger battery, which bought me some extra playtime. I added some extra padding around the electronics to protect my hand, and make the gloves a bit more comfortable. They looked a little bulky, but at least they worked!
Here are the main problems I ran into during the process:
- Finding the right balance between motor size and battery life.
- Getting the impact sensors to trigger reliably.
- Fitting all the components inside the glove without making it too bulky or uncomfortable.
Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was a fun little project, and I learned a lot about electronics, sensors, and the importance of good padding. Plus, now I have a pair of rumbling boxing gloves – how cool is that?
