Building a USB HID Dance Pad with the Raspberry Pi Pico

This post documents the design and implementation of a USB HID dance pad using a Raspberry Pi Pico and force-sensitive resistors. The focus is on reliable input handling under hardware constraints.

System Overview

The system consists of a Raspberry Pi Pico configured as a USB keyboard device, with multiple force-sensitive resistors connected to GPIO pins.

Key constraints:

Real-time input responsiveness
Signal noise from analog sensors
USB HID timing requirements

GPIO Input Handling

Each sensor is sampled and debounced in software to ensure consistent activation without false triggers.

The debouncing logic was implemented to balance responsiveness with stability.

USB HID Emulation

The Pico presents itself as a standard USB keyboard, allowing the device to work without custom drivers.

Lessons Learned

This project reinforced the importance of understanding both hardware behavior and software timing when designing embedded input systems.