Build Your Own Video Game Exerciser!

Suppose you already have an exercise bike and would like to use it as a PS2 controller to play racing games. One option is do it yourself: get the parts from Radio Shack and build a small circuit board that connects the components.

That was Bill Pfeil's project at the Maker Faire in San Mateo last week, and it worked quite well. I got to see a standard recumbent exercise bike being used to play Crazy Taxi. Bill writes:

Build your own exercise fitness bike video game controller for less than $20 in electronics! All parts are available from your local RadioShack(tm).

Here is what you should already have: A PlayStation 2, a Pelican TT Cobra racing wheel for PS2 (around $20 at Fry's Electronics), and an exercise bike (or other fitness equipment). The exercise bike needs to have a speed/distance monitor. If it has this monitor, it should have the motion sensor we need already built in.

Full details, including a larger circuit diagram, are here. Good luck!

UPDATE: in the comments, Kevin notes that GameCycles (which usually has an ad on this page - go click it, you know you want to...) sells a prebuilt solution to the same problem. The NeoRacer PS1/PS2 Game Controller sells fully assembled (apart from providing the input source) for $35. For those who don't want to assemble their own circuit board.