I have a pretty unique project I'm working, just for fun. It's really nothing big. Don't judge me now;

My project is a cool kid version of "sketcher's light up shoes".
I'm going to take LED strips and put them all around the lower outer edges of the shoe so when you step down, the strip(s) light up. I was guessing a pressure sensor would work best for this. How can I make a homemade one for cheap? I was thinking some tin foil would be involved or two "exposed" wires would touch to complete the circuit. I'm not sure. Your thoughts, Cemetech?
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P.S That was me Trolling the buttons below, it sounded fun

Well, the sensor shouldn't be too hard of an issue; just use a spring of some sort to separate two contacts. The biggest issue I see would be with the lighting effects.

My knowledge of electronics and available components is slim, sadly. I have a few general ideas, but I have no actual practice :/

I have fairly good Idea for the LED's and wiring, it was just the pressure sensor part giving me trouble. I like this spring Idea, I really do. I could just grab the spring out of a "clicky" pen, cut it in half, and half two springs, that are fairly small (one for each shoe). The next question is, where would the best place for this sensor to go?

If you're like most other humans, you walk in a heel-toe fashion. Therefore, your heel will almost always contact the ground first, so the sensor ought to go there. As a bonus, since the heel of a shoe uses so much material, there's plenty of room to hollow out for doodads. Don't go /too/ crazy though; you don't want it to buckle.

If all you're worried about is a simple circuit (foot goes down, light turns on, foot comes up, lights turn off), then you shouldn't have any problems with wiring; just throw in (a) small resistor(s) and all will be great. However, flashing, time delays, etc will require some extensive planning.

I actually got up and walked to make sure it was heel to toe, Lol @myself., ha. You're right though, I checked an older pair of shoes and there is a lot of heel room, great thinking. I wasn't going to get too fancy with the blinking. I feel like the more blinking and stuff that goes on, the will start to look kiddish again. I was just going to go with the foot down, light on, concept I'll be working on this soon, as I get paid Thursday or Friday. Expect to see a video uploaded around Sunday of how it turns out. I'll be sure to comeback and post a link. Thank you so much for the input, i'll be sure to mention you in the video

Fun Fact: When you sprint your heels never hit the ground.

Though it's an unlikely scenario, it'd be cool to put an elongated pressure switch (or two switches) so you can trigger the lights whether you're walking or sprinting. That should be Version 2.0 though

Sounds like a piezo crystal connected to the gate of a SCR (or some other sort of amplifier) would do what you want with relative simplicity.

Try this: two unetched copper-clad boards sandwiching conductive foam. Press the arrangement and the resistance decreases.

Edit: This is courtesy of the Forrest Mims III books that I read about ten years ago, by the way.

I like it Kerm How much would this little rig cost? I'm trying to keep cost low.

Circuit question.
Supply voltage = 7.5v
LED voltage drop = ~2.5v

If I have power going to the LED, then into female USB port, will the female port be receiving the left over voltage? (Supply - VDrop)

Well, for starters, you'll need a very beefy resistor in series with the resistor, but yes, that would generally work. I don't understand why you're using an LED as a power supply, though, as that's going to work very badly when the current drawn by the USB (device?) is greater than whatever the LED's nominal current is. You should use a solid-state three-pin voltage regulator.

I'm not sure. If I use a three pin VRegulator, I don't need a resistor, capacitor or anything extra right? Just the regulator?

Check the datasheet of your regulator; linear voltage regulators will typically require a decoupling capacitor on the input and output for good operation (they'll function without them but the output will be noisy).

Ben, the datasheet is here,
http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/LM/LM7805.pdf
It's page number 3, LM7805.
It doesn't mention anything about capacitors. Am I looking in the wrong place? If so can you do a quick explanation?

EDIT: On page 23, the first picture. I can see the capacitors that you mentioned. How can I do the calculations to see what those values must be? Here's what I'm working with.

Supply voltage = 9v
Desired voltage = 5v

And if it's a variable regulator, you need a resistor pair or triple to set the output voltage.

How do I calculate the capicitor values?

Capacitor*. The datasheet should either give you exact values or a formula to calculate all of the necessary component values.