So I started with using the rubber nipple thing to activate my Onewheel, but I found it to be inconsistent and not very safe because if you lift your foot off of the button at all the result is you falling off and having a sore day. So I sought out to make a pressure pad, similar to what is used on an actual Onewheel. When scrolling through another forum where they make one wheel with pre-made wheels and vesc’s I found that a lot of people were making their own pads with some copper tape and some Velostat which is pressure-sensitive and semi-conductive material. So using info from this youtube video and other places I made a pad that looks like this.
In order to use this, I had to find a way to turn on the leveling with an Arduino. When messing around I found if you short out two of the pins on the octocupler on the sensor board the board would turn on. So I wired up a transistor to the pins and it worked perfectly.
From there I powered an Arduino nano with 5v from the board and wired everything as pictured above.
If you want a schematic and the code I made a Git Hub for this. I did some testing on it today and it is soooo much easier to get onto the board and I feel a lot more confident when riding that it’s not just going to die under my feet haha. I hope this is helpful and don’t be afraid to ask me any questions!