Awesome button, and then some.

Many of you have probably seen the Awesome button done by Matt Richardson of Make Magazine. If not here is his video which was very well done and was the inspiration of my project.




I liked the idea of having a button to press for a certain function on the computer, however i wasnt such a fan of having a $5 button, and a $16 microcontroller operating only one function.

So my project differes in a few ways. 

I added a RGB LED on top of the button, I also added a rotary encoder on the side of the button.





The idea being this: 
the encoder switches the function the button preforms, and the LED gives you feedback telling you what mode it is in now so you know what function will be preformed by pressing the easy button.

Step 1: Supplies

You will need:

• Teensy 2.0(http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/)  $16
• Staples easy button ~$5  (if you can find a older one get that, becuase the new one has a different circuit board thats difficult to access the button on)
• RGB LED (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9264)
• 5mm LED holder
• Rotary encoder/knob(I got a bag of 10 encoders for $10 off ebay, and the knob i am using is from a guitar)
• Wire ~18 gauge
• Soldering iron
• Dremel or other rotary tool to cut though plastic(youll be coping alot lol)
• Drill w/ assorted drill bits.
• Hot glue
• Heatshrink
• USB mini cable 

Comments

[leftinflint]

Great project. I'm trying to learn a bit more about electronics, and appreciate your work. I have a question, too. I have a newer easy button. I looked at your picture. It looks like you scraped the pcb between the two button connections and solders, effectively connecting the two. Is that right or am I not seeing it.

I guess I'm asking if you are connecting the two lines or not. Thanks.

[thematthewknot]

Thanks for looking at the post. I did scrape away some of the pcb between the connections i think i did that when i was originally trying to solder to the wire trace. The trace is actually that copper in between the two black wire looking lines that's what i was scraping the pcb board off of so i could solder to the copper between the two small black lines if that makes sense.

[leftinflint]

Thanks. That is helpful. I'm glad I asked because I originally thought I was going to scrape some of the line off to connect.

I think I'm a bit out of my league. I scraped it and held a wire there to check for continuity, which I can get, but it is difficult. When I pushed the button, I expected the current to drop. It doesn't. So I'm not sure I'm ready to solder it in place. This project looked much easier with the older button.

[Chrboyd]

Would make a great "read it later" button using the global keyboard shortcut and the ReadLater app on Mac. I think I'm going to hack that one up!

[Dusk Shadows]

cool

[HisDivineShadow]

For a controller suitable for Minecraft that is better than a keyboard and mouse, I am sure, the amount of lines of code would be unbearable lol...

[thematthewknot]

well the code really isnt too bad once you get it setup, as for minecraft im not really sure what kinda commands one sends in that game(havent played it apart from the android version) so i cant say weather this would work well or not, one thing to look into for a easy way to do something like this is the nostromos n52 game controller which does alot of things like this, only its all done in software not actually written to the button like this is but so long as you stay at the same machine it should work well i would imagine.

[electfire]

I love the ideas! Some quick questions though....
> What is the (average) cost of the teensy?
> How many inputs (and outputs if any) can it support)
> What types of inputs can it support? (Analogue/Digital/TTL)
I am wanting to make my own custom DJ controller... for a few reasons:
Cost - main reason... also design and style - I am wanting to make my controller fit into the steampunk genre... and portability - I am wanting to make it wrist/arm (think, like a bracer) mounted... for truly mobile DJing...

Thank you,
(amongst many other names)
DJ Electfire

[thematthewknot]

Follow the link on Step 1 "supplies" that should clear up all your questions but here:
the teensy is $16+s/h
http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
it has 25 i/o, 12 of which are able to be analog inputs, 7 of which are able to be PWM
it also supports TTL

I have a dozen different arduino's but w/o a doubt my new favorite is the teensy due to its small size, cheap price and ablity to act as USB host.

[electfire]

Thanks for the information!
(I completely missed the link)
*Faceplam*
Thanks though!