No Makey Makey? No Problems ! How to Make Your Makey Makey at Home!

Have you ever wanted to take part in the Makey Makey contest on Instructables but you’ve never had a Makey Makey?!

NOW you can!

With the following guide, I want to show you how to create your own Makey Makey with some simple components that you can buy for cheap.

We will need:

· Arduino Pro Micro

· Resistors

· Diode

· Tinfoil

· Wires

· Diodes

Why can’t we use a simple Arduino Uno or Nano, you may be wondering.
Because the Arduino Pro Micro is the only one that can be used as an HID (Human Interface Device). For instance, your mouse or your keyboard are HIDs because thanks to them you can write or click icons on your computer. The Makey Makey will use you like a switch and when you will touch a banana or something else that is conductive you will close the circuit. Obviously the actual current that flows through your body is minimum.

Buuut, enough talks and let’s jump into the project.

Step 1: Wiring

The schematic looks very complex but I'll show you how simple it is.

I've written two numbers (1,2) in order to distinguish the two parts of the circuit.

They are made by the same components, but each of them will act as a different action when we will close the circuit.

In simple words, they are just like two different keys on your keyboard: they are made by the same components but each one writes a specific letter.

Let's set up the "Banana-side" of the project.

Firstly we need to connect the "Banana-pin" to the VCC through a resistor of 1M Ω and a diode (given that the diodes are polar elements you have to check that the white band is on the opposite side compared to the resistance) in order to remove some noises.

(I've experimented that bigger the resistance better will be the reading of the sensor, so be free to experiment yourself.)

Where the diode and the resistance are connected we have to connect the wire coming from the D2 pin (the green-ish one).

Let's repeat the exact same process for the "Apple-side" and for many times you want, depending on how many keys you want.

Then we need to wear a conductor, I've tried many things, the best one, in my opinion, is to solder a wire on a metal ring and wear that ring.

But you can even build your own conductor as I did for the first prototypes.

Simply take a piece of tinfoil and wrap it tight around one of your fingers, attach a wire to the tinfoil using some duct-tape and seal it together.

Step 2: Code

The code is very basic, maybe you will need to install the library "Keyboard.h" but online you will find a lot of information that will surely help you.