Introduction: Classic IPod Like Media Control for Sonos

By www.facebook.com/zakiem
About: An experienced manager in Hi-Tech that never gets bored with technology or life
I got very curious about TI new MSP430 LaunchPad board ($ 4.5) and the boosterpack ($ 10) they offer for touch sensor. So, bought those to control my Sonos player. First experience with the demo software they made to have the unit control Media Player did not work too good actually. Only the Volume was really controlled. The other options: Pause/Play Next and Previous track did not work. So aside from fixing those, I modified the PC code to work with Sonos Desktop player. So here is a modified code of the demo application that works with Sonos. Also attached a corrected version of the code for Media Player.

Features:
  • Volume up and down control
  • Next, Previous track
  • Pause/Play
  • Mute
  • Touch only interface

The Zip files has also compiled programs (Release sub-directory) if you don't have Vistual Studio (seriously?)

Scrolling your finger in between the circles of the pad will increase or decrease volume (clockwise or counterclockwise). Left (9 O'Clock) will do previous track, Right (3 O'clock) will do next track, Up (12 O'Clock) will do mute (Sonos) and Down (6 O'Clock) will toggle  Pause/Play on the player.

What you need?
1x LaunchPad board
1x Touch Sensor boosterpack


Assembly Instructions
  1. Follow the instructions to assemble the touch sensor and LauncPad. It will require you to swap the IC on the LaunchPad between a 14 pin DIP controller to a 20 pin IC. The IC is provided by TI pre-loaded with the program, so no need to buy it. Be careful when extracting the first smaller IC and inserting the new one.
  2. Connect the Shield to the LaunchPad board
  3. Connect the board to your PC using USB cable (mini)
  4. Load the program and see how it controls Media Player or Sonos player.


Enjoy your music.

Attachments