Semi-anonymous maker “Martin” has put collectively a macro pad with a distinction, constructing a horny media management system constructed proper right into a desk and with laser-etched labels for ease of use.
“[I] put some leftover Gateron Silent and Gateron Brown [mechanical keyboard switches] right into a board I made with the laser cutter,” Martin explains of the undertaking. “The keys are linked on to a Raspberry Pi GPIO [General-Purpose Input/Output header], which runs a ‘Logitech Media Server’ and in addition doubles as a radio itself. For the reason that [Raspberry Pi] had no buttons for management and I didn’t all the time wish to management on the PC or smartphone, an offline interface needed to be made. I’m very glad with it.”
Minimize on a 40W DIY laser, this picket media playback pad is an easy however efficient management system. (📷: Martin)
The guts of the undertaking, as Martin explains, is a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B single-board laptop, wired on to the eight Cherry-compatible mechanical keyboard switches with out the necessity for passive elements like diodes or resistors. Jumper cables have been soldered to the switches, then slotted onto the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header — one pin per swap, with a standard connection to the three.3V pin.
“On the Raspberry Pi, DietPi [operating system] is used,” Martin provides. “This works nice for my purposes and is extra intuitive for me to make use of than e.g. Raspian. [I also used] Logitech Media Server (LMS), SqueezeLite, Python 3, [and my] personal code.”
That code listens out for exercise on the GPIO-connected switches and triggers shell scripts which ship directions to the the media server. There are buttons for pausing and resuming playback, rising and reducing quantity, skipping songs, opening the playlist, and choosing songs — all labelled utilizing a chunk of laser-etched wooden screwed right into a gap minimize into the desk, offering room for the electronics beneath.
The switches are wired on to the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header utilizing an Ethernet cable. (📷: Martin)
“[It’s] a 40W DIY COâ‚‚ laser,” Martin writes of the laser cutter used within the undertaking. “[It] works very reliably and nicely. However I not need him in the lounge and do not have a spot in one other room for it, so a buddy will get him as a present, she can be artistically rather more proficient than I’m.”
Martin has printed full directions for the construct, together with downloadable supply code and design recordsdata for the laser-cut wooden, on Medium; extra data is obtainable on Martin’s Reddit thread.