[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween.

In this post, we show a makey makey style shield setup:

In the following, we show how to make the makey makey style touch USB shield into a USB keyboard.[/vc_column_text][vc_tour][vc_tab title=”Example to use Touch key USB Shield” tab_id=”1384052831-1-119a95-b7ec”][vc_column_text]Touch key USB shield uses two-point touch as the way to input. When use it, we need to wire the touch end and ground end to two electrodes respectively.  When human touches the two electrodes, there will be current passing through the two electrodes due to the resistance of the human body. The touch key USB shield relies on detecting this current to check if there is any touch event. This is exactly the same principle for Makey Makey.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”Setup” tab_id=”1384052831-2-739a95-b7ec”][vc_column_text]1. Arduino Uno (with USB data cable)

2. Touch key USB Shield:

3. Two test cables (as the touch is sensitive to the EMI in the environment, please use the shielded cable)

54. Three coins:

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”Add Library to Arduino IDE and Compile Example Code” tab_id=”1384053726175-2-19a95-b7ec”][vc_column_text]1.  Copy the test library (“USBKeyBoard“) to “libraries” under Arduino.

2. Open Arduino IDE, click “File->Examples->USBKeyBoard->Touch_Key”:

3.  Now we open the USBkeyboarddemo1. The next step is to compile and download to Arduino:

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”Test” tab_id=”1384053757627-3-59a95-b7ec”][vc_column_text]Once we upload the code, the PC will start to detect an USB device attached, and will install the USB HID driver for it.

Open the notepad application. When we short the PIN12 on the shield, we will see ‘hello world’ typed on the notepad:

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=”USB HID all in software” tab_id=”1384105381583-4-3″][vc_column_text]Makey Makey style touch USB shield uses two GPIOs on Arduino Uno to implement the USB stack. All the USB HID functions are implemented in firmware, and done through the GPIO to simulate the USB HID device.

If we want to make this shield works exactly same as Makey Makey, we need to load the sample code Touch_key and uncomment the USBkeyboard functions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][/vc_tour][/vc_column][/vc_row]