Keyboard shortcuts are great. Even so, a person can only be expected to remember so many shortcuts and hit them accurately while giving a presentation over Zoom. [Sebastian] needed a good set of of shortcuts for OBS and decided to make a macro keyboard to help out. By the time he was finished, [Sebastian] had macro’d all the things and built a beautiful and smart peripheral that anyone with a pulse would likely love to have gracing their desk.

Arduino Pro Micro Keypad Wiring

The design started with OBS, but this slick little keyboard turned into a system-wide assistant. It assigns the eight keys dynamically based on the program that has focus, and even updates the icon to show changes like the microphone status.

Mechanical Keyboard/Mechanische Tastaturen Shop EU - Pro-Micro Arduino Micro-Processor for DIY Projects and Mechanical Keyboards 5V - EU and Worldwide Shipping. You need the following components: Arduino Leonardo board. Micro USB cable.

First of all, to be able to send keyboard and mouse commands via USB, I used an Arduino Pro Micro centered around an ATmega32U4 - an 8-bit AVR very similar to the ATmega328. The ATmega32U4 comes equipped with a full-speed USB transceiver, which can emulate any USB device. The Arduino Nano uses the ATmega328 microcontroller, which doesn't have USB functionality. The USB port is only used to power and program the board through a USB-to-serial adaptor chip on the bottom of the board. The Arduino Micro has the same MCU as the Pro Micro. Installing the Library. The latest version of the Arduino library that allows the Arduino Leonardo.

This is done with a Python script on the PC that monitors the running programs and updates the macro keeb accordingly using a serial protocol that [Sebastian] wrote. Thanks to the flexibility of this design, [Sebastian] can even use it to control the office light over MQTT and make the CO2 monitor send a color-coded warning to the jog wheel when there’s trouble in the air.

This project is wide open with fabulous documentation, and [Sebastian] is eager to see what improvements and alternative enclosure materials people come up with. Be sure to check out the walk-through/build video after the break.

Arduino Pro Micro Pinout

Inspired to make your own, but want to start smaller? There are plenty to admire around here.