# Button Basher

Using a Makey Makey to control Spotify and play sounds through a mac, via buttons and other physical inputs.

Setup - Makey Makey

First, set up the Makey Makey with custom keyboard mappings. It can't use the default key bindings unless you want to make the machine unusable for anything else. Instead, the controls should be mapped to keys that won't otherwise be used.

Update Makey Makey firmware to map custom keys. I have an older device and so followed this tutorial. If you have a newer device you may be able to do it through a browser.

I wanted to remap multiple keys, which the default Makey Makey firmware doesn't let you do, so I adapted this firmware instead.

My firmware is in this repo, in the /arduino directory.

The article mentioned above contains detailed set-up instructions, here in brief is the process I followed:

• Download Arduino app
• Download either the custom firmware, the original Makey Makey firmware or use my version, and open the main arduino .ino file in the Arduino IDE
• Add the Additional Board Manager URL in the Arudino IDE settings:

```
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparkfun/Arduino_Boards/master/IDE_Board_Manager/package_sparkfun_index.json
```

• From the Board Manager menu select SparkFun AVR Boards
• Select the Makey Makey board
• Set the correct serial port

Once this is done, you should be able to connect buttons and other inputs to the Makey Makey. Instead of the default keys they should now map to your custom keys.

My custom firmware uses the 6 analog and 6 digital pins as button inputs. In addition the 'left' arrow holes is used for another button input, and the 'click' holes are used as an LED output.

An easy way to test this is through the Keypress website that shows you onscreen the keys that are currently being pressed.

Setup - mac

Creating custom services with Automator

Once the Makey Makey is ready, the mac can be set up to detect and act on keyboard input with new services triggered by custom shortcuts.

I set up new services in Automator following these instructions:

• Launch the Automator app
• Create a new service
• Select "no input" and "any application"
• Select "Run AppleScript" or ""
• Enter AppleScript (see below)
• Save the service

Here are some example AppleScript services:

SpotifyToggle

-- Toggle
on run args
	try
		tell application "Spotify"
			playpause
		end tell
	end try
end run

SpotifyPrevious

-- Previous
on run args
  try
    tell application "Spotify"
      previous track
    end tell
  end try
end run

SpotifyNext

-- Next
on run args
  try
    tell application "Spotify"
      next track
    end tell
  end try
end run

Alternatively, here are some custom services using Python, which can be run as a shell script:

button-sfx

import subprocess
subprocess.call(["afplay", "/path/to/button-basher/sfx/b.mp3"])

SpotifyPauseplay

import subprocess

osa = subprocess.Popen(['osascript', '-'], stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
state = osa.communicate('tell application "Spotify" to return player state')[0]

if state.strip() == "playing":
	subprocess.call(['osascript', '-e', 'tell application "Spotify" to pause'])
	subprocess.call(["afplay", "/path/to/button-basher/sfx/pause.mp3"])
else:
	subprocess.call(["afplay", "/path/to/button-basher/sfx/play.mp3"])
	subprocess.call(['osascript', '-e', 'tell application "Spotify" to play'])

Triggering services with a custom keyboard shortcut

To set up custom keyboard shortcuts:

• System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts
• Select Services
• Add a shortcut for your service - click the name, then use the Makey Makey to add the input
• System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy
• Select Accessibility
• Click on the + sign, add Automator and Finder (/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app)
• From any application, go to the menu and run the new shortcut once manually

That's it - now when you click on a button with the Makey Makey, the custom service should run.