Makey MakeyHow to Makey Makey a Banana Piano

Makey Makey

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

The Makey Makey name comes from the idea of making anything a key

The board connects via USB and is recognised asa USB mouse or keyboard

The board will work on any PC, Mac, and most tablets and smart phones

What can Makey Makey do?

The Makey Makey board comes with a number of premapped keys representing mouse or keyboard clicks

You have Up, Down, Left, Right, Space and Click On the back you have additional outlets for the letter keys W, A, S, D,

F, G In order to register a key strike they must be connected to the earth

along the bottom

How does it work?

Alligator Clip and wires can be used to connect the board Connections can be made via a large range of conductive materials When a connection is made the computer registers a key strike No additional software is required to make the board work As such the Makey Makey works with any program or website that

accepts keyboard and mouse inputs

Basic Setup

Requires 4 leads to the Up, Down, Left, Right and 1 to the Earth Now connect the Makey Makey to your computer using the USB cable The device will be detected as if it is a USB keyboard or mouse Connect crocodile clips to Earth and the 4 keys Touch the earth wire and one of the Key wires to register the input

Test it out

To test open up notepad Test that the cursor can be moved by the keys Alternatively try out one the one button games: http://flabbyphysics.com/ (Uses the space key) http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/ (Uses the space key)

Using the back of the board

Disconnect the leads Turn the Makey Makey over On the left side there are a set of inputs labelled WASDFG These represent the letter keys on the keyboard make some PayDoh letters Cut some wires and strip the ends Connect the wires to each letter Also connect a wire to a seperate piece of PayDoh representing the

earth

Connecting to Objects

Again connect to a computer This time in Notepad test the PlayDoh letters They only work when a connection is made to earth The voltages involved are less than 5V Try linking hands Test other input objects

Suitable Conductors

Pieces of Fruit Lines of graphite drawn on paper Liquids Plants with the wire in the soil and touching a leaf Foil and other metal objects People Use your own imagination

What the board is capable of

There is the possibility of 18 input channels The predefined ones are Space, Click, Left, Right Up, Down, Left Click,

Right Click, W, A, S, D, F, G The board is an Arduino board and can be customised, look this up on

Google This would allow you to spin motors, turn on LEDs, or anything else

that an Arduino can do

Banana Piano

Scratch Piano for use with Makey Makey http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3197818/

Additonal musical applications:　 http://ronwinter.tv/drums.html http://makeymakey.com/bongos/ http://soundplant.org/ Use your own imagination!

Some existing projects

Cat Photo Booth Jar Jar Keys Magnetic Maze Sketch It Play It Scratch Operation Game Musical Room Musical Weave

Video Gallery

Programs to use your Makey Makey with Connected Objects A list of scratch programs designed for Makey Makey Flash Flash Revolution Pacman Tetris

Additional Links

Official Makey Makey site http://www.makeymakey.com/ Jay Silver on TED http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_silver_hack_a_banana_make_a_keyboard.html

Similar Projects: Squishy Circuits http://www.ted.com/talks/annmarie_thomas_squishy_circuits.html Singing Fingers http://www.singingfingers.com Drawdio http://web.media.mit.edu/~silver/drawdio/