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You may be the greatest living banana pianist, but how will you ever know if you don't make yourself a banana piano? Good news! That project and countless others are easier than you think with Makey Makey.
Using the Makey Makey you can make *anything into a *key just by connecting a few alligator clips. The Makey Makey Classic by JoyLabz is an invention kit that tricks your computer into thinking that almost anything is a keyboard. This allows you to hook up all kinds of fun things as an input. For example, play Mario with a Play-Doh keyboard or piano with fruit!
The Makey Makey Classic uses high-resistance switching to detect when you've made a connection even through materials that aren't very conductive (like leaves, pasta or people). This technique attracts noise on the input, so a moving window averager is used to lowpass the noise. The Makey Makey can also act like a keyboard or mouse. There are six inputs on the front of the board, which can be attached to via alligator clipping, soldering to the pads, or any other method you can think of. There are another 12 inputs on the back, six for keyboard keys and six for mouse motion, which you can access with jumpers via the female headers.
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
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We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
Based on 3 ratings:
We got this so we could do group games (Family Feud @ crowdcontrolgames) and it worked out so well! There was a youtube that showed how to set it up using plunger switches and speaker wire, and it worked like a dream. Total set up time was like 20 minutes.
Pure fun and incredibly simple.
I was looking for something that would allow 2 players to "buzz in" and indicate who was first but couldn't really find anything online to do that. Found a site with the software which linked to the Makey Makey Classic. I bought it, along with a small project box, couple of handheld push buttons, and some wire and built my own. I soldered the wires directly to the board and hot-glued it in place. Works perfectly!