Arduino Transport Controller

This project uses an ATmega32U4 based device (Arduino Leonardo, pro micro, etc) to read footswitches and send keyboard strokes to the host computer. It is important that the device uses the ATmega32U4 as other devices (such as the arduino uno) do not have the same USB capabilities and will not work with the Keyboard library. The device has 3 buttons which send space, ctrl+z, and 'r' keystrokes. These keystrokes are recognized by my DAW of choice, cakewalk, as play/pause, undo, and record, respectively. I wrote this up in a night so the code isn't anything worth writing home on, but it should be easy enough to see what's going on and tweak to suit your needs. (Apologies for the buttons of my actual transport box being "backwards" if you look at the schematic/code.)

But why?

I hate trying to record something and needing to be glued to my keyboard. Wireless keyboards are still awkward when my hands are full with a guitar. And existing devices such as midi footswitches or control surfaces are either too expensive or similarly unwieldy. I did some quick googling and the other similar projects to this required midi I/O or just a little too much extra baggage. This is a quick, simple solution that works for me. You could add or remove buttons, change the key bindings, or just forget that you were ever here. Enjoy!

You will need:

• A compatible ATmega32U4 device, I used an arduino pro micro clone

• 3 Normally Open push button switches

• Jumper wire/bare wire and some soldering skills

• Micro usb to connect device to computer- yes, I just leave the cable plugged in to the arduino and then use the cable to connect/disconnect the whole thing.

• Some sort of enclosure

Find the Source code Git repo here:

https://github.com/onesadpuppy/Transport_Control