I’ve always loved the look and feel of the “world of tomorrow” we were presented in mid-century science fiction and concept products.

Okay, that’s not true. When I was young I thought the Tricoders on Star Trek were ugly and clumsy, but the ones on The Next Generation were sleek and awesome. But now that I’m older I prefer the combination of black and silver, of leather and metal over featureless beige or black.

It’s only been the last decade or so that I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for the fusion of aesthetic and functionality over minimalism.

So when I embarked on a project to create a controller for my “atomic” studio, I wanted to use a television remote of the approximate era as a base. I found a two-pack of this Magnavox eight-button remote on eBay and fell in love. I only needed the one, but it was a good deal. Over the course of this project, I’ve been inspired to use the other one to take a different approach to the same concept in a future project.

I knew that early wireless television remote controls (often called “clickers”) used sound. [Side note: we had cheaper televisions in my house and I was the “remote”] The only other one I had seen in person had a single button which hit a strike plate inside to create a tone that the TV could hear to go to the next channel and the next and so forth until coming around to the off position.

But opening this remote showed so much more. The circuit board inside had a coil and something like a speaker that aimed out the top of the remote. Next to each of the buttons was a capacitor of a different rating. By pressing one of the eight buttons the circuit routed through one of the capacitors which modulated the frequency that was transmitted.

I found myself admiring the elegance of using simple parallel circuits to provide such a range of inputs. I started to regret taking it apart.

Well… I’ve got two. One can be sacrificed in the name of SCIENCE!

The Parts

• A vintage remote control (I’m using a Magnavox remote with eight buttons)
• A piece of permaboard (If you have the skills, time, and resources to make a custom PCB, go for it. My biggest challenges in this project came from wiring and soldering good connections in this form factor)
• A microcontroller (I’m using the Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE)
• A Bluetooth module (I used the above feather which has both in one, but I could have used separate pieces)
• Buttons (I’m using the “Soft Tactile Buttons” from Adafruit because the larger buttons I was using originally clicked loud enough to be picked up on microphone)
• A battery of some kind
• An on/off switch

And from the inventory:

• Solder
• Wire
• Headers
• Electrical Tape
• A third hand or PCB vice (I used both at times)
• Wire cutter
• Wire stripper
• Calipers and/or a good eyeball

Dissecting the Remote

I have a vague memory of this, but my parents once told me about the time we went to Red Lobster and I started coming up with names for the lobsters in the tank. My parents tried to subtly dissuade me, but I persisted. Then when the meal came and there were dead crustaceans (I didn’t know lobsters from crabs apparently) on the plates I started asking if they had killed [insert childhood names for critters] for this!? I was pretty upset.

The horrible lesson I was supposed to take away from that was to not name things that were about to be killed.

So I spent a few minutes with my screwdriver poised over the back of “Clicky” pondering what a monster I was about to become.

Then I remembered I had two and I hadn’t named the other one yet so I killed it instead.

Removing the circuit board was easy. I clipped off the leads going to the battery holder before using pliers to pull those out as well.

Determine Position of Inputs and Place

Luckily the circuit board from the original remote was almost the exact same size as a piece of permaboard I had lying around so I didn’t have to cut anything there.

To place the buttons I used a combination of precision measurement and less precise “eyeballing” the first row of buttons and the first button of the second row. After that I just counted the same spaces up and over to place the others.

The on/off switch was relatively easy. I didn’t want to cut into the case if I didn’t have to, so I used the front where the emitter had been. In the picture above I had the switch on the other side from the buttons, but luckily I re-checked placement before soldering it in because it was unreachable through the hole unless I moved it to the other side.

Choosing Placement of Microcontroller

This is where I started to get sad.

I had originally thought to place the microcontroller on the bottom of the board with the buttons and place it where it would sit in the original battery compartment, but if I did that the board would not be tall enough to be screwed into place by the stand-offs that also held on the back.

Next I tried placing it across the top of the board but it wouldn’t fit between the stand-offs.

So in the end I decided to place it such that the GPIO pins that I was going to use lined up between the buttons themselves. I did have to shift it slightly to the side to get the ground pin where I needed it as well.

Soldering It All Together

First thing I did was connect a single wire to all the “top outer” pins of the buttons on each side. Then I bent the wires around the bottom edge of the board and created a solder bridge. Then I ran another wire from one side of the switch to the ground bus.

Next I cut a strip of header pins to the right length and placed them halfway in the holes. This way I could run wires from each of the “bottom inner” pins of the buttons to their respective GPIO pins beneath the plastic part of the header.

After that I sat on the couch sobbing into my hands while alternately drinking a Rum and Coke to get over the trauma I put myself through with all those connections and wishing I had the time and skill to make my own PCB. I also swore to various supernatural forces that if this worked, I never do it again. [Not pictured]

Next I ran a wire from the middle position of the switch to the “enable” pin of the Feather.

Then I placed a single header pin where it needed to be and soldered it into place running a short wire from it to the existing ground bus.

Lastly I placed the Feather in place and soldered it down. In the picture above I hadn’t finished the right side, just the ground pin.

Drilling Mounting Holes

Once again using a combination of precise measurement and imprecise eyeballing I marked the placement of the mounting screws and used my Dremel and stand to drill the holes.

Code!

Aside from my soldering job, this is the ugliest part of the project right now. It’s just a hack of two different libraries: one from Adafruit (from their Adafruit BluefruitLE nRF51 library) and something else I found after too many Rum and Cokes and sobbing.

I beat at them both until they worked.

Mostly.

In the version here, the remote keeps sending the meta keys at times it shouldn’t. It doesn’t affect my usage so I haven’t taken the time to fix it yet.

Basically it scans the GPIO pins and maps them to a number on the keyboard. It sends that number while holding down some meta keys so that I can assign them easily to shortcuts within the studio software I’m using.

Assemble and Enjoy!

I put some electrical tape down over all the wires for protection. I connected the battery and placed it between the mounting stand-offs toward the top. By bending the battery leads around the one stand-off the thing stayed in place nicely.

Now I have a Bluetooth remote that sends a hotkey to my studio computer when I press a button. I can control the software without having to have a visible keyboard in view.

THE FUTURE!

I have a few different ideas on where to take this next:

If I stay with the current system, I’d love to make my own board so the connections would be neater. I’d also update the code to be leaner and cleaner.

Another thought would be to use the other remote (Clicky!) as he was designed and build a receiver that would hear Clicky! and, using a microcontroller with HID capability, act as a keyboard for the studio computer.

As announced in January, we had a Badge Contest that ran through April 21.  We had some great entries this year from our members.

We had nine members show off their awesome badges at the meeting: Karen, Bill**2, Keith, Tom K., Kathy, Jon, Tom G., Brant & Carl

Now it’s the opportunity for everyone to vote and determine which badges they like the best!  Please view the badges and descriptions below, then click on the “VOTE HERE” link and select your favorite.

Several of the members submitted descriptions – please see them below.

Bill**2

Badges? Badges! How I made my stinking badges.

Badges 1 & 2 were started by a visit to the Metal Hack Rack which yielded a fine scrap of brushed stainless steel large enough and thick enough for my needs. Three blanks were cut out, with two being milled to size and slotted on the Gorton mill. The corners of the twin blanks were then belt sanded round and then all edges were deburred by hand filing.

Badge 1 (code name: “Ooh Shiny”) was then polished to a medium shine using several of the buffing wheels. Badge 2 (code named “It’s a Blast”) was sand blasted to a matte finish. Positive and negative designs were created and files were prepared by someone with talent (Thank you Shane). After taking Lexie’s class on Silhouette Studio and the vinyl cutter (Thank you Lexie), I was able to make the vinyl stencils I needed.

Badge 1 received what I call the positive image where everything but the image was covered; likewise Badge 2 received the negative image. The badges were (separately) etched in a hot salt water bath, the badges were anodes and the third badge blank was a non-sacrificial cathode. 5-6 amps were applied for about 1.5 hours with a couple of salt water changes during the etch.

Both badges were cleaned and the edges sanded smooth. Badge 1 was set aside as done, Badge 2 was heated with a torch to add darker temper colors for contrast and the main smooth surface brushed with a brass brush for additional contrast.

As an afterthought, the letters from one of the vinyl stencils were applied to a green anodized dog tag and the one side of the tag sandblasted to create a Thumb drive badge in case I leave the drive anywhere in the space.

Brant H.

Carl

Jon H.

Behold all the might and glory brought to bear from the year 1989 in all it’s 8-bit splender!
My name badge is crafted from an original Nintendo Gameboy sporting one of the very first consumer digital cameras to become available, The Nintendo Gameboy Camera, first available in 1998. I utilized the 256×224 (down scaled to half resolution on the unit with anti-aliasing), black & white digital image using the 4-color palette of the Game Boy system to craft the image showing my name and the Milwaukee Makerspace Logo. I also laser cut a new Gameboy screen bezel of clear acrylic over black acrylic now showing the words, “MILWAUKEE” and “MAKERSPACE” etched between the layers of the bezel with the original LED still shining through. To aid in my proper identification in the case of my badge being lost or stolen, I have incorporated my photo printed from an original Gameboy printer and afixed to the case front. A leather strap was locally sourced and then carefully cut with the type of scissors you should not run with to allow the badge clips attachement. It is most fortunate that the badge clip is resilient enough to support the weight of the Gameboy unit, though I am required to wear a shirt of stout enough fabric to prevent tearing or personal injury while wearing it.

Karen P.

Kathy H.

I started out with a plain fluorescent pink tag. I used acrylic paint, decorative papers and trim, glitter, ribbon, a hole punch and a printer to decorate the tag. All of these items can be found in the craft lab except for the hole punch. By covering the original hole and punching two new holes I was able to attach the ribbon for hanging from the badge holder. The technique I used for adding my name was to run the back sheet from a sheet of printable labels through the printer and printing on the slick side where the labels once were. Using clear packing tape I lifted off the ink for my name and laid it over my badge, pressing it down to be sure it adhered firmly.

Keith M.

This badge is solid copper, with a design chemical etch. The copper board was polished to remove oxidation, then spray-painted with primer as a chemical etch resist. The badge design was created in InkScape, and imported into Corel Draw to drive the 50 watt CNC laser cutter. The laser was used to remove the spray paint from the copper board. Two passes at 40%/40% speed were used to remove all traces of the primer in areas to be etched, each pass took 21 minutes.

After the board was prepared, it was submersed in a solution of two parts hydrogen peroxide, one part muriatic acid for approximately 10 minutes, with agitation. Mineral spirits where then applied to remove the remaining etch resist, and the entire board painted with black enamel paint. A gentle second application of mineral sprits removed the black paint from the surface of the board, leaving it in the etched areas.

Tom G.

Tom K.

This is my badge I’m entering for the competition :-)
it is a combination of Swiss Army pocketknife, USB thumb drive, lockpicks.
Contents:
1-USB thumb drive,LED light shows through maker space logo on other side.
2-can opener
3-bottle opener ,Straight edge screwdriver
4-Scissors
5-tension bar
6-two double ended lockpicks rakes
7-File
8-Phillips screwdriver
9-Corkscrew
10-Attachment ring

VOTE HERE!

Milwaukee Makerspace

Member Badge Competition

What is it?

This is a very open-ended competition: Build a name badge that looks awesome and shows off some of your skills!

What are the rules?

All badges must display your name.

There are 3 classes that you can compete in:

• Class 1: New Member Badge Replacement

This badge must hang on a single plastic strap and metal clip – like the ones that current badges utilize.  Additionally, it must be easily made by a new member as an introduction to a tool, process, or the makerspace in general.  This badge should take no longer than 2 hours to create.

• Class 2: Standard Badges

Like the new member badge replacement, this must also hang from a single plastic strap and metal clip.  There are no limitations on complexity or build time.

• Class 3: Unlimited

This is the unlimited class.  All badges must be able to be transported by a single person, no wheels allowed.  Otherwise, anything goes!

When is the contest?

It’s starting RIGHT NOW!  Come up with an awesome badge idea, build it and show it off!

The contest Ends April 21st!

What can you win?

Each and every contestant will win (your own) memorable Member Badge!  We welcome suggestions for awesome awards that can be presented to the participants.

How do I enter?

Present pictures of your completed badge along with a 2-3 paragraph description of what you did to make it to badgecontest (at) milwaukeemakerspace.org.  Your descriptions and pictures will be used to create a blog post and run open voting within the membership.  Bonus points for members that provide in-process pictures and how-tos on the construction of their badges!