When listening to music at work I find it really annoying to adjust the volume in my OS. Having seen a bunch of projects where they build an external volume knob, I thought why not make my own. I bought a couple off digispark clones a while ago and these seem the perfect solution for this. Add a rotary encoder plus a fancy knob and you have all the parts. I followed the adafruit tutorial (they use a trinket, essentially the same as a digispark) and made some changes to the code.
I now have the following controls using my know:
- Single click: Pause/Play
- Double click: Mute
- Turn: Volume
- Hold and turn right: Next track
- Hold and turn left: Previous track
Now that the hardware worked I needed a case for it. In Amsterdam, where I live, there is a makerspace ZB45 where on Tuesdays you can use the laser cutter (and other stuff) for free. So that is what I used. I used it before to make a case for my WiFi Enabled Traffic Light, but this time I wanted the case round, so I came up with the following drawing.
I cut all the parts a couple off times and in two different thicknesses, ±3mm and ±5mm. Then I went home and started putting the puzzle together.
I ended up with the following configuration (bottom to top):
- 1 in 3mm
- 2 in 3mm
- 2 in 5mm
- 2 in 3mm
- 4 in 3mm
- 5 in 3mm
Next version needs to be heavier, or maybe I will add some lead pellets in this version, there is room for it in the bottom layers.