2021-09-29 (W) Thumbswitch Recording Control 24EngThumbKB COMPLETED

I thought my touch-sensitive keyboard would fix all the button noise in the recording space, but it didn't work unreliably. The other issue was that I only used two buttons 90% of the time. While I had some practical shortcuts, like undo and redo, I wasn't using them while recording anyway. The two vital buttons were "r" and the spacebar, which start and stop recording.

I considered testing a single touch-sensitive pad to see if it was still prone to interference, but I wasn't eager to use them again after I got burned. My operator choice was a pushbutton with no discernable click; the plunger slid down the tube, and it closed a circuit at some point. For a handle, I picked an energy drink bottle. The device should feel like a handle with a thumb-operated button.
Parts: drink bottle, Arduino, wires, pushbutton and cap

I had a Digispark clone that could fit inside the bottle. I wanted to find a way to insert it and string a USB cable out a neat hole, but I couldn't see a tidy method to do that. Rather than worry about making it clean, I cut off the bottom of the tube. I drilled a hole in the cap and mounted the switch, which I topped with a red button head.
Mounted switch and controller placement

The Digispark had a couple of mounting holes, and I tried to drill them straight, but they came out crooked. I cut a clearance groove by the USB connection so my cable wouldn't snag on the plastic. Lastly, I added wires between the switch and Digispark.
Wires

I installed the necessary Digistump (makers of Digispark) drivers and ran their keyboard example. At this point, I had a Rubber Ducky in an energy drink bottle that looked like a remote detonator. When I tried to trigger a keyboard action, I didn't see anything change.

I thought there might be a bad connection, or the internal pull-up resistor might not work on these simple processors. Pin 5 could do analog reads, so I changed the program to look for those, and I saw constant readings, but whenever I pushed the button, the Digispark would reset. I moved the wires to pin 2, and everything worked well. Now, when I press the button, it types the letter r one time and waits. When I release it, the controller emulates a spacebar press, and I have a clean take.
Press=R     Release=space

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2021-09-13

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