Final-Keycaps-scaled

A Microsoft Teams Adventure

For some strange reasons the heroes find themselves communicating more and more using “Unified Communication” programs. Microsoft teams in particular. This has made them think about two things:

  • Easy buttons to mute,unmute accept and decline calls
  • A way to show to others that you are “Busy” (e.g. In a Call)

To start of, 3DP performs some test with mounting Cherry MX Silent Red RGB buttons by printing a holder and some keycaps. An RGB LED under a white keycap will succesfully shine through. Time to start working on some electronics. The heroes find a very small, almost pico-sized microcontroller from a pie-shaped planet.

From the Plenom Planet a mysterious package arrives. When unpacked, it appears to be a Busylight. However, it’s form factor is not so pretty, so the heroes set out to reverse engineer it. Hoping to combine this functionality together with the buttons in the stream deck. Talking about the buttons, they are ready for some action by Mr. Weller.

ATP (Automatic Teeth Protector) is a new kid on the block, and surely an appreciated help in wiring all the keys and RGB LEDs. And after some hot action by Dr. Weller, the buttons and LEDS are wired up.

The bottom plate receives our Raspberry Pi Pico. To upload new code we need access to the reset button. The pico is sitting pretty all wired up. In the meantime, other heroes have been busy as well. They have completed the busylight!

The code for the busylight can be found on GitHub! And it works! Models to print your own are on PrusaPrinters. Including an Owl version combined using Thing 18218 by Cushwa from thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18218 and “hacking”  it together in prusaslicer.

The Owl Busylights gets mounted behind the monitor to provide a clear indicator to others. Time to continue on the keyboard. The first test with embossed white keycaps do not give the best result. Time to try something else.

The transparent keys didn’t print that well (3DP isn’t perfect after all…), but unfortunately they also don’t work that great. The best result was gotten using a filament change and going back to blue. The microphone base is too thin however, let’s try expanding that…

Yes, that looks much better. The models for the keyboard are on PrusaPrinters. Code is on GitHub. The leftover keycaps only serve to send a message to you: Subscribe to the Youtube Channel to see more videos about projects!

Unfortunately combining the busylight with the keysboard and feedback from AutoHotKey are not working yet. The Heroes have called out for action within different communities, so any help is appreciated:

Bill of materials and code:

The End