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sparkfun MaKey MaKey Quick Start Manual

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MaKey MaKey Quickstart Guide
Introduction
Welcome to the world of MaKey MaKey! A world where every day objects
are much more than what they appear. Bananas are more than just a curvy
fruit - they're keys to a virtual piano. Play-dough isn't just a tasty child's toy -
it's the controlling force behind Pacman's up/down/left/right. And your
simple pencil drawings are a portal to Portal.
Be prepared to look at every day objects in a whole new light. Be stoked!
The world is your construction kit.
Covered in This Tutorial
This tutorial's purpose is to help get you up and running with the MaKey
MaKey – everything from what the board is, to installing it, to using it.
Sections are split into pages, covering the following topics:
• What is the MaKey MaKey? – What's what on the MaKey MaKey
board?
• Installing the MaKey MaKey – How to connect the board, and install
it. Extra focus on Windows, which requires a driver be installed.
• Making Your First Key – How to use banana cables to create your
first MaKey MaKey button.
• Resources and Going Further – Links to inspire and educate.
Materials Required
• MaKey MaKey – The star of the show! The standard and retail
versions of the MaKey MaKey should already include:
Page 1 of 9

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Summary of Contents for sparkfun MaKey MaKey

  • Page 1 MaKey MaKey Quickstart Guide Introduction Welcome to the world of MaKey MaKey! A world where every day objects are much more than what they appear. Bananas are more than just a curvy fruit - they’re keys to a virtual piano. Play-dough isn’t just a tasty child’s toy - it’s the controlling force behind Pacman’s up/down/left/right.

  • Page 2: Suggested Reading

    • Button material (e.g. fruit, Play-Doh, tin foil, copper tape, a friend) • A primed imagination Suggested Reading • What is a Circuit? – To create a MaKey MaKey “key”, a circuit must be created so current can flow. • Voltage, Current, Resistance and Ohm’s Law – Learn about the three fundamental concepts behind electricity, and how they’re related by...

  • Page 3: Installing The Board

    Remember where it saves to on your computer! 1. The first time you plug your MaKey MaKey in, Windows will try to find drivers for it. It’ll fail pretty miserably. You might get an error like this: 2.
  • Page 4 Page 4 of 9 method) by running (press either Windows Key + R, or Start > Run) devmgmt.msc. 3. In the Device Manager, scroll down to Other Devices. There you should find the cause of all this unpleasantness. Mr. “USB IO Board”. Right click that and select Update Driver Software….

  • Page 5: Mac Installation

    To which you can reply with a “Continue”. That’ll be followed by: The MaKey MaKey doesn’t exactly have a shift key, much less a key next to it. I’m not exactly sure of what Mac OS is trying to do here, but you’re safe to ignore this window by just closing it.
  • Page 6 Making a Key Activating a key means creating a closed circuit. For the circuit to work, electrons have to be able to flow from the MaKey MaKey input key to MaKey MaKey’s ground. Usually your fingers will be the missing link between those two: Let’s try making a bona fide MaKey MaKey key.
  • Page 7 Page 7 of 9 Now, grab a second cable for the ground connection. Black is the classic “ground color”, but set your own trend and pick whatever you want. Clip one end of one cable into the Earth bar, and let the other end dangle for now. Open up some sort of text editor (Notepad, Word, TextEdit, etc.) on your computer.

  • Page 8: Example Projects

    You can usually tell just by looking at something whether it’s an insulator or conductor. You’ll have to watch out for objects like this, as they just won’t work with the MaKey MaKey. To get around that, though, you can line them with a conductive material (like copper tape, or just regular old wire), to create the illusion that they’re...
  • Page 9 • Office Plant Drum Session Advanced MaKey MaKey-ing Have you outgrown the MaKey MaKey’s default arrow, space, and home keys? Want to remap the MaKey MaKey inputs, program the MaKey MaKey in Arduino, and use that mysterious output connector? Then join us over on part 2 of this quickstart guide! https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/makey-makey-quickstart-guide...

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