I got my makey makey today!
What is it?
The makers describe it as An invention kit for everyone.
“MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween”
It connects to your pc using USB (no drivers needed), and once you connect something conductive (iron, skin, banana, …) to it, the makey-makey sends keypresses to your pc.
This way you can control games, virtual pianos/samplers, … using physical/real objects.
Tested it with my four-year old, who was amazed and thrilled!
(this video is of the makers, not mine)
However, if you want to access the arduino mode (it is based on an arduino), you run into some issues with windows 8. Installing the driver is a bit of a nightmare.
Luckily, the driver isn’t needed for basic experimenting.
These are the steps I follow to get it eventually working for me:
1. from Louis Davis on the arduino Forum
"I have come up with an alternative method to install the Arduino drivers on Windows 8. This method does not require new driver files or installation of a test signature."
1. Windows Key + R 2. Enter shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00 3. Click the "OK" button 4. System will restart to a "Choose an option" screen 5. Select "Troubleshoot" from "Choose an option" screen 6. Select "Advanced options" from "Troubleshoot" screen 7. Select "Windows Startup Settings" from "Advanced options" screen 8. Click "Restart" button 9. System will restart to "Advanced Boot Options" screen 10. Select "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" 11. Once the system starts, install the Arduino drivers as you would on Windows 7
Steps to install driver after Driver Signature Enforcement has been disabled: 1. Right click the Unknown Device in Device Manager 2. Select Update Driver Software 3. Select Browse my computer for software 4. Click Browse button 5. Select the Drivers folder under the location of your Arduino software installation. (Do not select the FTDI folder inside the Drivers folder) 6. Click OK 7. Click Next
next you have to do this: (from Josh Keys on Sparkfun)
1) Remove any drivers you have for the device already
2) Windows will recognize the device as an Arduino Leonardo. Update the drivers and point it to your Arduino folder.. for me /arduino01.0.3/drivers
3) Windows will install the Arduino Leonardo drivers and set it to an available comport.
4) Open your arduino IDE and the Makey Makey source file from sparkfun.
5) Make sure you have Tools->Board selected as Arduino Leonardo and also Tools->Serial Port selected to the appropriate COM Port
6) Open Device manager, get the Arduino IDE and your device manager on the same screen so you can see them both
7) Attempt to upload to the makey makey (The right arrow button)
8) Watch closely in your device manager, you will see the Arduino Leonardo disappear and briefly the Makey Makey will appear under your unknown devices implying it has no drivers. You need to click on it fast to catch it and select “Update Drivers”
9) Direct the driver selection to the location where you stored your sparkfun makey makey driver. For me this is /Documents/Arduino/hardware/MakeyMakey/driver
10) It will attempt to install the driver but most likely say it failed in the end because it didn’t have enough time
11) Wait for the Arduino IDE to fail again, then try reprogramming, possibly one more time if needed.
12) Bask in the sweet joy of seeing “Done Uploading” and enjoy your makey makey
What I believe is going on is that the device is placed in a programming mode briefly when you try to upload and is looking for a makey makey device. Sorry for the long explanation, just trying to make it easy for everyone. Let me know if this worked for anyone.
Then select the new Com port in the Arduino IDE and change “board'” to makey makey, and you’re all set!
And it finally worked!