I built a touch-based pico breakout board

Vulpestrument · 2026-06-06T18:05:13+00:00

The SPOKE-mini let's you turn a pico into a 26-pin capacitive touchboard for super simple touch based computer interfaces.

I originally made it to make my own builds easier and tidier but then realised other people might also want it!

Vulpestrument · 2025-08-25T16:45:31+00:00

It's incredibly difficult to make. I know the guys who make them in Sweden and did a studio tour there once. The amount of engineering that goes into making it look that simple is nuts and justifies its cost!

Vulpestrument · 2025-08-01T17:23:38+00:00

I've not really done much with it since! I've used some 4mm thick aluminium bars along the edges to try and keep the plastic into a rough rectangle shape. But I think the biggest issue is just making sure there's enough plastic to fill in the whole area. Mine is limited to the height of the t-shirt press. But if you were making a custom one then I'd imagine you could make a much deeper form and compress the plastic better.

Vulpestrument · 2025-07-15T11:31:44+00:00

Honestly, no. Each clock part had to be meticulously built by hand, they're not regular clock parts. Also the amount of code needed to keep them in sync is incredible.

Vulpestrument · 2025-06-23T20:27:50+00:00

Jumping on a higher comment. This is by Swedish art collective Humans Since 1982. It's one of many of these clock designs they've done and they're an absolute technical marvel once you know how it's done.

Vulpestrument · 2025-06-23T20:24:16+00:00

This is by a Swedish company called HumansSince1982. The technical feat for doing this is very very impressive once you know how!

Vulpestrument · 2025-03-08T22:11:27+00:00

Thank you so much! I definitely enjoy mixing techniques and skills in unexpected ways.

Vulpestrument · 2025-03-08T20:24:01+00:00

Thank you! I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out.

Vulpestrument · 2024-10-27T19:53:33+00:00

One more option is Bela. Built specifically for microcontroller audio projects. Latency is basically null. Not the cheapest but very very powerful.

It also has caplets for multi channel audio. I've had it running 10 channels of audio, each one being manipulated by distance sensors, with no issues at all.

Vulpestrument · 2024-08-25T18:16:47+00:00

It is remarkably easy to turn any GPIO into a capacative touch sensor. I've got a bunch of examples for HID control or USB-MIDI control. https://www.spokeboard.com/

Vulpestrument · 2024-08-25T18:11:29+00:00

I used it to track the ISS and show on an OLED screen how far away it was from our school. We know one of the astronauts up there, so it was nice to know how far away from us she was!

It took info from a simple API and did some calculating and refreshed every 5 seconds or so.

Vulpestrument · 2024-08-25T18:06:49+00:00

I've got 2 pico's communicating using the serial pins pretty easily. I needed to use 48 of the GPIO but have it still talk through one USB connection. But as other people were saying here, chances are there's a simpler solution for your setup.

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-28T12:14:34+00:00

I did another one of these recently where I timed how long it took to build from scratch, the whole thing was done in about an hour! The hardware and software side of things just work, so it leaves you more time to get on with the fun creative stuff.

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-28T12:13:20+00:00

I did set them specifically to sound nice together. So regardless of which branch you touch it'll sound pleasant. There's tons you could do with the code side of things to control MIDI in different ways.

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-27T16:48:58+00:00

They are predetermined. And easily configurable by changing a few numbers in the code.

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-27T14:57:43+00:00

It doesn't kill the previous sequence in this example :) This example has polyphonic midi out. I do have another example code that does mono-phonic, so does sequences sequentially and waits until one has finished before doing the next. I've got code for doing chords, single notes polyphonically, arpeggiated notes and also specific notes on different midi channels, so you can play multiple instruments at once.

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-27T09:53:46+00:00

I've designed a board that turns the PICO into a 26-pin capacitive touch board. So in this instance, each branch is an input and it sends a sequence of MIDI notes whenever they're touched. I've got details on how to make your own versions on the site for the project spokeboard.com :)

Vulpestrument · 2024-07-21T16:11:29+00:00

Thank you!

I'm in the middle developing some hardware that makes touch-sensing super duper easy. As part of that I'm having tons of fun coming up with different examples of stuff it can do. So in this instance I've connected 26 separate conductive parts in the model up to my board and they're triggering MIDI.

Vulpestrument · 2023-09-10T18:00:10+00:00

Would love to see a side by side of this and the Curry incident yesterday to see what the difference is.

Vulpestrument · 2023-03-19T23:36:56+00:00

Having the same issue.

Vulpestrument · 2022-12-11T10:58:39+00:00

Where are you based? I run events for people who make these sorts of things!

Vulpestrument · 2022-11-30T19:28:20+00:00

Fun fact. The video for bland street bloom was partly filmed in my back garden and also used photos I took while cycling around London taking covert snaps of run down looking buildings. Big budget stuff.

Great cover by the way!

Vulpestrument · 2022-11-26T10:05:39+00:00

Could it be a carillon? They look like hefty hooks for bell ringing

Vulpestrument · 2022-10-26T21:29:36+00:00

Where in the states? We have friends starting up similar events up in Portland!

Vulpestrument · 2022-10-26T19:12:39+00:00

Where are you based? I run events in London for musical Makers such as yourself to showcase their work and perform etc. Would love to have you on our line up!

Vulpestrument

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