Seeking custom 2-button remote to navigate itunes forward/backward.
February 24, 2014 12:15 PM Subscribe
For use with a Mac Mini. Wireless preferable but not essential.
Hi, everyone!
I am a junior exhibition designer with a problem.
An artist wants to embed a Mac Mini into the base of a pedestal. He wants to be able to control music tracks using simple two-button navigation (forward and backward) mounted into the side of the pedestal.
Is there a simple gizmo on the market that could do exactly this, and could withstand cosmetic modifications? (He wants the buttons to look like something from the 19th century).
Hi, everyone!
I am a junior exhibition designer with a problem.
An artist wants to embed a Mac Mini into the base of a pedestal. He wants to be able to control music tracks using simple two-button navigation (forward and backward) mounted into the side of the pedestal.
Is there a simple gizmo on the market that could do exactly this, and could withstand cosmetic modifications? (He wants the buttons to look like something from the 19th century).
Here's a project for making your own one-key input device. And here's someone who makes more ambitious controllers and shows you how.
Palette is something that recently got funded on Kickstarter. They're not actually shipping yet, but it would be just about ideal.
posted by adamrice at 1:02 PM on February 24, 2014
Palette is something that recently got funded on Kickstarter. They're not actually shipping yet, but it would be just about ideal.
posted by adamrice at 1:02 PM on February 24, 2014
In iTunes you can skip back and forth with the left and right arrow keys. You can use a USB keyboard encoder like the I-PAC ($35) or the MaKey MaKey ($50) to get left and right arrow keystrokes out of any contact you can come up with.
posted by pocams at 1:04 PM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by pocams at 1:04 PM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'd imagine that Better Touch Tool would be a handy app to map between your random input device's output and iTunes.
And the device that leaps most readily to mind is a logitech M510 mouse (with it's spare back and forward buttons on the side). It might well take a bit of physical fiddlery to get the buttons outside of the pedestal lined up to the microswitches inside. But it's reasonably cheap, wireless, reliable, and you should be able to pull it apart and rearrange the innards reasonably well.
posted by wotsac at 3:10 PM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
And the device that leaps most readily to mind is a logitech M510 mouse (with it's spare back and forward buttons on the side). It might well take a bit of physical fiddlery to get the buttons outside of the pedestal lined up to the microswitches inside. But it's reasonably cheap, wireless, reliable, and you should be able to pull it apart and rearrange the innards reasonably well.
posted by wotsac at 3:10 PM on February 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. These are great suggestions.
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:17 AM on February 25, 2014
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:17 AM on February 25, 2014
« Older 2-year or 5-year fixed mortgage in the UK? | Camera, action, lights! Lights being turned on and... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:24 PM on February 24, 2014 [3 favorites]