Zoom + KeyBow = ZoomBow

A ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶k̶s̶ ̶a̶g̶o̶, when I started writing this post, now closer to two months (I put “pro” in procrastinating), I stumbled upon an interesting Tweet from a maker I follow:

I liked the idea so much that I decided to make one for myself, but I couldn’t find some of the components in the UK and I didn’t want to wait for shipments from the US to arrive, then I remembered that those amazing guys at Pimoroni had created a pHAT called KeyBow that is exactly what I need for this project and so the ZoomBow was born.

The original project has only one button which is used to mute and unmute. The KeyBow has three buttons. The three functions that these buttons allowed me to have were; mute/unmute, video on/video off, and volume adjustment. By themselves the first key controls the mic, turning it on and off. The middle key controls the video, again turning the camera on and off. By holding down the third key, and hitting the first or second key respectively, will increase and or decrease the volume.

N.B. The buttons will change color from red to green if pressed and not by the status of the video or microphone. They will start red so to keep them in sync with the real status,you should start the call with mic and video off.

Materials

• Raspberry pi Zero ( any version will due but if you don’t feel comfortable with the soldering iron the WH version is what you need)
• Pimoroni Keybow
• A microSd card (8GB up)

Setup

First assemble your KeyBow and setup the microSD card as explained in the KeyBow page on the Pimoroni website on the KeyBow store page, then simply clone the ZoomBow Repository on the root of the MicroSD then edit the file keys.lua replacing the line second line

require “layouts/default” — Numberpad

with

require “zoombow/main”

then simply put the microSd in your pi and connect it to your pc using the second usb port (the one nearer to the HDMI) and go nuts with it