We recently featured five amazing Raspberry Pi Pico projects you can build yourself, and now we have another cost-effective Pi project to talk about. When it comes to DIY Raspberry Pi projects, there’s a ton of inspiration out there, so it may be difficult to know where to start.

Today, we want to talk about a project from UK-based tinkerer and maker, TellinStories, otherwise known as BrainJar on MakerWorld. They’ve built a device designed for those of you who spend more time in Microsoft Teams meetings than you’d like to. The custom panel features arcade-style buttons to control all the essential shortcuts.

Microsoft Teams shortcut button

As you can see from the image below, the shortcuts cover the essentials for most Teams meeting attendees: raise/lower hand, turn on/off camera, and mute/unmute microphone. Its creator says that they “never remember the right keyboard shortcuts,” and navigating with a mouse can be cumbersome, so why not make something even a toddler can use? Note: We don’t recommend that a toddler go near this while you’re in a meeting.

The post on MakerWorld also includes instructions on how to make one yourself. Code for the microcontroller can be found on GitHub; the device simply triggers the associated hotkeys on Teams. The creator confirms that it does come with a downside: Teams needs to be the focused window in order for the buttons to function, however, they are interested in creating a workaround for that in the future. It operates via a USB connection, but we’d love to see it work wirelessly via Bluetooth.

Equipment needed:

• 3 x 24mm 5V LED arcade buttons.
• Daisy chained spade connector wire which are sold alongside the arcade buttons. 
• A RP2040 Zero microcontroller board (or a Raspberry Pi Pico).
• Male USB C to Male USB A cable (or USB A to Micro USB if using an Raspberry Pi Pico).
• Small piece of stripboard or protoboard.
• Equipment to solder everything together.

Source: MakerWorld

If you want to see more interesting Raspberry Pi projects, be sure to check out this retro gaming mini PC, an office Spotify player, or even a nostalgic recreation of ’90s cable TV. There’s plenty more out there – you just need to know where to look.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.