USB Volume Controller Made From Old Keyboard

Here's a USB Volume controller created with a salvaged circuit board from a Microsoft Natural Keyboard. The arcade buttons are wired to the key combinations that make "mute", "volume up" and "volume down". My need came from one of my workstations that has no volume control on the keyboard, and my office environment that requires me to make quick "mutes" of the music blaring through my headphones.

These arcade buttons are great to mash, and are quite easy to wire up. Make sure to have the right size hole-saw for your enclosure mounting (I drilled them too small and had to strong-arm the holes wider with a wood rasp).

The Microsoft Natural Keyboard that was gutted and PCB removed for the controller. Originally I had contemplated building an Arduino Virtual Keyboard, but the old keyboard was sitting around and already had all the components I needed for an HI Device.

A top view of the keyboard circuit board. It's surprisingly primitive using exclusively through-hole components. Notice my notes scribbled on the desk documenting the combinations required for keyboard volume control. One challenge to using scavenged circuit boards is the lack of any documentation whatsoever!

The key combinations wired up and ready for the arcade buttons. I had to discover the combinations for keyboard volume control using brute force, slowly shorting the connections with a jumper wire. After about 20 minutes of blind mashing and carefully labelling the pins, I was able to find the pins needed for my volume controller. I wouldn't recommend this particular model of keyboard as the connections are incredibly tough to solder (solder-phobic in fact). The connections to the flexible PCB were contact-only.

Done! I chose a MDF box as an enclosure for it's easy of drilling and modification. Total cost: $15 (most of that for the wooden box which I still feel was overpriced).