During presentations, I avoid being stationary and generally like to walk around in order to increase the interaction between me and the audience. However, I am constantly being faced with the burden of having to go back to the laptop, in order to change a slide or tell a person sitting by the laptop to do that. Not cool!
This problem is usually solved by devices, called remote clickers ou wireless presenters, which consist of a handheld controller with buttons that sends signals to a USB dongle plugged in the computer. After looking around to buy one, I could not find any decent option costing less than 10$. So why not make one?
In order to build this low cost wireless presenter you will need:
- An infrared remote control (any common TV control should work)
- An Arduino Pro Micro or a Leonardo (both based on the ATmega32u4 microcontroller)
- An infrared receiver (I used the really cheap VS1838B)
- A perfboard or a breadboard
- Female pin headers (optional)
An ATmega32u4 based Arduino is crucial for this tutorial, since the said microcontroller can emulate a keyboard or a mouse very easily, through the use of the standard Mouse & Keyboard libraries. We will use it, to make our computer think that we are pressing specific keyboard buttons, therefore controlling the presentation from a distance.
For More Details: Simple, easy and cheap wireless presenter
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