If there’s one thing we like at Tom’s Hardware, it’s Raspberry Pi-powered stream decks. We even have a tutorial on how to make a Pico-powered stream deck keypad but today’s project by Blue Hippo takes things a step further.
This Pico-powered stream deck doesn’t just interface with user input, it has four programmable displays so you know exactly what feature each button corresponds with. Underneath each of the displays is a push button. Pressing on the screen pushes the button and performs an action, acting as a USB HID device.
The best Raspberry Pi projects are ones you can recreate at home and, to our delight, Blue Hippo has made a list of everything you need to get started. Everything is powered by a Raspberry Pico and built on top of a prototype PCB.
He was able to squeeze four SSD1306 OLED screens into the design, each with a resolution of 128 x 32px and programmable buttons. A 74HC4051 8-channel analog multiplexer was also used to help manage the modules.
Blue Hippo opted to use CircuitPython to program the stream deck along with a few Adafruit libraries to interface with all of the modules. When assembled, the system can be connected to a PC via USB which will recognize button presses from the SSD1306 as key presses. This input can be programmed to control applications like OBS.
If this project seems up your alley, check out the source code shared to GitHub by Blue Hippo and be sure to follow him for more cool projects at YouTube.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
