Streamer-Focused Arduino-Powered Sparkpad Packs Keys, Volume Control, OLED Display, and More

Maker Patrick "Paddy" Thomas has launched a display-equipped RGB macro pad, or "reconfigurable control surface," built around an Arduino Pro Micro and with streamers in mind: the Sparkpad.

"The Sparkpad is a reconfigurable control surface, primarily aimed at Streamers. The V1 Sparkpad is designed to communicate with streaming software — such as OBS — via HID commands sent over USB," Thomas explains of the design. "However, due to its modular hardware design and open source Arduino firmware, there is scope to do much more. We are hoping to foster a development community, and we will continue to develop improvements for the Sparkpad as and when we can."

Based on the Arduino Pro Micro, the Sparkpad has a 3x4 matrix of RGB LED backlit keys programmable for up to 22 individual actions, in common with many macro pad designs, but that's not its only feature. To the top-right of the board is a volume control, linked to an LED bar graph displaying the currently-set volume; to the lower-left is a compact OLED display.

Supplied as a do-it-yourself kit, the Sparkpad includes plain keycaps for the mechanical switches with stickers available for customization. Thomas has already developed integration for OBS Studio, Streamlabs OBS, Lioranboard via OBS, and various video editing and audio editing packages, with more to come; the open source firmware, meanwhile, can be modified in the Arduino IDE.

"We would also love to see what you can create using Sparkpad and encourage you to tinker with the software and welcome collaborations," Thomas explains. "If you are not a coder, the Sparkpad will have all the functionality necessary to bring your streams to the next level."

The Sparkpad firmware source code is published on GitHub under an unspecified license; kits are available from the Sparkpad website starting at £40 for an unassembled kit without case (around $56.)