SoundSlide capacitive touch USB-C adapter aims to ease volume control on laptops

SoundSlide USB-C capacitive touch volume control

SoundSlide is an open-source hardware USB-C adapter that adds a capacitive touch interface to your laptop or keyboard PC in order to control the volume without having to reach out to the volume keys on the keyboard that may require Alt or Fn presses.

SoundSlide is meant to be more intuitive than pressing keys and works without drivers with macOS, Windows, and Linux. At just 20.9 x 6.9 x 3.5 mm in size excluding the USB Type-C port, you can leave it connected to your laptop when you move around or put the laptop in your backpack.

USB-C capacitive touch volume control

The SoundSlide relies on the touch interface from the Microchip SAM D11 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, and the company behind the project – Drake Labs – has made the firmware, schematics (PDF/WebP), and a command-line interface written on Go available on GitHub.

You can check out how it works on a laptop in the video embedded below.

I like it in theory, but in practice, it will take a precious USB-C port on your laptop, and on my laptop (ASUS Vivobook 16)  I only have one, which I frequently use to connect Thunderbolt storage devices. It would also have to be on the right side, rather than the left. I could also see it used on keyboard PCs and specific keyboards like the official Raspberry Pi keyboard with a built-in USB hub, but those typically come with USB Type-A ports. I wish a USB Type-A version was also available.

Then there’s the price. If it was made in China, it would probably sell for about $2, but the SoundSlide USB-C volume control adapter goes for $18 on Amazon or $15 on Elecrow. Alternatives include macropads and USB rotary encoders such as the Maker Go’s USB Volume Controller going for $6.70 on AliExpress or even $5.65 for Black Friday 2024. Those are bigger, but more flexible as you can insert them in any USB Type-A port.

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6 Comments
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Willy
11 days ago

I agree with your points regarding the preciousness of USB-C ports and the preference for wasting an A-port (or finding an unused one anywhere). I was going to make similar comments 😉

11 days ago

Thanks for the great post! Just to add note about USB-A:

We’re also working on a USB-A version, though it’s not production-ready yet. Since USB-A wasn’t originally designed to be reversible, achieving this feature has been a challenge. While we managed to make it reversible, it comes at the cost of the steel shell around the connector, which affects its stability. If there’s sufficient demand for a USB-A version, we’ll prioritize its development.

Screenshot_2024-11-21_23-09-11
Willy
10 days ago

Maybe you could keep a regular plug and perform the reversal in software, for example by setting an option in a configuration tool, by performing a long touch to flip it, or by using an accelerator or other methods to sense orientation. Because anyway if you make the connector reversible, there will be people plugging it the wrong way around regardless of the side of the laptop 🙂

10 days ago

The flipped mode is already available through the configuration tool. The purpose of making SoundSlide physically reversible is to avoid blocking neighboring ports. The software configuration ensures a consistent swipe experience—swipe up to increase volume and down to decrease it.
I like your idea of using an accelerometer (though a similar effect could be achieved by simply sensing the VBUS pin). However, it wouldn’t fully solve the issue, as we still couldn’t distinguish between the device being on the left side facing down or the right side facing up.
But yeah, any ideas to improve the product are welcome!

Screenshot_2024-11-22_16-52-28
Willy
9 days ago

Ah I didn’t think about flipping it to avoid hiding a port, that makes sense, so you indeed need to support a physically flippable connector. And good point about sensing Vbus, it’s a good method and even better than the accelerometer (which is overkill). And in any case falling back to the config tool is fine. What could be great would be to support physically sliding the PCB relative to the USB port, but I don’t see how to do that, it would require some notches and possibly moving wires, it would not be great in terms of reliability. Another… Read more »

jack
jack
10 days ago

nice! a good idea, it could also be a games control…?
I’d like it thinner.

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