The Touch Board is a powerful prototyping tool which combines Arduino compatibility with robust capacitive touch, distance sensing, an MP3 Player, MIDI functionality and a LiPo battery charger. The Touch Board is perfect for any designer, engineer, artist, student or educator. Listen to the Touch Board’s pre-loaded audio guide to get you started right out of the box. No programming needed.

Create 12 touch or proximity sensors using Electric Paint or any other conductive material. Play your favourite MP3s, connect the Touch Board to Abelton Live as a MIDI controller or do anything else that you might do with an Arduino.

The Touch Board is part of the Arduino at Heart program which means you can program it and use it just like any Arduino. We’ve got robust and fully-featured libraries, example code and tons of tutorials so you can take advantage of all of its features.

Not sure where to get started? Take a look at our Touch Board Starter Kit. It comes pre loaded with all the materials and ideas that you need to get making today!

Included:

1 x Touch Board
1 x MicroSD card

Useful Links

Touch Board Technical Data Sheet
Touch Board shield guide
Touch Board pin map

Touch Board Workshop Manual

Touch Board Workshop Manual
Touch Board Techniques and Inspiration  
Touch Board Basic Projects  
Touch Board Digital Toolkit

Technical Details

• Touch and Distance Sensing
• Works great with Electric Paint
• Preprogrammed as an MP3 Player
• Easy to program as a MIDI instrument or MIDI interface
• HID capable – turn the Touch Board into a keyboard or mouse
• Arduino-compatible and programmable through the Arduino IDE
• Arduino Leonardo pin layout supporting Arduino shields
• Built in LiPo battery charger
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 20 Digital I/O pins
• 12 Analogue pins
• Atmel ATMega32U4 Microprocessor
• Freescale MPR121 dedicated touch interface
• VLSI VS1053B audio processor
• 32 kB of Flash Memory of which 4 KB is used for bootloader
• 2.5 kB of SRAM
• microSD card included, the Touch Board will work with any microSD card up to 32GB.
• 5V operating voltage

Getting started is easy

The Touch Board comes pre-programmed with an audio guide that takes you through basic features and highlights of the board. This tutorial below will get you up and running in no time.

Getting Started with the Touch Board

Capacitive touch and distance sensing

Want to paint an interactive wall? The Touch Board is for you. Connect something conductive – like our Electric Paint – to any one of the 12 electrodes and turn it into a reliable touch or distance sensor. Use the tutorials below to see the power of the Touch Board’s sensors in action.

Proximity Sensing with the Touch Board
Visualising Touch Board Sensor Performance

You’ve got an Arduino

The Touch Board is easily programmed via the Arduino IDE. Use the tutorial below to get our libraries and example sketches on your machine instantly. Tune your distance sensors, play MP3s or make an amazing MIDI controller. It’s just an upload away.

Programming the Touch Board with Arduino

You’ve got an MP3 Player

Your Touch Board will arrive programmed as an MP3 player. Want to switch our audio guide for your favourite tunes? Just follow the straightforward tutorial below. Want to use the MP3 functionality for another project? Great. Our libraries make it easy to control your files.

Loading your own MP3s onto the Touch Board

You’ve got a Hackable MIDI Controller

The Touch Board is the most flexible MIDI controller on the market. Turn any thing, any surface or any space into a USB MIDI controller. Take a look at the tutorials below to get your Touch Board connected to Ableton Live and Max/MSP in just a few steps.

Using the Touch Board with Ableton Live
Using the Touch Board with Max/MSP