Eugene “thirtytwoteeth” Andruszczenko (of Game Boy Zero – Handheld Edition fame) posted a neat idea to help your Raspberry Pi Zero take jumper wires without soldering. He threaded fishing line through the 40 hole header, making an interference fit for header pins. I tried it with 0.38 mm Trilene, which worked rather well.
Well, that was easy!
Since the Verbal Machines VM-CLAP1 sensor is an open collector type — that is, it sinks current when triggered — it behaves like a simple button to gpiozero, the Raspberry Pi Python GPIO library. If you attach a callback function to the sensor’s when_pressed event, your Python script will call that function every time it registers a clap.
The wiring is as simple as it could be:
VM-CLAP1: Raspberry Pi:  ========= =============  GND → GND  PWR → 3V3  OUT → GPIO 4
This example code just prints clap! when the board picks up a ðŸ‘:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Raspberry Pi gpiozero test for
# Verbal Machines VM-CLAP1 clap sensor
# scruss - 2017-06
#
# Wiring:
#
# VM-CLAP1: Raspberry Pi:
# ========= =============
# GND → GND
# PWR → 3V3
# OUT → GPIO 4
from gpiozero import Button
from signal import pause
def clapping():
print("clap!")
clap = Button(4)
clap.when_pressed = clapping
pause()
This is a trivial example, but at least it shows that anything you can do with a button, you can also do with this hand-clap sensor.
For work, I blogged about Verbal Machines‘ Hand Clap Sensor VM-CLAP1 (“Clap on ðŸ‘ðŸ‘, Clap off ðŸ‘👠– Elmwood Electronicsâ€). I’ve made a preliminary part for Fritzing for the board: VM-CLAP1 Clap Sensor for Fritzing.zip
It should work in Breadboard and Schematic mode, but absolutely doesn’t work in PCB mode. This shouldn’t be a problem, as it’s only available as a standalone board. Fritzing doesn’t have any way to create new parts from scratch any more, so I had to base it on a somewhat similar-looking board, the SparkFun Electret Microphone Breakout.
I’m looking forward to see what I can do with gpiozero and the clap sensor.