Multifunctional button for smartphone Klick. Here's where his button is: the scary secrets of a smart button for a smartphone Smart button
Everything good sooner or later comes to the attention of Chinese industry, after which clones of varying quality appear. Of course, you have the right to support the developers and order a miracle button from their website, but I decided to first try the Chinese version called “Klick”. In the vast expanses of online stores from the Middle Kingdom, I have come across other names - “Smart Button”, “One Click Button”, “iKey” and the like, this does not change the essence. I liked the name “Klick”, so I put it in the title of the article.
The device is really simple - a metal plug and a spring-loaded button. If you are interested, on the website of the project authors there is a photograph with button design options that were rejected during the development process.
The button is installed in a smartphone or tablet in the headphone jack. Just insert the button into it all the way and that’s it, the mechanical part of the device is ready for use.
If you are using a phone with headphones, then during this time the button can be removed and stored in a special silicone holder that is attached to the headphone cable.
But without the software part, the button is useless. When purchasing an original multifunction button from official manufacturers, you will be provided with a unique serial number that activates the official application. But third-party software developers did not stand aside, so the Market already has several applications for working with such devices. I tried almost all of them, the utility I liked the most was 360 Smartkey. In the original it is in Chinese, but at the end of the article you can download its Russian version.
After installation, the program monitors the connection of any device to the headphone jack, as well as button presses. As soon as you insert headphones or a multifunction button into your smartphone, a program request immediately appears on the screen asking what exactly you have connected. If headphones, then select the headphones icon, in this case they will work as intended. If you inserted a button, then select its icon, immediately after that the program begins to monitor its presses. All other programs work approximately on the same principle.
The program itself configures actions that should be performed when one or more buttons are pressed. This could be a photo from a camera, turning on a voice recorder, a flashlight, locking or unlocking a device, launching an application, and much more. The list of available actions differs depending on the program you are using. The best part is that all actions can be performed even when the smartphone is locked. This way you can take photos without attracting attention (the smartphone is in your breast pocket, only the camera sticks out), turn on the voice recorder without the other person noticing, secretly send messages or make calls.
Recently, a gadget called Click Quick Button has become popular. This is a physical button that can be connected to a mobile phone or tablet. The button is inserted into the headphone jack and allows you to perform certain actions, such as turning on the LED flash, launching the camera, and so on. We suggest making such a gadget yourself.
So, we will need:
- glue gun;
- soldering iron;
- heat shrinkage;
- tact button;
- 3.5 mm mini-jack;
- tester;
- mobile phone.
The clock button, according to the author, can be removed from some old and unnecessary board. This is where you should start making the gadget.
After unsoldering the clock button from the board, thoroughly clean the mini-jack.
Since the tact button has four tabs, it is necessary to determine which of them are working. To do this, take the tester, switch to resistance, connect the buttons to the two legs and press it. If the tester shows a short circuit when pressed, then we have chosen the correct pair.
We bite off the remaining two legs with nippers.
Let's move on to the assembly. The mini-jack has four outputs - ground, microphone output, and left and right channels. The clock button must be soldered to ground and the microphone output.
Since the upper channels are not needed, they can be bitten off with wire cutters to make room for the button.
To prevent individual parts of the mini-jack from accidentally remaining in the mobile phone connector, add a couple of drops of superglue between them.
Solder the button to the mini-jack.
We carefully insulate the soldering area with hot glue.
We put on heat shrink and fix it.
Comparative review of four solutions
In modern mobile operating systems, the issue of quick access to key phone settings can be considered already resolved. Swipe from below or from above, touch the desired icon - and you have already turned on vibration alert, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and much more. But to perform these simple operations you always have to switch your attention to your smartphone. Sometimes this is completely inappropriate: for example, at an important meeting or exam. Today we will look at some simple gadgets that can solve this problem by using the 3.5mm headphone jack that all modern mobile devices are equipped with.
Packaging and equipment
We received four gadgets for testing: the famous Chinese company Xiaomi, and .
Only iKey is unique in its packaging - a blister in the shape of the Android logo
The extensive array of gadgets makes no sense: these buttons themselves look like a bonus from some generous seller of Chinese smartphones. Thus, by the way, one of them came to us - it was a pleasant surprise. iKey and 360 Klick are supplied as is. Mi Key has a clip for the headphone cable. A logical solution: you can always have everything you need with you to use the audio output in two scenarios.
Design and Operation
All buttons look approximately the same - like ordinary connectors for an audio jack. Only Klick (far right) stands out by the absence of one ring.
There is a little more variety in the color of the buttons. iKey and 360 Klick have gold, Klick has silver, Mi Key has black.
Let's move on to the most interesting part - use. All gadgets here are united by compatibility: only Android is supported. For testing, we used a Sony Xperia C smartphone and a Ramos i10 Pro tablet, a review of which is scheduled for the near future.
Already at the beginning of testing, the question of compatibility with the Sony Xperia C was raised. The audio jack of this smartphone is truncated on one side, for the sake of a streamlined body:
An analysis of all gadgets using a tester showed that pressing a button closes the microphone contact and the ground (1 and 2 in the diagram)
The photo of the buttons in profile clearly shows that the two left accessories with gold tips (iKey and 360 Klick) have a wider gap between the contacts that are connected when pressed. For this reason, they are not compatible with the truncated audio jack of the Sony Xperia C. There was no such problem with the other pair of buttons. The Ramos i10 Pro tablet is compatible with all four accessories as its 3.5mm jack is not truncated.
It turns out that all the accessories we are considering are, in principle, interchangeable, and the problem may only lie in the little things described above. Therefore, nothing prevents you from installing one of the listed buttons and at the same time using the application from the other. This was confirmed during testing. Therefore, it makes sense to consider applications that perform the work of simple accessories.
iKey
Software for iKey from the official website in the form of an apk file. The simple application has an English interface.
iKey can recognize single, double and triple clicks. The list of assigned functions is very extensive. Memory clearing works without problems. For the “Send Message” command, the text and recipient of the message are immediately assigned - well suited for emergency situations. Photos, videos and audio received using iKey are recorded in separate folders created by the device.
The set of settings is small, but needs clarification. If iKey does not work when the screen is off, sometimes the “Enhanced Mode” option helps out. But the manufacturer warns that this consumes more energy. You can set the speed of multiple clicks, in the range from 0 to 1000 ms. But in reality, this doesn’t help much in setting up the normal perception of double/triple clicks. In order for iKey to at least occasionally perceive them correctly, you need to set a large gap here, at least half a second. But in this case, the meaning of the accessory is partially lost, because it takes more time to activate the function. With 100% probability, only a single click will work.
The most “branded” accessory of the four, Xiaomi Mi Key, for some reason only has an application in Chinese by default. Fortunately, the manufacturer completed the work, and as a result, even the Russian language appeared.
The Xiaomi button supports up to ten clicks and counts the number of clicks made.
In the Mi Key application, it is possible to create a quick command menu that will be called up after a set number of clicks. Scenarios of multiple actions are also available.
Although Xiaomi Mi Key saves photos in the standard Android folder, unfortunately, there is no point in this, since the end result is frames similar to the one shown on the left. The “Real time” option is puzzling: without it, the button seems to respond with a deliberate delay. However, even this does not help the Xiaomi Mi Key: single presses are perceived perfectly, but double presses practically do not work, as is the case with iKey.
Click
The Klick app is available from the Play Store. The gadget is able to perceive not only short, but also long presses. To unlock this function, you need to select the “Long Press” line highlighted in red and in the window that appears for selecting a program for processing, click “Always” and “iKlick”.
There are fewer available commands than competitors, but some of them are very useful. “SOS” sends a preset SMS indicating the current location of the smartphone. "Camera" allows you to choose whether to take a snapshot or simply launch the corresponding application.
A set of “Switches” switches is available for quick access. In the settings, you can add two more gestures to the main ones, combining a long and short press.
In the Klick app, you can't set a time interval for multiple clicks. And despite this, it perceives them more stable than the competitors discussed above. Single and double clicks are read without problems, but triple clicks are read only sometimes. It takes at least 7 seconds for the device to respond to a long press, and even then the response is not guaranteed.
360 Click
The most “Chinese” gadget of the four. Application downloading from the official website and has an exclusively Chinese interface. Searches for translations on the forum did not lead to anything. But the main functions are clear, in general, even without translation.
We tried all the settings, but the utility could not offer us more than a single/double click. So the facepalm logo of the World Cup football looks appropriate in this case. In terms of functionality, the 360 Klick application is inferior to its competitors, but it recognizes two preset gestures not so badly - according to our observations, it is slightly less stable than Klick.
conclusions
Shortcut buttons for the audio jack, of course, in some circumstances can add the necessary functionality to a smartphone/tablet, making it much more convenient to use. But you shouldn’t place high hopes on them: among the four reviewed, only Klick was distinguished by its stability in recognizing more than one click. To use with this application, it is not necessary to buy a button from the same manufacturer: as we have seen, they are all usually interchangeable.
However, before purchasing, we advise you to check that the audio jack on your device is of a suitable, standard shape and that the selected application supports it. Otherwise, 2-10 dollars spent on a gadget will not be as bad as the time spent on choosing.
Today we will talk about a rather controversial accessory, namely a physical button that can be connected to the headphone jack and assigned various actions to it. Let’s try to figure out how convenient and necessary it is in this review.
A little background
This great idea originally appeared on kickstarter - Pressy (link). The project was quite ambitious and quickly reached the amount required for commercial implementation (about 700 thousand dollars). At first the idea took off, and there was a lot of excitement - mentions of the accessory were in almost all major technical publications. After all, the idea is really good - a miniature button that can be connected to the headphone jack of a smartphone (Android/iOS) and programmed for various actions, for example: one press turns on the flashlight, two presses take a picture with the camera, one short press and one long press launches some or an application - there can be a huge number of combinations.
But despite the excellent idea and good implementation, the excitement quickly died down, since the creators are asking about $30 for a very simple device (a headphone jack with a resistor inside and a clock button on top). And this, in my opinion, is a lot for such a simple device.
And then, as usually happens, Chinese manufacturers picked up the idea and made a lot of “Klick quick buttons” under different names (Klick, MiKey and others), but completely identical from the technical side. The price, naturally, has dropped significantly - and varies depending on the quality of workmanship from 5 to 15 dollars, which corresponds to this simple device. Next we will talk about one of the Chinese buttons.
Meet - Click
In a huge number of different Chinese click quick buttons, it seemed to me that the quality of execution (both the button itself and the application for setting it up) stands out with one under the simple name “Klick” (the manufacturer even has a website - link).
When the button arrived from China, the quality did not disappoint me: both the button itself and the packaging were all very presentable.
Upon arrival, the box was not wrinkled, but became so already in my possession while awaiting review.
Click - packaging
When opened, the box unfolds, and on its inside we see brief instructions for use.
Klick - equipment
Case for Klick
In addition to the button itself, the package includes a keychain ring and a small case that can be attached to a protein ring or to a headphone cord.
Android applications for working with the button
If you simply connect the button to your smartphone, it will simply be identified as headphones. Therefore, before doing this, it is worth installing applications. There are several options for Android.
Press It! Power Button Psre sy
This application can be downloaded from Google Play (link)from the creators of Psresy.The free version has enough poor functionality; There is an interesting deception call feature (when you press a button, the smartphone starts ringing as if it received a call). It works somehow incomprehensibly - sometimes it reacts to clicks, sometimes it doesn’t, and why is not clear. I don't recommend using this compared to other applications.
Pros of the application:
- fake call function.
- unstable operation of the application;
- It is impossible to configure which scripts work when the screen is locked and which do not.
Miclick (MiKey)
The application is from Xiaomi, it is not on Google Play (it is pre-installed on Xiaomi smartphones), you can download it from 4pda, there is a translated version (link) - thanks to the user malchik-solnce.
The application works stably and clearly - as it should. You can program 10 events (from one to 10 presses in a row). There are quite convenient scenarios (in addition to the standard ones): for example, you can clear the memory of running applications, lock the screen, mute the sound, or take a screenshot.
- stable work;
- many convenient scenarios (memory clearing, screenshot, etc.);
- quick response to pressing a button.
- the application does not distinguish between long/short presses;
- it is impossible to configure which scripts work when the screen is locked and which do not;
- not on Google Play.
Click
This application is from the manufacturer of the “Klick” button and can be downloaded from Google Play (link). The application distinguishes between long and short presses, this is very convenient - this significantly reduces the number of clicks on a button required to execute a script (for example, 4 quick presses is no longer very convenient, one short, one long is much more convenient). It works very stable, but, unfortunately, it has few “special” scenarios (like clearing memory and the like), there is a rather interesting opportunity to take a picture with the camera by pressing a button without launching the camera application (even if the screen is locked), but in reality nothing good things don’t come out of such pictures, you still need to see what is captured by the lens (strictly speaking, this function is also available in other applications, but it only worked correctly for me with this one).
For each scenario, you can choose whether it will work when the screen is locked - this is convenient, because if you carry a smartphone in your pocket, you can’t escape accidental single clicks.
- stable work;
- the application distinguishes between long/short presses;
- It is possible to configure which scenarios work when the screen is locked and which do not.
- few special scenarios.
- There is a slight delay (~1.5 sec) from pressing the button to executing the script.
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To sum up, I can say that I liked the last application the most. The delay when pressing, of course, slightly spoils the impression, but without the ability to choose which scenarios work when the screen is locked and which don’t, it’s not very convenient to use the button (it will still be pressed accidentally), and the ability to configure combinations of long/short presses - this is also very convenient.
Using the Click Button
We seem to have figured out the application, now it’s time to connect the button to the headphone jack of your smartphone.
The button fits into the connector very tightly and stays there firmly - you won’t be able to accidentally lose it. Of course, it sticks out a little from the body, there’s no way around it, but it doesn’t spoil the appearance of the smartphone much and doesn’t interfere with use.
It is worth understanding one obvious thing: when the button is connected, you cannot connect headphones/headsets to the smartphone. If you are used to frequently using the headphone jack for its intended purpose, then plugging the button with the headphones is not convenient. This was a very pressing problem for me, since I was used to using my smartphone as a player. But it so happened that now I use two smartphones, so I transferred all the music to one, and use the second one with Klick. If there was only one smartphone, then I think that from the additional button I would most likely refused and used the connector for its intended purpose.
Despite the fact that a fairly large number of scenarios can be configured per button (on average, more than five), it’s really not convenient to use more than three or four - if you need to click on the button more than three or four times to launch, then it’s easier to just launch the desired application using traditional ways and not count a bunch of clicks.
When choosing applications to launch quickly via a button, I was guided by two principles: applications that are used most often, and applications that you may need to launch as quickly as possible (for example, the camera). Also, when setting up, it is worth considering that an application configured to launch with one click will inevitably be triggered accidentally (the button will be pressed in your pocket or something else), so it makes sense to configure it so that one click will only work when the screen is unlocked.
Of course, to get used to a new button on a smartphone, to select applications that are really convenient to assign to it, to remember to the level of automaticity how many times you need to press for this or that scenario to work, it takes time. But after walking around for a month, you involuntarily start looking for Klick on all the smartphones you get your hands on.
A few words at the end
Despite the brilliant idea, such a button will not be convenient for every smartphone user. Therefore, if you are thinking about purchasing, you should think about whether it will be convenient to occupy the headphone jack, and what scenarios will be executed when pressed.
I've been using Klick for a sufficient period of time to get used to it and understand that the accessory is really convenient, and for its sake you can put up with the fact that the headphone jack on one smartphone will be constantly occupied.
Just recently I saw the Pressy project on Kickstarter. I decided to look at the options. It turned out that there is plenty to choose from. Klick, 360 smartkey and Mi key from Xiaomi. In general, I decided to buy it and try it in practice. I ordered a Mi key for $4 because paying $35 for the original Pressy seemed unreasonable to me, because I had doubts whether I would use it in everyday life.
I love summer, the best time for orders, they arrive quickly. The small parcel contained a small envelope containing a miniature button. After unpacking, I began testing it on all the devices that were at hand.
I started with the native Mi key application. The program has wide capabilities and offers to assign an action from 1 to 10 clicks. In additional settings, you can flexibly change the parameters necessary for comfortable work with the button. In practice, the application with the Z te nubia z5s mini smartphone only responded to a single press, double, triple, etc., the second or third time.
Things were a little better with the 360 smartkey app. Its capabilities are limited to assigning commands to single and double clicks. In the settings you can activate additional functions. The smartphone responded quickly and accurately to all commands, but from a locked state it worked the second time.
Having tried all the applications, I settled on Klick because it worked the most correctly even when the smartphone was locked. The application allows you to combine short and long presses, but the Mi key button does not support them. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it makes sense to try all the applications and choose the one that will work without problems with your smartphone.
After several days of using the Mi key smart button, I was satisfied. True, the only use I found for it was to launch a flashlight and camera, although sometimes it’s faster to take a picture in the traditional way by activating the camera from the lock screen. There were no accidental activations. The button can help in an unforeseen situation when you need to urgently send an SMS, make a call, or start a video recording without watching. You just need to be 100% sure that the button will work the first time. For users whose devices have diagonals larger than 5 inches, it may not be convenient to reach for the button. For those who like to listen to music from a smartphone, you will have to constantly change their places. The price of the button is small, so anyone can buy it if they want.