using buttons on the quickstart

softcon

I know I can just get my own keys, and either wire them separately, or use a keypad, and just knock off extra keys, but the quickstart already has 8 buttons on it, and I'm looking to take advantage of that if I can.
What I'd like though, is to have regular keys on top of the board, that when pressed will "touch" the quickstart provided buttons, and trigger them just as if they'd been hit with a finger. Pressing times would be in the fractions of a second, so don't know if this would be practical using the quickstart provided buttons, but I guess some experimenting would tell me. I'm mainly looking to find what materials would trigger the buttons, since it'd have to be something added to the bottom of whatever is being used as keys on top of the board, (such as keys off a regular keyboard, or maybe just rubber pads or something).
It may be better to use a separate keypad, but modifying a regular keypad for what I have in mind wouldn't be very easy, which is why I was hoping to use individual keys (anyone know where to get blank keycaps?)
So, I guess I'm wondering if anyone has tried this kind of thing, and if so, what worked, what didn't, and what (if anything) would you folks recomend for such an application.
Thanks for any help.

groggory

I'd just use a different board than the quickstart and set up a set of mini buttons.

If you're not going to use the built in buttons, then just don't use them, ya know?

cavelamb

I was at Frys and saw some small keyboards - mainly intended as a wireless accessory to cell phone.
How much keyboard do you want?

MagIO2

Why don't you use the quickstart buttons as solder-pads? You can solder any kind of push-button switch to it and read their state using the quickstart key input object.
If you don't want to "smutch" the pads with tin-solder you can also use the appropriate pins on the connector.

rwgast_logicdesign

what exactly is the problem wit the buttons? they are capacative not just toggle correct? but if the user holds down the button ina will still pick up 1 correct just like a push button.

or will holding it down cause ina a to flip back and forth from low to hi real quick, in effect repeating the same action multiple times like on a pc kb... i really doubt this is how they work if thats what your scared of.. i could be wrong though

kwinn

if you want to take advantage of the buttons on the board you could try using buttons with a foam pad and aluminized plastic on the bottom. I am not 100% sure it will work but I did use some double sided foam tape and a piece of aluminized plastic from a potato chip bag to repair a capacitive keyboard one time.

mindrobots

Aren't the QuickStart actually resistive rather than capacitive? Regardless, historically, they've been reported to be less than 100 % accurate in recording key presses due to individual and environmental difference. Since they are buffered with the intent to b ebypassed, I'd just go for physical connections (wires) to keys I like with tactile feedback I liked for reliable contacts.

Sariel

kwinn wrote: »

I did use some double sided foam tape and a piece of aluminized plastic from a potato chip bag to repair a capacitive keyboard one time.

HA ha ha ha ha! I love hearing stuff like this. Flippin brilliant.

jazzed

mindrobots wrote: »

Aren't the QuickStart actually resistive rather than capacitive? Regardless, historically, they've been reported to be less than 100 % accurate in recording key presses due to individual and environmental difference. Since they are buffered with the intent to b ebypassed, I'd just go for physical connections (wires) to keys I like with tactile feedback I liked for reliable contacts.

It's not just a matter of implementation? The buttons need to be de-bounced.
Have a look here: http://www.parallaxsemiconductor.com/sites/default/files/parallax/TouchButtonsLEDDemov1.0_1.zip