Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
keyboard encoder? and joystick info — Parallax Forums

keyboard encoder? and joystick info

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2001-10-10 21:00 in General Discussion
You can take apart a spare keyboard and run wires from the keyboard to
the switches. The keyboards normally use a row and column approach for
addressing the keys.

For example on an imaginary keyboard (in other words this is not
necessarily the scheme used in yours):

| | | |
--q w e r
--a s d f
--z x c v

Q would be row 1 column 1. If you wire a DB-9 connector to the side of
the keyboard, you can address 20 (4x5) letters.

I have added a lot of 'buttons' to a standard pc joystick using this
method, and it allows extra functions to be made without taking hands of
the throttle or yoke.

http://www.beyondlogic.org/index.html has lots of info on the AT
keyboard protocol if you want to make a controller that emulates one.
Not a simple job though.

Also you could also input through the joystick port; it has 4 digital
inputs and 4 analog inputs. These would have the advantage of not having
to mess with a keyboard, although the joy port is a bit harder to read.

Hope this helps,
Paul

Original Message
From: markallen [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=numhqgbRzONbkk_KhzSswfxX1IytSYpzow-itc4obO2mK-pUVgK3aXddpY1L_N9cjeWkVWVpjvMsHZODvw9G]markallen@c...[/url
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 11:38 PM
To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] keyboard encoder?

I have some switches that I want to use to give input to a program on
my PC. Can anyone recommend a simple keyboard encoder to do this?

Thanks,

Mark

To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject
and Body of the message will be ignored.


Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Sign In or Register to comment.