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Hardware

Homebrewed Macro Keyboards? 57

Posted by Cliff from the building-it-yourself dept.
MightyMaus asks: "So I've been checking out various hardware websites lately, paging through computer retail catalogues, and basically pining for a better-paying job. But one device that's really caught my eye is the Programmable Keypad. Looks pretty cool, but $140? No way. Even the smaller version carries a hefty $90 price tag. Now, it seems like making one of these should be relatively easy; but the almighty Google returns nothing but more places to buy these things. So where do I turn? To Slashdot. Has anyone hacked together one of these before?"
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Homebrewed Macro Keyboards? More

Homebrewed Macro Keyboards?

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  • USB? (Score:4, Informative)

    by gmhowell ( 26755 ) <gmhowell@gmail.com> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @03:37AM (#5552830) Homepage Journal
    Looks like you could just get a USB keyboard. Somehow set it up as a secondary input device. I assume Linux can do this. Intercept the keypresses on the secondary keyboard, and have them do 'foo'.

    Or, quit bitching, and pony up. I guess it could be a fun hack, but if the keyboard has any quality whatsoever, this isn't that expensive.

    For more fun, you may want to look at some of the controllers for RTS games. Not as many keys, but drivers might be easier to find. Another possibility is to find a touchpad. Put on an overlay. Map coordinates to your macro.

    • Many keyboards come with extra buttons for one-touch access to email, web, cut and paste, etc.

      Some allow you to reconfigure the buttons in windows with a special configuration app. In Linux, you can program the buttons to basically do anything. Most of these keyboards work by just assigning new scan codes to these extra keys. I got an MS Office keyboard as a free demo unit that I was able to get everything working on in Linux including the funny scrolly wheel. Overall though I didn't like the layout and en

  • Gotta love cheapskates (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BortQ ( 468164 )
    This guy probably uses a keyboard 8+ hours every single day. And yet he won't lay out 140 bucks for a nice one.

    My keyboard is like a part of me. I'd kill myself without its sweet tactile feedback.

  • RSI nearly killed me, so I discovered THIS (Score:3, Informative)

    by DancingSword ( 412552 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @03:56AM (#5552935) Homepage Journal

    Focus FK-9200 [focustaipei.com]

    After my trackmate ( or whatever it was called ) died, my second keybroniq (whatever) keyboard, and I used a keyboard/mickey-rat combo for a couple of months, it nearly crippled me, so I discovered these things, and bought 2, because being made crippled, just because my keyboard died, .. IS NOT ON.

    PS/2, but I hope they make a USB version, soon...

    Trackball AND macro-keys, AND calculator ( excellent combo ).

    To keep the trackball running well, I keep a bottle of isopropyl alcohol ( not "rubbing alcohol with glycerine and lotion" ), and a bunch of cotton-swabs, and clean it a couple of times each day. It's a good reminder that I need to .. drink water, and walk 'round, and such -scratching head bemusedly-...

    REALLY search for a good price, because they are sold at drastically different prices by different resellers..

  • Unreal Tournament (Score:4, Funny)

    by skinfitz ( 564041 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @04:06AM (#5552989) Journal
    Just when I thought cheating in Unreal Tournament couldn't get any worse, someone makes a keyboard to attach all those cheat scripts to.
  • I can't understand why you would want to build one yourself to save money.
    I really doubt there is any way you can make a device that works entirely in hardware like this, spending much less on materials than the $140 price tag.
    And that doesn't even include the hours you spend on building the thing.

    I can understand if you want to do it for fun, but if you are doing it to save money, don't bother.

    I have two of those keyboards.
    They are really nice. I would recommend getting the PS2 version, as the USB versio

    • Re:Cost of production (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cybermace5 ( 446439 ) <g.ryan@macetech.com> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @11:12AM (#5555427) Homepage Journal
      I agree with the "do it for fun, not to save money" point.

      However, I could build a completely custom USB keyboard for less than $140 NOT counting labor. Everyone knows hobby time is worth $.0025/hour anyway. ;-)

      It would be up there in price, around $80 to $90 since the circuit board would be custom. That's only if I had someone else make the board, though. Guess I could etch my own board.

      Anyway, all that would be required: one of the many cheap ($3-$5) USB-capable microcontrollers, some trivial encoding logic, and keyswitches. I'd probably go with surplus opto-interrupters and spring-loaded buttons on a custom panel. Easier to do if you have access to a CNC machine.

      The benefit? Using the HID device standard, your button-box can become anything. Keys mapped anywhere, even macros depending on how fancy you get with the firmware. Could also add some more status lights, or outputs to control the coffeemaker.

  • DIY (Score:2, Informative)

    by fille ( 575662 )
    Elektuur, a Dutch magazine, has published some articles about a keyboard with hotkeys. This [o4s.com] is the link but I'm afraid it won't work very well (and there's no google cache). Just search for "Hotkeys-toetsenbord" on elektuur.nl [elektuur.nl]. It has 18 buttons. Only PS/2 though..

  • Gateway AnyKey (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Quixotic137 ( 26461 ) <pjennings-slashd ... t ['jen' in gap]> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @05:16AM (#5553383) Homepage
    Gateway used to ship "AnyKey" keyboards with all their systems. You should be able to find one if you look around a little bit. They are basically standard keyboards with a bunch of extra keys that you can program. There's a picture of one here on Google [google.com], although it appears the linked site is down. Anyway, they come in both PS/2 and DIN-5 varieties. There should be more information on Google.
    • I have one of these and they *rock*. The problem with mine now is it's age, let's see, it came with a P5-90, so that's what, five-six years old? It's filthy, some of the QWERTY keys are starting to go and the space bar is already somewhat loose in its mounting. Naturally, I've been looking for a replacement and the best I've come up with so far is some of the more advanced Cherry [cherry.de] keyboards and PI Engineering's rather cool looking PS/2 Stick Keys [tigerdirect.com]. Can anyone add to the list?

      • Re:Gateway AnyKey (Score:3, Informative)

        by n1ywb ( 555767 )
        I glad you think so because the general opinion at every place I've ever worked at is that they are the single biggest pain in the ass ever invented and someone should be shot. Nothing like when an ignorant luser accidently remaps their enter key and doesn't even realize it and calls tech support freaking out. Then YOU have to come in and try to remember how the hell to fix it. It's usually cheapest just to replace the keyboard rather than try to screw with it. So yeah there should be plenty of those things
    • There's a picture of one here on google [google.com], although it appears the linked site is down

      The google link to the site is broken - has a space in it. Here's [pcguide.com] the correct link to the site that describes how the keyboards work (and why you don't find many of them anymore). It's definately made me think about trying to find one on eBay...
  • I've been suffering from some RSI for some time now, and I'd like to find a keyboard to hook up to my laptop so I don't have to cramp my hands into the laptop keyboard and hunch over to see the screen. I have a fairly specific idea of what I want, but none of the stores in the area (Office Depot, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.) have much selection in ergonomic keyboards, and I haven't had much luck online either.

    Here's what I'm looking for:

    Ergonomic (split) keyboard a must

    USB preferred (I want to plug and un

    • I'm seriously considering one of these [demon.co.uk].
      I used to have a Microwriter Agenda nad the chording keyboard was wonderful - I could touch type with it in my pocket, I'd love a PDA with that as input method today, the CyKey works with Palms, but I want a Zaurus or possibly WinCE version - I may get in touch and see if drivers are needed for Windows (if not I can probably use it as a liunx USB keyboard).

      The idea would be to use a mouse/tablet right handed and the Cykey left handed, I could switch to right handed cho

    • A bit of a dupe, but try this [fingerworks.com]. Meets all your criteria except feel, and they claim to be good for RSI.
    • May I ask what you are going to be typing on this thing? You said "No wireless keyboards unless they encrypt!" Most wireless keybords have less then 30 feet of range. You don't work for the government do you? If so then you probably have many other security concerns to worry about also
      • It's not so much that I have important secrets to protect, but more that I'd like generally not to open up security holes in my system unless I have to. The idea of broadcasting everything I type (including passwords, of course) in cleartext just doesn't sit well with me even if I'm not dealing with classified material.

        You can find plenty of stories online about one person's typing appearing on someone else's computer. [theregister.co.uk]
        Here's one such story:

    • I understand your reluctance to fund Microsoft, but also consider that, as you said, their "Natural" keyboard is pretty well designed. I think of it as voting with my dollars for products I appreciate, regardless of who made them (well, almost regardless :-).

      A sister in law has RSI and wears wrist braces at work with a conventional keyboard. She comes home to the original MS Natural keyboard and takes off the braces -- there is that much difference (YMMV). I bought one for home and liked it so much I bo

  • Numeric keypad (Score:2, Interesting)

    by teamonkey ( 553487 )
    Get one of those numeric keypads designed for laptops with a USB interface. Then you can map the keys sung xmodmap.You could even put stickers on the keys.

  • Keyboard Encoder (Score:2, Informative)

    by Zapper ( 68283 )
    Check out arcadecontrols.com [arcadecontrols.com] under the 'interfaces' section. They describe some programable keybd encoders such as:
    • 18 inputs, up to a 9 x 9 matrix for 81 inputs.
    • 24 inputs, programmable via keyboard or rs-232 port, up to 12 x 12 matrix for 144 inputs.
    • 24 inputs, programmable via keyboard only, up to 12 x 12 matrix for 144 inputs.
    • 72 distinct inputs, programmable, trackball support.
    • Daisy-chaining two encoders together for more inputs.

    They use 'em for interfaceing arcade controls to keybd port. :-D

  • look for mame cabinet articles. (Score:3, Informative)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:05AM (#5554391) Homepage Journal
    they have often customised keyboard chips for input, also you can just whack one of your old keyboards and take a look inside, do necessary wiring to something(first test out, or trace, the connection matrix) you wish to use for buttons.

    also.. you can butcher old keyboards for seperate numpads too(which are available, but cost more than 5$).

    also, some mame cabinet projects have made special hw to connect several normal keyboards to one pc so that they still all work.
  • You may want to look at one of these things. [focusinfo.com]
    They're primarily designed for digital video editing stations ... but you could use it for other things.

    They go for around $30 at Amazon.

    If you're using it with Windows, they have templates for common applications - but you can make your own.

    For other OSes, not sure what you'd need to do.

  • iGesture Products (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SlipDisc ( 40657 )
    these [fingerworks.com] arnt cheap, but may be what you are looking for? they have a fairly small keyboard. [fingerworks.com]

  • Free Linux/*nix version (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PeterClark ( 324270 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @11:08AM (#5555376) Journal
    You already have everything you need if you run Linux or any other *nix: just remap your current keyboard. For example, you can make a keyboard map of the number pad with whatever macro you want, and then toggle between the regular keypad and the macro keypad with a rarely-used button, like PrintScreen or Scroll Lock.

    :Peter
    • (Disclaimer:I'm fairly new to Linux) I want to be able to send an arbitrary string of characters to the "current" application when I press a single special key, like <ctrl><alt>s for my signature.

      The keyboard remap utilities that I've found in Linux (xmodkey, etc.) don't seem to allow that, or am I missing something?

      I also have seen that kde and some other window managers let you define shortcut keys to start programs and similar, but not to supply an arbitrary string of characters to a(ny) op
      • If you're using KDE, then your best bet (from what it sounds like) is to use khotkeys [sh.cvut.cz]. That way, you won't need to mess around with X keyboard files, which isn't something you want to make a mistake with if you're fairly new to Linux. :) Khotkeys will be included in KDE 3.2; why it wasn't included earlier, I don't know. It supports borth inserting strings and running programs (handy for small shell scripts). The only time this would not be ideal is when you want to input a lot of macros or special character
        • Peter,

          Thanks for the response!

          I've been waiting for khotkeys for a while (at least two years, IIRC), or at least the feature that lets you assign a string to a key.

          Before I try the procedure you suggested for X, can you confirm that I will be able to assign a string of characters to a single key?

          I don't see how to assign more than one key to a single key(stroke) -- how do I separate them or whatever?

          regards,
          Randy Kramer
          • Sorry, I can't confirm that you can assign multiple characters to a single key. Never tried it. I guess you'll just have to experiment! First, get it working to your liking with single characters, then try adding another character to a key. If it is possible to add two or more characters together, I imagine that you wouldn't separate them at all, but rather just string them together. Please post your results; I'm curious to find out how it works.

            :Peter
            • Ok, Peter, thanks!

              I doubt that I'll have (or take) time to experiment with it any time soon -- I've seen nothing in the documentation or from any other source that tells me it is possible, and, on the contrary, have been told (on, for example, X mailing lists) that it is not possible (in X).

              Oh, for the good old days of ansi.sys. ;-)

              Randy Kramer
    • Sorry, this is my second reply to the previous "post" -- can you point to some instructions on how to "make a keyboard map of the number pad with whatever macro you want, and then toggle between the regular keypad and the macro keypad with a rarely-used button"?

      It's not everything I'd want, but it sure would be a big step in the right direction.

      Thanks!
  • http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2071&pcount=&Product_Id=1 07727&Section.Section_Path=%2F%2FRoot%2FNostromo%2 E%2E%2EingTools%2F
    • I've got one of these, and it works great for games (under Windows). The price was also very good - less than $30 at Fry's.

      Unfortunately, Linux support is rather spotty. There is one open-source driver [jimbomania.com] for this device, but its functionality is rather limited. If I had enough time and experience, I would write an XFree86 input driver to generate keycodes, and then customize with xmodmap.

      Anyone else using these?

  • It could be a fun hack. I've been wanting to do a keyboard hack for awhile now, and this looks like a project that would be challenging and fun, in a geek sort of way.

    Also, having a keyboard that'll spit out '#!/usr/bin/perl' or some other random snippet of text that I use all the time would be cool, but not worth much more than $50. $10 of parts and a few hours' labor would be well worth it, and I'd also have a cool toy that I could point to and say "Hey. I made that".

    Yes, the women will truly flock to m
  • on a USB Programable video editing interface, Basicly a macro keyboard. http://www.softwareandstuff.com
  • I'm not sure how simple this will be...

    But, why don't you crack open an El-Cheapo usb keyboard (free is better) and wire it up so when ever you push the letter 'A' it will be recorded as a 'Crtl-Alt-A' (or some combination like that). Then get yourself some macro software to translate your key presses.

  • Make your own (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dissy ( 172727 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:16PM (#5560804)
    Well you did want to know if anyone rolled their own.
    If you are looking for PS/2 keyboard or RS232 serial output, check out the MEMkey board.

    http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=2796 3 [parallax.com]
    At quantities of 1 they are $40, but as they are programmable this can most likely do anything you need.

    It has a 4x5 matrix (20 keys) that you wire to this board. Then you program it to push a value for each key out either the serial or PS/2 lines, you can plug this in directly to the keyboard input if thats what you need, or go the serial route if you want to make your own listener appliaction for it.

    PDF datasheets are on their site.

    Ive purchased many of these and they are the most handy things ever.
    You can also buy keypads and ribbon cables from parallax as well if you dont mind a 4x3 or 4x4 telephone like pad.
    Both have 0-9 * and #, and the 4x4 has the letters A-D.
    If you make your own, the board can support up to 4x5 grids.

    With a few other parts you can easily break out the matrix and wire each of the 20 keys up to pushbuttons to do almost anything.

    If you use a serial protocol, and some latch ICs, you can string together 8 or so of these chips into one serial port on the PC.

    My application was a MAME joystick that sent PS/2 keycodes that MAME would understand.

    (BTW, for real arcade joysticks buttons and whatnot, check out www.happcontrols.com)

    Hope this helps
  • So the item you linked to is made by PI Engineering. If you peruse their website you will find that they sell both USB and PS/2 versions of the boards [piengineering.com] that live inside their gizmos. But since you sound a bit concerned about price, you probably won't like the fact that they sell them for $60 on their webstore.

    I actually have a (USB) version of the X-Keys editor, and it has one particularly nice feature which supposedly all of their models support. Instead of acting just like a keyboard, it sends the data
  • I still love my CVT Avant Stellar [cvtinc.com] keyboard. 116 keys, all programmable, and the macros go with the keyboard when I move it from machine to machine. I've been banging on one at work for close to four years now without a hitch.

  • i've been working on a project that is essentially a custom keyboard, but it only has two keys. my client wants to be able to control his powerpoint presentations from WAY across the room and with high reliability (range and reliability do not lead one to RF or IR remotes). my 2-key podium-mounted keyboard implements the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys on the keyboard and talks to SerialKey in windows over the serial port. works great. find the SerialKey ui in the control panel under accessability options (g

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