100% Custom Keyboard!

Alright all check this idea out.

Thoughts:

When a key is press a circuit is completed giving you the desired keypress.


Plan:

Wire two wires to a button in a remote location in the car. I could pick and choose which keys I want and where I want them. I could use calculator keys / endless possibilities on that lol... I could use leds to light the keys or solar glue keys(kind that some shirts/remotes have)

Sketch

http://home.earthlink.net/~mbk5/web/keypad8.jpg

the keys on the left are numeric keys and the one next to it is ENTER

Then that middle button thing is a nipple mouse I got for 10$ at MICI.COM



http://home.earthlink.net/~mbk5/web/keypadwire.jpg

that is a example of a keyboard i could HI-JACK since its clear.. easy to do


So what do you all think, yup this is your time to bash my idea go for it!

Just to give you more ideas, I found this website: http://www.keyalt.com/ In keyboards they have labels, and in the mice they have some really freaky stuff.

To avoid destroying a keyboard you can use this solution:

XKeys Matrix Board

It's a USB/PS2 controller for matrix keyboard (you can also use custom "matrix" setup). It's absolutely programmable and can emulate both keyboards and mouse. Worth a look...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeamRider

To avoid destroying a keyboard you can use this solution:

XKeys Matrix Board

It's a USB/PS2 controller for matrix keyboard (you can also use custom "matrix" setup). It's absolutely programmable and can emulate both keyboards and mouse. Worth a look...

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A keyboard is a lot cheaper to mess with than $60!

The problem you're going to run into w/ hacking apart a keyboard is that the switches are capacitive. Most pushbutton switches you get at radioshack and mouser/digikey are contact switches and won't work with keyboards.

My suggestion would be to hack apart a gravis gamepad. They can be had at Best Buy for $10, they're USB, and they come with software that's programable.

a push button should work.. It just completes the circuit for a m-sec .. That 60 dollar thing is cool also but hmm the gravis gave me new light just fight a crap controller and go.. cheap

I found that keyboard above for 10 bucks NEW also btw

just use the simple serial port button thingy
http://diba.hotbox.ru/comctrl/pics/0117.jpg one serial port can have 15 buttons (your idea uses less then that) and useing a 2nd serial port you can get 15 more buttons.. all you need is to run his lil app http://diba.hotbox.ru/comctrl/pictures.html interfaces with winamp and windows ANY key you want.. also HOLD and TAP can be difrent actions / keys

Same as beaverpants, but you can use girder to interface ANYTHING with it.

http://www.girder.nl

guide:
http://www.modasylum.com/guides.php?guide=21

would i be able to hook one of those up in addition to my keyboard being hooked up

Nice one, this would be perfect for what i want to do. I have a peugeot 306 and am planning on making 5 buttons on either side of the screen (the dash is a funny shape and will have some space around the screen) to control things to relieve the touchscreen a bit and provide me with some direct access to featues that may not be on the screen at the time (reduce distractions while driving). i am planning on having volume, track, menu and play/pause on the passenger side (keep their grubby fingers off my screen) and things like direct to GPS, phone and rear view camera and the on-off on the driver side. I also have a 4 way joystick on my steering column (dunno how this is switched yet) that i want to use for track and volume and have been wondering how best to do it- hopefully this will be the answer!

Cheers!

Andy

Don't know if this will help or not, but I used a keyboard encoder when I built my Mame cabinet. Let me assign keycombinations to buttons. This is the least expensive one I found:
http://www.groovygamegear.com/Page2.html
Don't know if this will help or not.