USB Keyboard encoder - Interested ?

**gagan512** · 07-22-2006, 04:56 PM

I've just made a little USB Keyboard. It can have have anywhere between 1-32 buttons.

The board itself is really small, about 2"x1". It has a mini usb connector on it, that u connnect to your PC's USB port, no drivers required. there are several connectors on the board that you can wire a switch/button/whatever onto to use the key.

You can use these keys as shortcuts in windows/winamp/autoit whatever.

I can even have it support media keys like - play,pause,vol,next track, sleep/wake, www, browser back/front, refresh, windows key etc....

Depending on how many people want one, i can start building them and would sell them for real cheap. like $30 OBO...

So, before i actually start making em, i want an approximate head count of how many people would be interested.

**sebberry** · 07-22-2006, 07:35 PM

hmmm.. definately interesting and affordable. It would be great if it directly supported front ends so you could press a button for nav and have roadrunner bring up the nav screen, same thing for music, etc...

(I am thinking Audi style buttons around the shifter could be hooked up to it)

**FC3S** · 07-22-2006, 07:48 PM

i think your idea of frontends, would depend on the front end having button associations

so they keyboard isnt any different than a normal one, but u'd need the front end to support key presses

**parksgm** · 07-22-2006, 08:07 PM

Photos? More info? How many switches can be connected?

**gagan512** · 07-22-2006, 10:40 PM

for frontend support, all you really need to do is make a shortcut key in windows/autoit/frontend.

for eg. if i set a global ket in winamp, lets say "CTRL 1" to play a song, all you do is take the 'CTRL' button and the '1' button on this keyboard and hook it up to a switch.

I can customize the keys on a per-user basis, i.e you can tell me "i want these particular keys on it".

Like i mentioned before, i can probably do anything between 1-32 keys. In fact, i can do a 144 key device also, but its not cost effective, plus i dont see it useful for this application.

I have a pic, which is "indicative" of how this will be. In fact, it will be a little smaller than the prototype in the picture. I've placed it on the keypad of a regular IBM keyboard for size comparision.

**lez** · 07-23-2006, 02:36 AM

Nice as that is, and I thinks it brilliant, is it not just emulating a keyboard?

Can it send back codes that are not usually found on a keyboard so its not going to interact with the core OS at all but its scancodes could be seen by say girder?

**gagan512** · 07-23-2006, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by lez

Nice as that is, and I thinks it brilliant, is it not just emulating a keyboard?

Can it send back codes that are not usually found on a keyboard so its not going to interact with the core OS at all but its scancodes could be seen by say girder?

lol, its not emulating a keyboard, it IS a keyboard =)

so far i've been able to send usual keyboard scancodes, and some media stuff scancodes (workin with media player for now).. i havent really played around with girder too much, but i can pretty much send any "hex" code from the device to the pc. i think it should be possible

**lez** · 07-23-2006, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by gagan512

lol, its not emulating a keyboard, it IS a keyboard =)

err, its not is it, its not 12 inches by 8 with 102 buttons on it............

Its either a keyboard emulator, or scancode encoder, but until you can write email on it etc etc

bloody usefull bit of kit though, and a neat looking design. whats the black square top left in the picture?

**2k1Toaster** · 07-23-2006, 04:32 PM

Did you make that really cool PCB, or buy it? I know some out there do work in that field, so they have professional PCB makers that label it and machine drop in pieces and all that jazz, just wondering if you were one, or are very talented with laying out traces!

**gagan512** · 07-23-2006, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by lez

err, its not is it, its not 12 inches by 8 with 102 buttons on it............

Its either a keyboard emulator, or scancode encoder, but until you can write email on it etc etc

bloody usefull bit of kit though, and a neat looking design. whats the black square top left in the picture?

open up you 12" 108 button keyboard, u'll find something as small as that on the top right corner.
The big right thing is the connector to the emulator im using to program it. it wont be there on he final board, its only for debugging.

Did you make that really cool PCB, or buy it? I know some out there do work in that field, so they have professional PCB makers that label it and machine drop in pieces and all that jazz, just wondering if you were one, or are very talented with laying out traces!

making you own PCB is really easy if you have a laser printer, and some patience. google a little and you'll find several links on how to do it yourself. i've been able to do very fine traces of upto 1mil. of course, once its in mass production i'll be sending it out to a fab