help with a hardware hack!

**hijinks21** · 02-21-2004, 11:26 PM

So I got this random idea one day to try to interface my electronic dart board into my computer. I tried to set it up through a keyboard controller since the dart board is basically the same setup as a keyboard. That would work if i pushed the 20 in. It would print a "w" to the screen. If i hit the 20 with a dart nothing. So i'm guessing the push was too quick and the keyboard controller needs at least a certain length to register.

I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to either lengthen that or how in the world to connect to matrix boards. There is one on the dart board and another on the keyboard. I tried to just take out the dart board controller and swap it for a keyboard one but dart throws are registering.. I'm so damn close it hurts.. if anyone has any ideas on how to interface a dart board to a PC let me know.. i'm up for any idea

**R3l0ad** · 02-21-2004, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by hijinks21

So I got this random idea one day to try to interface my electronic dart board into my computer. I tried to set it up through a keyboard controller since the dart board is basically the same setup as a keyboard. That would work if i pushed the 20 in. It would print a "w" to the screen. If i hit the 20 with a dart nothing. So i'm guessing the push was too quick and the keyboard controller needs at least a certain length to register.

I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to either lengthen that or how in the world to connect to matrix boards. There is one on the dart board and another on the keyboard. I tried to just take out the dart board controller and swap it for a keyboard one but dart throws are registering.. I'm so damn close it hurts.. if anyone has any ideas on how to interface a dart board to a PC let me know.. i'm up for any idea

I think that the keyboard controller is the best idea otherwise your going to have to develop a **** load of hardware, another thing you could do is use a parallel port too

**hijinks21** · 02-21-2004, 11:43 PM

ya the keyboard controller is the easiest.. the problem i'm having is a dart throw is not being sent to the computer

**txbeard** · 10-27-2007, 03:07 AM

I have tried interfacing my dartboard with my pc also. I tried using the X-Keys matrix board. But ran into the same problem. I have a 4 part blog about my efforts, with pics, at http://spaces.live.com/txbeard.