Simple Question to Control Keyboard...

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brian_lillibridge 20 years ago

At work we run a CANalyzer software that records certain data desired from the truck. To initiate the recording session the 'F9' hot key is used. To end the session 'Esc' is used. Is there a 2-button (or better yet) 3-button controller that would plug into USB or even a serial port to control the 'F9', 'Esc', and 'b' on the keyboard.

Information: I am using a Dell laptop with Windows XP operating system. The CANalyzer runs on a Vector CANcard (plugs into video card slot) and Vector cables that run from the data acquisition equipment to the CANcard.

I am new to this forum, but I have used other forums in the past. Let me know if there are other questions or information that I may need to provide for anyone that may have an idea on how to help me.

Thanks, Brian

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larwe 20 years ago

Build one! Buy a $10 keyboard, observe which matrix lines run to the rows and columns, and wire accordingly.

The electronics inside a keyboard is typically a board less than 4" x

1". The only other hardware you'll need is two or three suitably rugged pushbuttons and an appropriate box.

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Jack Klein 20 years ago

On 1 Feb 2006 07:50:05 -0800, brian snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in comp.arch.embedded:

There might be a software solution that is simpler than a hardware one.

If you get a $10.00 mouse and a reasonably proficient Windows programmer -- which I do not claim to be -- you should be able to run a program that receives mouse clicks and sends keyboard messages to the CANalyzer software package.

I'd suggest a group like news:comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32 for software help if you want to explore this option.

Jack Klein Home: http://JK-Technology.Com FAQs for comp.lang.c http://c-faq.com/ comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ajo/docs/FAQ-acllc.html

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Spehro Pefhany 20 years ago

Google on "keyboard wedge".

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

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Paul Carpenter 20 years ago

Why not get one of the very cheap Numeric keypads with USB and change the key tops?

Failing that build your own. If volumes permit talk to keyboard manufacturers I have come across some even in the UK who make smaller than 100K runs.

Paul Carpenter | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk PC Services GNU H8 & mailing list info For those web sites you hate

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Tom 20 years ago

I did something like this for a similar application, except I used a standard USB gamepad with 6 buttons. These are cheap and readily available at any electronics store. I wrote a simple Windows program that would monitor the buttons on the gamepad and when one of them was pressed it would send a keyboard command or a mouse click to the application I was controlling. You first get a handle to the window that you want to control by calling FindWindow() then when a button is pressed you can do a PostMessage() with either WM_KEYDOWN or WM_CHAR for keyboard commands or WM_LBUTTONDOWN and WM_LBUTTONUP for mouse clicks.

Alternatively if you already have some kind of keypad that plugs into the serial port, you can use Windows built-in "SerialKey" feature to send keystrokes though the serial port. The SerialKeys feature is in control panel under Accessibility Options (wheelchair icon).

--Tom.

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Neil 20 years ago

I have seen them in the past. A quick google of "pc keyboard emulator"

got a lot of PIC projects and

formatting link

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Simple Question to Control Keyboard...

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