New Keyboard Test Utility (for use with MAME and Pinball)

[degenatrons]

I made a keyboard test utility which will echo input keys to a virtual on-screen keyboard.   The utility was developed for use with KADE for testing inputs from a keyboard encoder but can be used as a general purpose keyboard tester.

Currently the utility has UK and US visual keyboards available and you can select your preferred keyboard layout from a dropdown selection.
The keyboard will stay on top of your other sessions and will continue to record keyboard input even when not in focus.



There is a detailed view of activity available by clicking on the "Show Activity Log" button (or by pulling the bottom edge of the window down).  All inputs are displayed in a list and extensive information about keys is reported including key code, ASCII code and scan code values.
To assist those that are setting up encoders for use with MAME and Pinball,  I have also included the default functions that are assigned to key presses.
Currently pressed keys are highlighted in green.



A beta version of this tool is available to download from here.  Please try it out and it would be great to get your feedback.  Currently this is built for Windows only but could be made to work on Linux and Mac.
You need to extract the zip contents to a folder and run the keytest.exe program.
If folks find this utility useful then I will consider making an install wizard for Windows and working on Linux and Mac versions.

The software is developed in Python and sources are available at:
https://github.com/kadevice/KADE/tree/master/open%20software/utilities/keyboard%20tester/sources
Information on working with KADE sources at: http://kadevice.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22

Please try it out.

[BadMouth]

Sweet.  Thanks for sharing it here.
Kudos on showing all keys pressed simultaneously.
This will be useful for testing when and if your joystick is hitting the corners.
It might also show if a usb keyboard encoder is maxing out at a certain number of simultaneous presses.

[BobA]

Thanks for the new keyboard test.  Will be checking it out in the next few days setting up a new cab.

[degenatrons]

Sweet.  Thanks for sharing it here.
Kudos on showing all keys pressed simultaneously.
This will be useful for testing when and if your joystick is hitting the corners.
It might also show if a usb keyboard encoder is maxing out at a certain number of simultaneous presses.

Thanks.  Have used it myself to test corners on my sticks (had some trouble with a Happ Competition Pro) and to verify 20 simultaneous inputs from the KADE encoder.

[degenatrons]

Thanks for the new keyboard test.  Will be checking it out in the next few days setting up a new cab.

Great.  I hope you find it useful.   Any issues let me know.

[degenatrons]

I made some improvements to the Keyboard Input Tester Utility.  It can now speak the keys and functions - which means you don't need to keep glancing across at the screen when testing or working on controls.

Latest beta version is available to download from:
http://kadevice.com/loader/utils/keyboard_tester_v0_1_0_6.zip

In this short video,  I program the KADE miniArcade as a MAME/Keyboard encoder and test the joystick (Seimitsu LS58) and 6 pushbuttons with the Keyboard Input Tester Utility.  The Tester Utility show the keys which are input and announces the corresponding MAME functions.



I made a simple arcade stick to help me test the controls.  Some pics below.































Note that the ground wire on the Seimitsu Joystick is orange (not black). 

[degenatrons]

Version 0.1.0.8 of Keyboard Tester is released with some minor changes.

http://kadevice.com/loader/utils/keyboard_tester_v0_1_0_8.zip
You need to extract the zip contents to a folder and run the keytest.exe program.

Change notes:
v0.1.0.8 - 07/04/2014
  MAME key mappings changed for P3 direction keys - to prevent conflict with P2.
  Show activity log by default when program starts.