Keyboard Hack problems

[The_SandMan]

Hi All

I am using a keyboard hack to interface my controls with my PC. I have used the windows utility called Keyscan to scan the matrix. I have now connected my controls to the matrix with the following abnormality:

1. My keys do not work in MAME except for the DOWN arrow
2. My keys do not work in GameLauncher except for the DOWN arrow

HOWEVER,
when I use ArcadeOS, all the keys work 100% util a game is launched and once again only the DOWN arrow works.

Any ideas, suggestions or comments ?

Any help will be appreciated.

Cheers
The SandMan

[Bursar]

Are you using the default keys for movement and buttons? If you have mapped your sticks and buttons to other keys, then you'll need to reconfigure the front end and MAME with the new keys.

If you are using the standard key setup, then I'm not sure what to suggest. If you use Notepad (or Edit if you run DOS), do you get the correct characters appear when you move the sticks/press the buttons?

[The_SandMan]

Hi

I have mapped only 1 joystick to test the hack to date. I have mapped the following keys, which I believe is the standard key mappings:

UP       - up arrow
DOWN - down arrow
RIGHT  - right arrow
LEFT    - left arrow

As I have said, it is very strange that only the DOWN key works everywhere (DOS, WINDOWS, MAME, GL, AOS,etc)

Cheers,
The SandMan

[neuromancer]

See if I understand:

You used the keyscan program to identify which keys on your encoder equal the 4 arrow keys, and you hooked up a joystick to those 4 line pairs. You have used the keyscan program to veryify that your hack was done correctly.

When you use a real keyboard in MAME or AOS, the 4 arrow keys work correctly, both in the UI and also in the game.

In Mame and AOS, three of the arrow keys stop working on your keyboard hack.

Is that correct? If you have not verified these three situations you need to do that first.

I will point out that using the arrow keys in a keyboard hack will be OK for programs like pacman and galaga, but it will fail when you try to run programs that use more buttons or joysticks.

Bob

[The_SandMan]

SOLVED !!!

I have found the solution to the problem. When I found the key pairs for a key e.g. DOWN arrow, I stopped looking. As it turns out, there are more than 1 set of key pairs in the matrix for a key therefore some keys worked and others did not.

I went through every key combination and eventually found the correct ones for the hack.

Thanks