Keyboard hack question (nOOb)

[LeedsFan]

This may be in the wrong forum I'm not sure. But anyway.... having built my own Mame cabinet earlier this year I got to thinking about something a little different. That cabinet used the standard J-Pac and Opti-pac etc. so there were no keyboard hacks as such.

But I'm now spending a lot of time playing Fianl Fantasy XI and anyone who has played that game will know that there are many many times when you have to hit Alt 1 or Ctrl 1 etc. for the macros in the game.  Is there any way to make a keyboard hack so that all I have to do is press a single key to activate Ctrl-1 for example?

So I could have keys 1-9 as Ctrls and numpad keys 1-9 as Alts but yet still have the keyboard letters open for the text as normal? Any advice much appreciated.

[babydickonboard]

i've thought about doing the same thing for final fantasy XI.....it would be nice to have a dedicated keyboard for that game...... would be great to have the  macros set up with differnt buttons. 

[Havok]

This might be something that would work for you:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=313060&pfp=SEARCH

[Tiger-Heli]

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking, i.e. if you want to play Final Fantasy on your arcade cabinet, or if you want to play it using a computer keyboard or both together?  Anyways -

Keyboards are matrixed, so each button uses one wire from a row and one wire from a column.  I think you could make a single button press two keys, but you would basically want a double-pole, single throw switch (and maybe diodes) rather than a standard microswitch to do it.

If you are using a J-PAC and the latest WinIPAC IPD, you can assign up to four macros per config to any buttons you want.

If you are using a J-PAC or KeyWiz, you can assign one input to ALT, one input to Ctrl, and other inputs to 1-9 and then wire a button to both the alt and 1 inputs (to send Alt-1) using diodes.

[AceTKK]

why would you want to play FFXI on an arcade cab?  If you're going to have to spend hours looking for a group or farming at least you should be in a comfortable seat right?

-Ace-

[LeedsFan]

Sorry for the confusion regarding the cabinet. No.... I'm not playing FFXI on the cabinet, I'm playing it on my PC as per normal. I just mentioned the Mame Cab to show I'm not a 100% nOOb on this subject, but I am a nOOb where keyboard hacks are concerned.

Sorry for any confusion.     FFXI on a cabinet.... oh dear me no!

[Tiger-Heli]

Okay, I think I see what you want to do now.

Before you tried to bother with a hack, I would look into programs like Ultrakeyboard and AutoHotKey and see if you can define macros that send the key combination when the key is pressed.

I think programs are out there that can do what you want.

[LeedsFan]

OK... I've given this some more thought now. Basically what I want to do is be able to press just ONE button which will act as Ctrl-1 and will send that code to the computer as if I'd pressed Ctrl-1 together as per normal.

I tried the ZBoard that was linked to above.... but that was no good unfortuately. You can assign any key signal to another key.... but not 2 as in pressing Ctrl and 1 together.

I may need to put a seperate small panel in between my PC and the keyboard for these buttons. Because otherwise I would lose the normal use of the number keys 1 to 9 when inputting normal text in the chat log. Can the I-Pac be used for this purpose in a seperate panel?

All I need is to be able to send the keyboard codes for Ctrl-1 through to 9 and also Alt 1 through to 9 as single key presses. If this has to be on a seperate control panel with 18 buttons then so be it. (Which I think it will)

[Tiger-Heli]

Can the I-Pac be used for this purpose in a seperate panel?

Yes -

All I need is to be able to send the keyboard codes for Ctrl-1 through to 9 and also Alt 1 through to 9 as single key presses. If this has to be on a seperate control panel then so be it. (Which I think it will)

I still think you can do it with either of the software programs I described above:

I don't know what keys are used in FFIV, but why couldn't you assign hotkeys so the numpad numbers sent Ctrl1-9, and the regular numbers did not,  and make it so either F1 - F9 sent Alt-1 to Alt-9 or Q send Alt-1, W send Alt-2, or Insert Send Alt-1, Home send Alt-2, etc.

You can do this (I am 99% sure) with either Ultrakeyboard or Autohotkey and you can make a batch file which loads Ultrakeyboard or AHK, loads FFIV, and then unloads Ultrakeyboard or AHK, so the alternate keys only work during FFIV.

Ultrakeyboard http://www.fadsoft.net/UltraKeyboard.htm is probably the easiest way to do what you want.  Unfortuately, it is not freeware, unless you make it freeware 

AHK http://www.autohotkey.com/ can probably also do what you want, but you would basically have to write your own script file and have AHK load it.  The example files explain what to do, but it's more of a learning curve than UKBD.  It's freeware and very capable, though.

Let me know if you need more info.