Druin Rotary Interface and Keyboard Hack

[dkraines]

Hi,

I finally put a rotary stick on my panel (been sitting collecting dust for a few years), and noticed in Druin's docs that it was made for an encoder.  I use a keyboard hack with a matrix layout (no common ground).  Is there a way to use the interface with a keyboard hack?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Tiger-Heli]

From Druin's site:

The interface is designed to work with any keyboard emulator that uses Direct mode inputs.  This means if you normally wire your switches with one wire to a keyboard input, and the other wire to ground, this interface will work.  (eg Ipac, Hagstrom, etc)

I know he USED to make a version (years ago) for matrix-based encoder, which is what a keyboard hack is.

I also SUSPECT that if you mapped out the matrix and picked four keys that shared the same column - it would PROBABLY work, but I have no first-hand knowledge of this.  (You could contact him about it).

Alternately, you could ditch the KB hack and buy a KeyWiz non-solder ECO or GP-Wiz from www.groovygamegear.com or a minipac from www.ultimarc.com and be a lot happier.

[dkraines]

Yeah, I was wondering what would happen if you ground out a column on the matrix.  I didn't want to blow up my encoder.  I was happy to use the +5V and ground off of the PS2 to go to the interface, then I went to hook up the "key presses" and went "uh oh", how come there aren't 8 connections, only 4.

I'll probably buy a comercial encoder and replace the keyboard, Hans splitter keyboard circuit (I can't believe I spent 8 hours building this), and a couple of custom optical hacks.  I built the panel in 1998, so I guess it's due.  I just was kind of liking what could be used "for free".  Call it recycling.

[Tiger-Heli]

Ther's a way to do it, I just don't know how.  The thing is, even if it's just a simple circuit with a couple of IC's, by the time you buy the circuit boards, the chips, the wires, and figure in your time, it will still cost more and do less than one of the inexpensive commercial encoders.

>New Icons Again!!!! 

[dkraines]

OK, I just ordered the MiniPac with harness (Happ connector).  Really the only logical choice to reduce the clutter and be somewhat linux friendly (saves key configurations).  I hope the linux USB drivers/Xmame work well for all of this coming through one USB connection.

[Tiger-Heli]

OK, I just ordered the MiniPac with harness (Happ connector).  Really the only logical choice to reduce the clutter and be somewhat linux friendly (saves key configurations).  I hope the linux USB drivers/Xmame work well for all of this coming through one USB connection.

The KeyWiz Eco wouldn't have been too bad, the MAME default codeset is all I ever use, and you can configure MAME to whatever you need it to be.

The MiniPac will be better for other apps, and I think you mentioned some optical interfaces, so that makes sense.

[rdagger]

You could have used 4 opto-coupler chips to connect Druin's interface to a keyboard hack.  If you have any old slow modems, you can usually pull a few opto-couplers from them.

[dkraines]

The rat's nest of resoldered hacked peices and strewn 25 pair cable days are numbered, besides, I've already capitulated to spending $82 on a neat and tidy MiniPac

At least I didn't blow all of my allowance and hard earned money into these quarter eating monsters.  I already did that 25 years ago.