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Beginner keyboard hack help
FractalWalk:
--- Quote from: Kaeru the Frog on March 30, 2003, 05:19:45 pm ---How can I figure out which one connect rows in the matrix and which ones connect columns?
--- End quote ---
First of all I think a keyboard hack is inferior to an encoder. It takes a long time, it's messier, it's hard to do and depending upon your soldering skills, the results may require frequent repairs.
I did a hack and got it working but then after the third time a connection either shorted to its neighbor or became disconnected, I scrapped it and bought an IPAC. I wish I hadn't messed with the hack in the first place, but if you got lots of time, good soldering skills and the right tools then a hack might work for you.
To answer your question specifically, download and install keyhook
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_downloads.shtml#Utilities
Take a piece of wire with both ends stripped and short across a row and a column one by one to see what combination produces which keystroke. Then from your mapping you can determine what will block and what won't.
AlanS17:
If you must hack something, I have seen a couple of super cheapo programmable PS2 passthru game controllers out there. It's the best of both worlds. You get your stable PS2 connection and an easy (well easier) solder job.
They were like $8 at Electronics Boutique at the mall where I live (south Texas). I can't promise that you'll find one so easily, but I came across it by accident and EB is a national chain.
All the buttons are already isolated, the thing is cheap, you get a passthru, and it's programmable through hardware. How much simpler could it get??