Holy Shiznit ...Noob doing a keyboard hack....!!!

[garnerb350]

Hahaha....Friend of mine gave me a junk (working) Dell keyboard...I think I am going to try to hack it....anybody have any good info for me before I start?

My control panel is an x-arcade tankstick...
I aready have a keyboard but I want to keep it hid unless I need it...I figured with the hack one I can hook it up and run it to a couple of pushbuttons and have one for pause and other for F2 or tab...
( trying to make it uber-user-friendly)

Doing a simple 2 button keyboard hack should be perfect for hacking a keyboard the first time...

[thecheat]

Doesn't the TankStick already have a keyboard controller in it?

This one? http://www.xgaming.com/byoarcade.shtml

[garnerb350]

I think it does....BUT I dont think that it has every key on it....(certain keys)....and yeah you can program it to do other keystrokes, but the way i have my mounted on my cab, its hard to access...

I want to hack a keyboard, just to say i did it...

With my current setup....is it possible...

x-arcade tankstick is on top...
underneath i have a keyboard on a tray....

I could take the hack keyboard and run it to 2 pushbuttons on my cab door underneath the keyboard tray....and I can have the keyboard tray locked so other people cant mess with it....( my wife is too scared to touch it )....I want it to where my cab is easy to operate....

Since Saint disabled attachments....here is a past post i did where you can see my cab....
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90308.0
 

[Level42]

I thought keyboard hacks were a thing of the past

I just happen to read this thread about a kb hack:

http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=787.0

I would be much too lazy to do that and get one of the various interfaces. bit it _is_ cheap.

[thecheat]

Agreed. I usually have more time than money, which is saying a lot since I don't have any time! I thought about doing the keyboard hack and put about an hour's time into it before I realized that it would be better, cheaper, and more reliable to just buy an I-PAC and be done with it.

My main stumbling block was that I was using a USB-only laptop and the 6 key limit of USB keyboards. I suppose I could have maybe done two USB keyboards but it was getting out of control at that point. I just gave up and ordered the I-PAC the next day.

[garnerb350]

I have thought about maybe getting a key-wiz....but basiclly a friend was going to trash a spare keyboard...and i asked could i have it....and i need to add three keys to my cab...the keyboard was free. soooooo why not...

[thecheat]

Ok, rereading your post a keyboard hack makes sense because you only want a handful of command buttons. Sorry about my confusion 

[SirPeale]

Keyboard hacks are awesome if you only need a few inputs.  My Galaxian conversion uses one.

http://www.pealefamily.net/tech/arcade/?cat=5

One of these days I'm going to take pictures of the insides of the beastie.

[CrazyKongFan]

I did a keyboard hack on mine...of course, I'm lazy, but I'm also cheap...cheapness won out over laziness
Other than purchasing some wire and spade connectors (which I would have needed even if I bought an encoder), it cost almost nothing. I only paid $1 for the keyboard at a local surplus store.

[garnerb350]

Hey everybody, hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend....
I am 95 % done with the keyboard hack, only thing left is to hook up the pushbuttons....
I went yesterday and bought some small pushbuttons from Radio Shack...But my dumba&& got the wrong ones...( i bought closed instead of open switches....Arrrrgh), I'm going back today and swap em for the open switches....

Feeling kinda good that I did ok with my first time soldering....It looks like shizzzznet...but I didnt cross contacts!!!!

I basiclly made it where I have 3 buttons....big pushbutton for pause, two small ones for Tab & F2...

If the attachments here ever get back working...I'll post pics...

[thecheat]

If those are the same ones I bought from RS, I haaaaaaaaaate them... RS used to have a ton of buttons but now the selection is like 5 kinds.

I got these from Ebay; just waiting on them to arrive:

Cost $0.99 for the auction win and $9.00 for shipping. I got a pack of 10.

[garnerb350]

hehehe...My pause button is black 1/2 inch diameter...( friend of mine gave me a few)...the ones from Radio Crap...its that 4 pack special...with the little buttons...2 red/ 2 blk...

I didnt want to hack up my tankstick...so what i did was i mounted everything on my keyboard drawer underneath the tankstick...

Now all i have to do now is figure out how to rig a lock on the drawer... with little work as possible....

Its funny but I spend more time fixing and setting up stuff instead of playing the damn thing!....

[jholman76]

Its funny but I spend more time fixing and setting up stuff instead of playing the damn thing!....

If I wanted to PLAY games I would have just got a X Arcade... Its more about the build, IMHO. Dont get me wrong, its for the games, but there is just something about the build...

Plus figuring out how keyboards and gamepads work is neat too. Everyone I talk to about it suggests I have kids to take up the "extra" time I have... weird. They are just jealous parents!

[drventure]

If I wanted to PLAY games I would have just got a X Arcade... Its more about the build, IMHO

Couldn't have said it better myself.

But, there are plenty of people that just want a box to play the old games on. Nothing wrong with that either. I guess I'm also viewing the cab build as more of an artistic expression/functional work of art that just a video game cab.

For me anyway, the build itself has been just as much if not more fun that playing it will be. And I've had my 5 year old daughter helping me all the way, which has made it even more fun! Nothing like watching a 4 yo (at the time) using wire strippers, connecting up all the buttons and then getting to test all the connections out on the computer. She got the biggest kick out when she realized that connecting all those wires actually let the buttons talk to the computer

[garnerb350]

My 2 year old is somewhat doing the same thing....She tells her mommy that "daddy is working on his toy"... and she runs to try to help me "fix" whatever I am doing...

Plus I have to stop her before she jabs a screwdriver into my CPU...( scary!)

[jholman76]

Plus I have to stop her before she jabs a screwdriver into my CPU...( scary!)

I learned the best lessons when I "screwed" (no pun intended) things up on the PC and had to fix them before my dad found out!

Now I am in IT... go figure.

joe

[garnerb350]

 

Jh....I know what you mean!!!