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keyboard hack / encoder question
soulblazer28:
Hello all,
Well I am the newest retro dreamer to start planning on building a MAME cabinet from scratch -- despite no woodworking skills or wiring skills. I've seen and read enough to be somewhat confident enough to at least get myself into trouble.
Anyway, I've been a long time programmer and perhaps I have a naive question. Being new to the ideas of hacking a keyboard or keyboard encoders, I am left a bit confused about one thing. Keyboards have limits on the number of keys that can be pressed simultaneously, yet it seems that there is no such limit with keyboard hacks or encoders -- at least not that I could find on the forum search. As much as I'd liike to know how the limitation disappears (perhaps its not a hardware issue but a bios issue, etc) but ultimately I just want to rest in peace that one could press every button and joystick on the cabinet simultaneously and have all of them register.
I'd be grateful if anyone could enlighten me. Thanks! :)
Kremmit:
Keyboards suffer from Ghosting and Blocking. Blocking is when some of your keypresses get missed, and Ghosting is when you get extra keypresses even though you didn't press those keys.
Keyboard hacks suffer from these problems exactly the same way that regular keyboards do. There are ways to prevent some of it and work around some of it. If you really care, take a look at the website that is the companion to these message forums- www.byoac.com will get you there. There's lots of info about keyboard hacks there.
But the short version is, it's a lot easier and not much more expensive (if at all) to just buy a keyboard encoder. Decent encoders have the Ghosting and Blocking problems ironed out already, so you don't have to sweat it.
missioncontrol:
one warning about keyboard hacks... test it on an old pc that you don't care about....
I fried my test computer with one
Thenasty:
save yourself the TIME and HEADACHES, buy an ENCODER ASAP . . . . . . ;)
Lilwolf:
I hacked a keyboard... then I hacked a joystick (better but less keys.. made for gaming)... then I bought an encoder. Best money I've spent on my arcade.
But now thta you can get an encoder for 21 bucks (keywiz eco + ide standoffs) its super easy and cheap. There is no reason to hack a keyboard right now...
Heck, I bought one for my jukebox where I never had to deal with any of those problems... just because the 20 bucks was worth it in easier wiring!
There are other 20 buck items you can probably get away without... but encoder shouldn't be the place to scrimp. I would rather have a computer 1/3 the speed instead myself.
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