"Ah." Says you. "Another
"It has." I reply. "But you forget one thing. I'm a
So that's the idea but taking it only a little further. It will involve chopping up a keyboard to get at the processor circuit. I can then make my own keypads up and wire them into the keyboard processor. I know you can buy but on a budget this is the only way to go.
Using the rather nice keyboard layout PDF from the oolite wiki I've used Gimp to set out the keygroups. Currently It's at eight.
I just have to work out how the each group will be best laid out for functionality. I'm left handed so this will be arranged around the stick and throttle positioning. I have a nice office chair which will act as a base.
There are 59 Buttons in all! Some are duplicated due to their having a multi function use depending on situation in game. Others change use depending on combination keys. Usually Shift and or Ctrl are used to change the prime key function.
So in theory I would need the Shift and Ctrl duplicated a few times to allow proper use of my possible set up. But to save on a few buttons I've come up with a little circuit to do the Shift+Key and Shift+Ctrl+Key.
I'll need a couple of these but the components, which I have anyway, are quite cheap. The circuit is based on 3 IC's.
The 555. An old but very versatile chip. In this instance it is acting like a clock pulse.
The 4015. An 8 Bit register. For every clock pulse it receives each output goes high sequentially. This chip is made up of 2 4Bit registers that can be independantly operated.
The 4066. A quad bilateral switch. Basically this chip has four solid state switches in it.
So the theory is, for a Shift+Ctrl+Key I have the appropriate key on my bespoke keypad wired to fire the 555 up. This also changes the state of the inverter. (The inverter applies, when dormant a positive voltage to the reset pin of the 4015. This stops it working regardless of a clock input.) The inverter goes low (negative voltage) which allows the 4015 to respond to the clock pulses.
So if I have Shift on the first output to the 4066, Ctrl on the second output, and Key on the Third Output.
Shift and Ctrl could be switched in any order so long as Key is the last switched the appropriate function will happen. The correct pins on the 4066 have to be taken to the correct points on the keyboard circuit of course. I've added an LED which lights up to confirm function when used. The 555 can be set to run at a fast clock so the switching will happen in an instant of operating the pad switch.
The 4015 stops because the register is full but when the pad switch is released the 555 stops and the inverter changes state appying a high (positive voltage) to the reset pin of the 4015 so all the outputs go low and the 4066 switches go off. Simples?
I should point out that the circuit and the keyboard circuit are isolated at the voltage level by the 4066 so nothing nasty should happen
So theres my plan of madness. I have a slightly older PC with a good card in it with a 15" monitor. This will form the core for the setup. Of course I still need a full keyboard as well but only to type file save names and name searching in the galactic charts.
BBD wibble wibble wibble!
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