RE: IR keyboard

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks Keith.

I knew about the "scan code" operation of the keyboard interface,
however, I
was under the impression that the "modifier" keys (IE CTRL,
SHIFT, ALT,
etc..) modified the scan code sent from the keyboard itself to the keyboard
controller....

Having just checked with my IR one though, I can see that the modifier keys
are in fact sending their own IR signals when pressed, (as indicated by the
activity LED), rather than just modifying the code that is sent by the
keyboard. This is the reason I wanted to replace the older keyboard with
one
that has the "multimedia" keys along the top - these are merely
keys which
send an already modified key scan code but only require one keypress to do
so. - so for example, the multimedia key marked "play" will
actually be
something like CTRL-ALT-F12, but without me having to press the CTRL-ALT
keys.... I hoped that as these modified keys only require a single
keypress,
it would be an easy way for me to learn some of those elusive combination
keystrokes into the Pronto...

I can see that this is not going to be an easy one to crack! - with a lot
of
trial & error I just might eventually get the timing right... I do
remember
having _one_ success with the previous keyboard, where I did manage on one
occasion to learn a CTRL-F12 combination, which was my shortcut to launch
Winamp.

The obvious solution to this problem would be to decode the IR data format
the keyboard uses, so I could type the hex codes straight into
Prontoedit...

That's not going to be much fun...   :-(

Cheers.

Paul G.

PS: How're the KAT5 units coming?...   ;-)



>Hi Paul,
>
>take a look at http://www.arne.si/~mauricio/Kbdfaq.htm
>
>It explains all you need to know about "normal" PC keyboards,
ie the wired
>ones.
>
>That may explain why you can only learn single key presses....
>each key sends one code when pressed and another when released.
>
>thus CTRL+ALT+A is really
>CTRL down, ALT down, A down, A up, ALT up, CTRL up.
>6 seperate actions which get translated into
>
>" the A key was pressed whilst CTRL+ALT were also down so I will
do
>........"
>rather than just typing "A"
>
>It may also explain why you get differing results when trying to learn
a
>key.
>
>I havent really looked any deeper yet so that is the best pointer I can
>currently give :-)
>
>Keith

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