Custom USB Input Devices

[dmxlighting]

Hi

Im working on building a customer usb input device to use with FS.
The idea is to use some avalible usb devices to make a easy to use control board which can be laid out in an order I like.
The simple way is just to use a keyboard and configure fs to my own spec. as Im sure many of you already do.
The other option is using midi interface. But I just want to have a simple usb add on.

So Ive looked at using an old keyboard, stripping it down, mapping out the switch matrix and connecting push switches to the usb control board.
see this link.... http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Bu ... Interface/
This looks like the best option so far. This should give me plenty of scope to build a desk interface to control blackout, freeze, overide buttons or whatever all
laid out how I want.

One other technology I have look at is the Buzz Controller from my playstation. Also a usb device.
If you connect it to your PC it will come up as USB hub or a 20 button game controller. The latter is what you need and its easy to change if it does install as a hub.
You then need some software http://www.digitaltransforms.com/ (Its unlimited free to try, no save feature, $20 to buy)
This will let you setup this or any other game controller to operate keystroke inputs which you can then use to operate parts of FS.
This works ok but it could work out expesive to do (game controller £30, software $20) .
They only other problem here is that FS will support the first 15 buttons but crashes on the last 5 (16 to 20) (Run-Time Error '6': Overflow)
It was fun trying that out but I think I will pursue the keyboard option for now.

If any of you have any thoughts or comments on this please let me know.

Lee

[Mattotone]

try one of these http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

[dmxlighting]

Thanks for that. Ive just ordered one.
Looks like a great board to base my controller on.


Cheers

Lee

[jmibk]

hi,

i've build this http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/hidkeys.html and connected it to the PC. It works good - by pressing one button, it writes a big "R" to a input field like Word for example.

In Freestyler i defined this keypress to "toggle Blackout".

Now to the problem:

On the first keypress blackout is on. on the next keypress nothing happens til after a restart of freestyler.

does anybody know how i can solve the problem. The interface in my link is quiet simple and cheap - so ideal for self build interfaces i think.

[dmxlighting]

This is odd as what you have built is really just a keyboard with a limited number of keys.
So in the FS keyboard shortcuts you have setup 'R' as 'Blackout' ?
Then when you press the button on you HID interface it toggles blackout but its not turning blackout off on the second press.
Does this work if you just use 'R' on your PC's keyboard ?

[jmibk]

With the normal keyboard it works fine - with the "r" and also the (+shift) capital letter "R".
After my hid interface not works under FS i tried it under winword - it works here without any problem.

[dmxlighting]

This is very strange. I cant see why it wont work. There must be something on HID software thats causing the problem. Maybe contact the people on the website you linked to for some help. I pretty sure its not FS thats causing the problem here or the pc keyboard would not be working.

Have you / can you try different short cuts on different buttons. Try using 'freeze' for example. Does that work properly?