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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Keyboard for Micromite Plus
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
OK, I see. CAPS LED now working. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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MicroBlocks Guru  Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I still have to figure out the VT100 codes because that is what needs to be send to an MM. Arrow keys, function keys home, end, pageup, pagedown are all ESC codes but i can not find a good source of information. It would then be possible to use the keyboard to edit programs. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Chris Roper Senior Member  Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
Try these: 2015-09-04_190640_TerminalEscapeCodes.zip Cheers Chris http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Thanks Chris. Just what i need. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Chris Roper Senior Member Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
My pleasure, but they are actually Geoff's from his ASCII Terminal Controller page. But as it was designed specifically to work with the Micromite it is definitely the best source  http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
D'OH! 
Why didn't I think to point TZA to that..... 
Nice one, Chris.   Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
What should we do with keys that are combined with Control. Ctrl+C is obvious but which other ones would be valid and/or useful. The program also allows for a RAW mode that sends every key to the output so i don't need to do all combinations. I am particularly interested what it should do in VT100 mode and especially for when it is used as a keyboard for a Mite. edit: found something with google. And yes it was on Geoff's site. of course!
Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
As far at the CTRL key combinations are concerned, I can't actually think of any other then CTRL-C, really..... The others, like ESC/F1-F12/PageUP/PageDOWN etc, are not CTRL keys(in that you need to hold CTRL as well as pressing these keys), so I can't actually think of any others then CTRL-C. I welcome anyone mentioning any others I am not thinking of. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
G, i had an idea that might be useful. What do you think about using one pin as a reset signal. We can than make the program pull this pin low when CTRL+ALT+DEL is pressed. This might be handy when the keyboard is directly connected as the main input device for a Mite. We could use the pin that is now used for the power led. Maybe the power led is just that and can be connected directly to the power. We can then for flash the Caps led shortly for each key press. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
I have not allowed for the "CONNECT" tact, but what about putting that tact back on the PCB, and connecting that to the MM's MCLR pin? That way, you can press this button to restart the code should you need to. This would have to be on a 1B version of the PCB. Connecting to MCLR with the tact would mean you would not need to code a CTRL-ALT-DEL sequence, nor lose a pin in the process. Thoughts? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Yes, the connect button would be better. I forgot about that button. Software is coming along slowly. There are a lot of combination keys on that keyboard. Especially with the Fn key. Did you ever get this thing to work on a PC. Mine pairs and connects but can not get a single key out of it. I wonder what the delete key should be. A backspace when pressed by itself?, and a delete when you combine it with a shift? I am almost inclined to see the word delete in blue so that a Fn+Delete gives a delete instead of with shift. Seems to make more sense when typing and is more in line with the arrow keys becoming home, end, pageup and pagedn when combined with the Fn key. It does not make any difference in difficulty it is just that i think an Fn key will be easier to use to choose Backspace or Delete. What do you think. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
It's up to you if you want to support ALL the keys, but I think that just keeping it simple is probably less brain-strain for you, unless you WANT to do the extra work as a challenge.
You are right on the Delete key idea with respect to Delete - sounds good to me. I don't have any Bluetooth devices here at all, so I have no way to pair the keyboard up to test it. Based on your reports, I am not all that keen to ever try anyway, as it looks like it is not being very co-operative. You mentioned in an earlier post that you did not really like these blue keyboards, so I am surprised you have continued to put in so much effort on coding! I guess this one can for the basis of your universal code, so you can then use just about any matrix and any keyboard, just by changing the lookup strings, yes? Are you still planning to do your other one, or have you decided to settle on an MMBasic version? Lots of work you're putting in to write MMBasic code, if you are not really planning to use MMbasic as your other PCB would be a C-based beast(the one with the USB hosting). My PCB's have not yet arrived, but they must get here tomorrow. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I see merit in using this keyboard for use with a micromite. It is compact, has a good matrix as we found out and it will serve its purpose very well. As a keyboard for a laptop, TV box etc it is not that good. Bluetooth is shaky at best. I can get it to work on a Android phone, nothing else. I have lots of stuff i use for testing my websites on and it does not work on most of them. So no this keyboard is not very well for use as it is advertised. What i would like to accomplish is that this keyboard can replace a real keyboard for the micromite. Being able to edit, save and run programs should be just as easy as when you do it with teraterm. To get that to work it should emit VT100 codes. Also the function keys should work as those are used in the editor. ctrl+c for stopping a program also. Navigsation with the arrow keys, pageup/Pagedn, home, end, backspace, delete, etc are all needed to make editing possible. It is not that difficult to do, but doing it in a structured way so that when someone wants to use another keyboard is more difficult. I would like to get it to work by just replacing some lookup strings. Writing it in basic is so much more easy then doing the same in C. Only the very rapid, Edit, run, debug cycles alone are worth it. With C it is writing,compiling, programming the chip, debugging etc. A 100x slower process. The more i can figure out with basic the better. After that it is just a translation to C. The chip i have in mind to use is the PIC16F1459. It has enough pins AND it has USB. I also have a working HID software for it, so it could also function as a USB keyboard. One of the projects i want to do is making a small keyboard with just the keys i use a lot when programming. The keyboards on the current smaller computers often use an Fn key togeter with another to access the function keys. In wrinting and debugging software it would be great to have a little keyboard with just F5,F8,F10 and F11. Those are used often for run, step etc. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
Hey, TZA. 
PCB's arrived tonight, so I will send you a panel tomorrow using the address you sent to me for the MM+ boards. They are a perfect fit for the original board, using the existing PCB standoffs. As with the original board, these ones are 0.8mm thick, so be careful not to snap 'em!
I hope to build one up tonight, and post some photos - it will be nice to get rid of all those jumper wires!!!!  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Great! Is the PIC in a SOIC or a SSOP package? I still have a few 150's lying around, they could be used for this after tweaking the software a bit. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
SSOP. SOIC too big to fit. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
Replacement PCB in place: 
Programmed and working with the current code. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Chris Roper Senior Member Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
Well done Grogs  http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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| MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
Well that looks easy.
Great fit! I look forward to make my own. (Of course no SSOP's) only dips en soics. Want to trade me one (if you have spare of course) for a USB-Serial module as shown in the PIC16F1455 thread? I am close to sending the design to the PCB house. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9585 |
Yep, sounds good to me. Are you OK with a kit or would you like one assembled? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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