Turning a Music Keyboard into a Computer Keyboard

[Super Cameraman]

What would be the best way to take an old music keyboard, and make it so you can plug it in to the computer and each music key represents a letter key? Should I take a computer keyboards guts and wire each individual key to each individual music key? Or is there another way.

(Note: This is not an MIDI keyboard. It's very old and... bad.)

(Note 2: YES I tried Google.)

-Super

[gannon]

Do you know if the keyboard is CV or not?

[Super Cameraman]

What's CV?

(I'm on my Pocket PC! )

-Super

[Kurt_]

Well you COULD make a usb attachment that took the output (that would otherwise go to the speakers) and record the (place whatever differs the notes electronically here) and send it via usb to the computer, where you designed a piece of software that recognized the individual signals as a letter key.

[Super Cameraman]

What's CV?

(I'm on my Pocket PC! )

-Super

[bicostp]

To me it sounds like the easiest option would be to take apart a USB keyboard and use its encoder chip.

[Super Cameraman]

What's that?



-Super

[NiN^_^NiN]

Just use a keyboard encoder made for mame which is what i use on my arcade cabinet

Its either ps2 or usb and allows u to attach wires for each key

I'm using a KeyWiz MAX its exactly what u need altho u might be best off getting a programable one i don't remember if my keywiz max one is or not as it defaults to the mame layout.


Anyway here it is


Just put the wire in and turb the screws to hold it in and attach the other end to a switch

[Super Cameraman]

But does each hole on that have a specific key? I need middle C on the keyboard to be Q.

-Super

[NiN^_^NiN]

But does each hole on that have a specific key? I need middle C on the keyboard to be Q.

-Super

Yes each hole has a specific key on the keyboard and it can be programmed with a shift key aswell so you could hold down one of the other keys to get a capital.

Do you need the whole keyboard what is the projecto for?

[Super Cameraman]

Well, the number's and letter's anyway. The four rows of them. (1 to z and - to /, if you know what I mean.)

-Super

[NiN^_^NiN]

Well you can use it

A to Z and 0 to 9 is 36 outputs but the keywiz max does 32 outputs

The key wiz max is for 2 player controls so u want a I-PAC4 for 4 players

Thats 56 inputs enough for A to Z 0 to 9 and almost enough for all the ,>:; characters

But if u really need them they have shift keys aswell so u can hook up the shift key and the other key to make a new one



It's available in usb and ps/2

if you need even more then u can use a Hagstrom KE72 72 inputs on a pci card it can emulate any key on a 01 or 104 keyboard

Altho its made to go into a pci slot it doesn't use the pci slot for anything other than holding it in so it can be wired inside the music keyboard and have a ps/2 plug plugged into it.

[Super Cameraman]

Bump?

Where can I get something like this? How much do they cost?

-Super

[NiN^_^NiN]

Bump?

Where can I get something like this? How much do they cost?

-Super

Well which one do you need?

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/inde ... cts_id=199
This place sells KeyWiz Max 1.5 which has 32 direct inputs and uses PS/2 interface

This is $35

You can find shops online or even these on ebay depending how u wanna buy it.

These using don't do ghosting either which keyboards suffer from when u hack them up.

u dont' want ghosting otherwise u will have keystrokes being registered when u don't want them 2

You need to know how many inputs u need for the keyboard how many keys are actually on the music keyboard and work out which one is best suited for you

[Super Cameraman]

Wow, that looks great! And it says it has 32 input things! Guess how many keys my keyboard has! 32!


No to get some money.

And no, it's not on eBay.


-Super