Hacking a USB Keyboard

Step 6 One step beyond!

Once you have a hacked keyboard you can use it for a number of functions and attach a number of different types of switches.

You can build your own typewriter keyboard. Check the picture and video. It may not auto-load and it may take a long time to load when it does (it's around 20 MB), but here is the video of the typewriter:

http://a.parsons.edu/~randy/video/typewriter.mov

You can use a photocell as a switch (as seen in the picture and video).

You can hook it up to a capacitance sensor and use just about anything to trigger an event in a Flash movie.

You can hook it up to some floor switches and develop your own DDR game.

You can do more things than I could ever dream up.

Comments

[I MAKE STUFF]

another use of this is to add switches to flight sims such as fsx, fs2004 ect.

[avibank911]

how do you solder the wires without burning the PCB??

[Azayles]

Use a soldering iron, not a blowtorch.

[Goodhart]

Gee, looks like I'll never get to use my 100 A arc welder ever again.... ;-)

[mdgnys]

Oh I have one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[1337pato]

Burn

[DavidHasselhoff]

ROFL

[ATG]

LOL

[Chromatica]

lmfao

[Kasm279]

lol!

[random green dude]

LMAO

[-henry-]

It's nearly impossible to burn the PCB when you solder, unless your soldering iron is WAY to hot.

[Sagar Gondaliya]

i put mine at 800+ degrees. is that bad?

[Malfurious]

Using a material that has a melting point above 800F is brazing. Most likely, your soldering iron isn't designed to sustain those high temperatures. Are you using a material that requires your gun to be that hot?!?

[-henry-]

 You realize that you responded to a post almost 1 year old
FYI

[WilderLust]

Wow! you don't need it so hot. most of the work i do is under 300 deg. sometimes when i have larger cables or large metal parts to solder i go up farther but 800 is really high for electronics. your element will last longer at lower temps too and you will not fry so many things. the solder i use melts around 250 deg. i would recommend you cool things down for electronics! cheers :-)

[Sagar Gondaliya]

Ty. i only keep it hso hot so i can get done faster :| Thanks for the warning. im gonna make it so it cant get past 450

[-henry-]

that's fine, anywhere from 700-900 degrees (F) is fine for soldering,

[Sagar Gondaliya]

thnx cuz sometimes my dad gets mad when i put it that high. just wanted to make sure that i wouldnt damage anything. thnx again

[thecheatscalc]

by the way, what type of solder are you using? electronics solder is usually 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit...

[BFeely]

Lead free melts at a higher temperature, around 420 to 440 degrees F.

[Fieldownage]

Basic lead is best at 300-360.

[randofo]

What do you mean?

[osama_]

Interfacing a keybord with a microcontroller is a good idea. Thanks a lot for the link.

[djhusi]

Lolz I made a bot (a cheating device) for an MMORPG a couple of years ago and used the same technique. It is really easy to evade Game Guard or PB this way :)

[legionlabs]

I had a broken capacitive keyboard (not a very common thing) and found that shorting the relevant pins on the IC did nothing. It was required that I short them across a small ceramic disk capacitor (value not so important). Also, if you take an N2222 transistor, the human body conducts enough current @ 9v to push it into switching mode. Put the transistor between two areas of interest on the keyboard matrix IC, and you have a quick and dirty touch switch. I've tried this, it works well and responds faster than a physical switch... a good mod for all you FPS types?

[shdhwk]

OK...So would this work for putting 2 keyboards together for a dual boxing gaming system using 2 identical USB keyboards? I've been toying with the idea for a while now, and I my have to give it a try, but I would like to hear if anyone has tried or succeeded at this.

[hishealer]

So are you that tank/whm team I keep seeing in the Dunes? \>^.</

[freasafan13]

unless you use all the keys then you can just use one and calibrate it so that you only use the keys on each controller

[danton721]

I think it go work,cause PS/2 and USB keyoards can work together,but in the game,you will have to change the comands,Example:One player stay on keyboar arows,the other in W,S,D,A I think you can undesrtand i wrote,cuz my native language is Portuguese ;D

[mitchell12]

Many people use this to make push buttons and switches for flight sims and racing sims. Neat ible

[roystonlodge]

More ideas for whacky applications: - Electronic Whack-A-Mole game. - "Buzz-in" devices for trivia games like You Don't Know Jack. - A cheap way to convert old Atari joysticks and NES gampads for use on a PC. I wonder how hard it would be to keep the keyboard relatively intact, but just remap the F keys to other devices, like an old joystick. That way I'd still have my keyboard but I'd be able to use my old joystick as well.

[JoeBees]

I've made a DDR board out of a keyboard I hacked in the same way you described. Works well. Free DDR. (except materials cost) I'll have to make an instructable about it.

[randofo]

That's cool. Let me know when you do.