Raspberry Pi inside and converting a Keycat to USB

[jpeart]

Hello fellow forum members,

I am working on a project to install a Raspberry Pi Model A inside of a keyboard.  I live in the U.S. and I'm still trying to buy the Model A as it is not easily found here yet.  However, I do have a host keyboard already.



I was given a Keycat by a co-worker and I am attempting to convert it from a five pin DIN to USB.  I purchased an adapter to go from the five pin DIN to a six pin PS/2.  I also purchased the PS/2 to USB converter sold at clickykeyboards but it is giving me problems.  After typing 2 or 3 letters the last letter typed repeats itself until I press that same key which makes it stop repeating.  This happens in both Windows XP and Linux Mint so I'm pretty sure it is not an OS problem.  I also bought a dongle that converts a PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard to USB.  This dongle exhibits the same behavior as the PS/2 to USB converter from clickykeyboards.

I have had good luck with the trackball built into the right side of the keyboard.  I bought a serial to USB cable that has excellent Linux driver support built-in to the kernel.  Using the trackball is hard work as lots of movement of the ball translates to small movements on the screen.  That is okay though because at least it works.

I have searched the geekhack forums for Keycat and found zero results, hence my posting.  I read Soarer's post detailing his code for a Teensy board.  Tonight I made an order for a Teensy 2.0 board and hope to get it in a week or so.  Since I didn't have much luck with the two products I already bought, I went with this one thinking that I could tweak the code if needed to make it work for me.  Has anyone here ever tried Soarer's Converter on a Keycat?

[samwisekoi]

Nice project.  Good luck!

Sounds like the actual keyswitch is sticking. Have you checked for that?

 - Ron I samwisekoi

[jpeart]

I checked for a sticking keyswitch by removing the PS/2 to USB converter and plugging directly into my PS/2 port.  Using it this way does not give me the repeating key problem.  So I don't think the mechanical functionality of the keyboard is the cause of the repeating key.

[samwisekoi]

I checked for a sticking keyswitch by removing the PS/2 to USB converter and plugging directly into my PS/2 port.  Using it this way does not give me the repeating key problem.  So I don't think the mechanical functionality of the keyboard is the cause of the repeating key.

Agreed.  Good check there.

 - Ron | samwisekoi

[jpeart]

Pretty exciting night for me tonight; my Teensy 2.0 arrived in the mail!  I put Soarer's Converter firmware v1.11 on it and wired it up to my keyboard.  Worked perfectly on the first try.  Just wish I had known about Soarer's Converter before I spent money on those other two converters.  Oh well, at least I got to learn some things about how keyboards work.

Now I just need to get a Model A Raspberry Pi so I can start laying out where everything will fit inside the keyboard case.  That may take some time as they just recently went on sale in the U.S. and sold out in a matter of hours.

[metalliqaz]

Wow, that's a wild layout.

[jpeart]

I finished the hardware side of my keyboard project and thought I would post some pictures.  I bought a Raspberry Pi Model A for its low profile.  The S Video out was a bit too tall for what I needed so I cut it off.  I only wanted the HDMI port anyway.  I installed the Pi, a powered USB hub and a lot of extension cables.  I wanted to be able to access all the connections from the back of the keyboard and I was barely able to squeeze everything in.  Last night I wired in a power switch because I didn't like having to pull the power cable in and out.