Filco: NKRO over USB for REALZ!

[litster]

In most cases, 6KRO is enough for gaming.  But when you are an enthusiast of something, you do what you can, not just what you should.  

Filco has diodes for every switch, but it *only* does 6KRO over USB.  However, it can do NKRO over PS/2.  USB has its advantage because it is Plug-and-Play.  Whereas a PS/2 keyboard has to be connected before the computer it is connected to is booted up for the OS to recognize it.  Ah, the dilemma.  

You can have the best of both worlds.  USB’s Plug-and-Play convenience and the unnecessary ability to have more than 6 keys registered at once.  How, you ask?  With Soarer’s XT/AT/PS2/Terminal to USB Converter with NKRO.

Soarer’s converter has been around for a year.  Most of the time it is used to get old IBM keyboards to work on PCs with USB.  Its best kept secret, however, is that it works with any PS/2 keyboards.  And Soarer’s firmware makes it possible to get NKRO over USB.

So, if you build a Soarer converter, you too can have NKRO over USB with your Filco keyboards, or any keyboard that can do NKRO over PS/2 (e.g. IBM Model F, Cherry G80 POS keyboard, Leopold).  I just built one myself.  

All you need is a Teensy, a female 6-pin mini DIN connecter, a few wires, a soldering iron, and an hour or two.  Uploading Soarer’s firmware to a Teensy is very easy, and can be done on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Go check out Soarer’s wiki here.

[sherryton]

All the links goes back to this thread.

[HairyTroll]

All the links goes back to this thread.

I thought I was going crazy there for a few seconds.

[litster]

Sorry, links fixed.

[litster]

Some pictures from drteming on this converter.  Very neat.  I think the enclosure is from Radio Shack: http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17458&viewfull=1&page=33&do=comments#post535332

[REVENGE]

Some pictures from drteming on this converter.  Very neat.  I think the enclosure is from Radio Shack: http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17458&viewfull=1&page=33&do=comments#post535332

Show Image

Show Image

That's a very neat build, much better than my breadboard build, but mine doesn't need soldering!

[litster]

REVENGE, yours is very neat as well!  And you can take the Teensy off for something else very easily.

Post your pictures here, if you don't mind. :-)

[hasu]

Another fan of NKRO here! NKRO over USB is really fun

If you have a neat ADB you can enjoy NKRO with my ADB-USB converter. Though I don't any ADB keyboard with ghost-free matrix

I don't know where I can enjoy NKRO excepting Aqua key test. lol

[tp4tissue]

This is silly... the USB protocol is still not as good as the PS/2 due to the way hardware interrupts are handled..

You've gone 1 step forwards with this silly gadget, and 2 steps back..

Good science though...

[boredgunner]

Cooler Master claims to have achieved NKRO in USB mode with the QuickFire Pro, and it seems to work using this site for testing.

http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/content/projects/KeyboardGhostingDemo.aspx

[Soarer]

This is silly... the USB protocol is still not as good as the PS/2 due to the way hardware interrupts are handled..

You've gone 1 step forwards with this silly gadget, and 2 steps back..

Good science though...

Care to back that claim up with some science of your own?

I think you're thinking of a typical USB keyboard, which is polled far slower than my converter, but I'd like to hear your reasoning.

[litster]

Soarer, you can ignore tp4.  He thread craps all the time.

[Gawkbasher]

He's probably just thread****ting again...

[Soarer]

Yeah... his finest moments have hopefully been deleted.

But still, I thought I'd give him a chance to try and back it up - he can't, of course, but it would be interesting to find out what the misunderstanding arises from.

[litster]

My Soarer converter:


And my face is not big enough to press all the keys on my Filco at the same time. Dark grey keys are keys pressed at the time screen shot was taken.

[dorkvader]

Litster, that's a tidy mod! I was planning to make a bunch of these for all my PS2 keyboards (and put one in my PS2 unicomp case) but I haven't even ordered all the teensy's yet!

I'm imagining the picture of your face trying to hold all the keys down would be pretty entertaining, provided that it exists.

Also: that's a nice-looking panel mount PS2 jack: may I ask where I can find one (or 5)
---
I'm glad Soarer's Teensy is getting some publicity: perhaps it'll become more popular as time goes by.

Finally: is it possible to power two PS2 keyborads from one of these with some hardware/firmware tweaks? I like the convenience of my 2-port belkins, as my laptop only has three USB ports, and I use two keyboards on it.

[tp4tissue]

You can poll it over 9000 all day, it is not handled the same way as the hardware interrupts over ps/2 connection.

PS/2

keyboard tells the cpu, hey stop, look at this...

USB

Cpu goes, hey keyboard what's going on buddy,

---then it does this up to 1000hz


STILL,, very different ball game.

This is PS/2's main advantage

However, a second lesser but important advantage is that the Keyboard will never be fvcked over by other usb devices, because PS/2 does NOT share bandwidth with all other usb devices.

If you got a usb hard drive, a usb mouse, and a usb keyboard, they are all polled by the usb controller, so if everything was running, this could introduce significant latency and drops

[alaricljs]

Ok.  They're different.  Now prove that USB is not as fast or efficient as PS/2 when properly implemented.

[litster]

I don't think tp4tissue can.  He is still using serial mice, and connects his printers through parallel ports. Bi-direction parallel ports though.  He knows how to configure BIOS.

[tp4tissue]

Ok.  They're different.  Now prove that USB is not as fast or efficient as PS/2 when properly implemented.

mm.. well.. ok

fast, there is less latency simply because the cpu doesn't need to poll the device

USB route goes

CPU
USB Control
Device
USB Control
CPU

PS/2 route
DEVICE
CPU


Now for efficiency

CPU has to poll a USB device, this takes CPU time

PS/2,, this does not happen,, saving you cpu cycles for whatever else.



So, in conclusion, ps/2 is both faster and more efficient

[tp4tissue]

I don't think tp4tissue can.  He is still using serial mice, and connects his printers through parallel ports. Bi-direction parallel ports though.  He knows how to configure BIOS.

I already did, read above.

And I know I'm only a minor authority on this forum but here's what "steelseries says"

They are usb and ps/2, so it's not a biased opinion

Steelseries:
We absolutely recommend using the PS/2 connector when possible. First,it will give you total freedom with no limit to the amount of simultaneous key presses. And, equally as important, using the PS/2 may just improve your overall gaming experience. The reason is that when you use a USB keyboard your computer is actually using CPU time polling your keyboard. The higher the polling rate the more CPU time is used to perform the polling. And because of the built-in debounce rate found on any quality keyboard, any polling rate above 200Hz is simply a waste of CPU time and really just a result of pointless marketing hype. Unlike USB keyboards a PS/2 keyboard isn’t polled at all. The keyboard simply sends a signal to the computer as key presses are made, which causes a hardware interrupt, forcing the CPU to register the signal.

[laffindude]

Doesn't interrupt driven peripherals gets less responsive when you load up the CPU?

[litster]

it is so much more inefficient because we don't have CPU cycles to spare.  NOT!

When was the last time your PC slowed to a crawl because it was busy polling a USB keyboard?

[tp4tissue]

Doesn't interrupt driven peripherals gets less responsive when you load up the CPU?

Yes, however so would any USB device, because it only MIMICs the hardware interrupts done on the PS/2 connection.

So niether ps/2 nor usb would be at a disadvantage in the CPU "loaded" conditions

[alaricljs]

BTW - your system is probably using polling at some point in the chain to talk to the PS/2 controller on the mobo these days    The PS/2 controller sits way off on a Super IO chip which uses LPC to talk to the south bridge which then uses the exact same bus as USB controllers do to talk to the north bridge and on down to the CPU.

[tp4tissue]

it is so much more inefficient because we don't have CPU cycles to spare.  NOT!

When was the last time your PC slowed to a crawl because it was busy polling a USB keyboard?

Lister, I'm sorry you reinvented the wheel, and did it badly.. ..


I honestly don't know why we're arguing over this, because the ps/2 vs usb topic has been done many times over,

AND the only reason that we STILL have PS/2 for these higher end expensive keyboards IS due to it's superiority.


This is not to say that your product absolutely doesn't have any marketability. laptops or motherboards that are sadly without a ps/2 port is where your "alleged" awesome controller would do wonders.


So, stay in there bucko.

[laffindude]

BTW, does the Filco NKRO bug exist with with this converter? The one where you release bunch of keys at the same time and some would be stuck on.

[tp4tissue]

BTW - your system is probably using polling at some point in the chain to talk to the PS/2 controller on the mobo these days    The PS/2 controller sits way off on a Super IO chip which uses LPC to talk to the southbridge which then uses the exact same bus as USB controllers do to talk to the north bridge and on down to the CPU.

Ah,, yes, this is possible,, I will look this up soon.

[alaricljs]

AND the only reason that we STILL have PS/2 for these higher end expensive keyboards IS due to it's superiority.

Um no, it's called LEGACY, not superiority.  And we're having this discussion because you seem to think that demeaning someone or something without basis is a sound method of debate.

[tp4tissue]

BTW, does the Filco NKRO bug exist with with this converter? The one where you release bunch of keys at the same time and some would be stuck on.

This has been determined to be a windows driver issue. because the same phenomena happens on numerous other keyboards.. mostly with the "shift" key.

[tp4tissue]

Um no, it's called LEGACY, not superiority.  And we're having this discussion because you seem to think that demeaning someone or something without basis is a sound method of debate.

Mmm.. Well... However,, I demeaned him With basis. Though I didn't put that in my original post of disparagement.

LOLOL

[tp4tissue]

There IS a Wiki on this!

But Carry On.

Fvck man,, I've been yelling that, but these blokes are dense.. very dense indeedy

[laffindude]

This has been determined to be a windows driver issue. because the same phenomena happens on numerous other keyboards.. mostly with the "shift" key.

Does those Other keyboards tested use different controller/firmware?

[Gawkbasher]

blah blah blah USB sucks

What the **** ever man.  I'll take the convenience of not having to reboot to hotswap keyboards any day (not that I have fails anymore...).

But more importantly, I'll take the convenience of not having to deal with IRQs and hardware collisions or "interrupt storms".  (I know there's interrupts in software with USB but that's different.)  USB has also massively driven down the cost of hardware...   Latency and overhead are NEVER going to be issues with a keyboard or mouse.  Your argument is totally pointless.

Also, with i8042, you're limited to reading packets one byte at a time.  Let's say you have a PS/2 mouse (IRQ12)...When you use the mouse, first an interrupt to the slave PIC has to be enabled, then the cascade interrupt at master PIC (IRQ 2)...then you need to send an "end of interrupt" to both PICs at the end of the packets...  Then you have to realize that mouse packets are multi-byte, so it takes enabling the slave PIC & cascade, 3 interrupts to IRQ12 and the end of interrupts before you can start decoding the mouse data.

You have a similar problem with keyboards with extended keys that are sending two-byte and four-byte make codes (the ones that start with E0h).  Or if you have a foreign language keyboard in a double-byte character set...oi.  Then when you consider that on PS/2, keyboards send make codes and break codes (break codes are longer than make codes by one byte as well), that one-byte limit on i8042 starts to add up to lots of interrupts.


Polling is not an issue.  That said, I'd have to look at what the poll rate is but excessively high poll rates are sometimes really undesirable.  Some gaming mice have gone this route and it's been found to be undesirable.

As an aside though, on a properly laid out keyboard, anything more than 6KRO isn't really adding any value.  arguments about NKRO on USB vs PS/2 are pretty silly.

[tp4tissue]

Does those Other keyboards tested use different controller/firmware?

I would think so, LOL, they were USB

[litster]

it is so much more inefficient because we don't have CPU cycles to spare.  NOT!

When was the last time your PC slowed to a crawl because it was busy polling a USB keyboard?

Lister, I'm sorry you reinvented the wheel, and did it badly.. ..


I honestly don't know why we're arguing over this, because the ps/2 vs usb topic has been done many times over,

AND the only reason that we STILL have PS/2 for these higher end expensive keyboards IS due to it's superiority.


This is not to say that your product absolutely doesn't have any marketability. laptops or motherboards that are sadly without a ps/2 port is where your "alleged" awesome controller would do wonders.


So, stay in there bucko.

You didn't answer my question.  When was the last time your computer slowed to a crawl because it was busy pulling a USB keyboard that PS/2 would not have slowed you down?  You are just threadcrapping for the sake of threadcrapping.  

Don't come here to threadcrap.  You are not welcome here.  GTFO.

[alaricljs]

I would think so, LOL, they were USB

Would you?  Because Costar makes a lot of different boards and uses the same controller and MOST of the same firmware in every single one of them.  They only modify the higher level stuff like whether they do an Fn layer w/ media keys and whatnot.

[tp4tissue]

Would you?  Because Costar makes a lot of different boards and uses the same controller and MOST of the same firmware in every single one of them.  They only modify the higher level stuff like whether they do an Fn layer w/ media keys and whatnot.

Ah.. hmm.. well personally I've encountered the issue on my cm storm, the razer bw, and the corsair k60 and k90..

No i don't know if they all use diff controllers.

[tp4tissue]

You didn't answer my question.  When was the last time your computer slowed to a crawl because it was busy pulling a USB keyboard that PS/2 would not have slowed you down?  You are just threadcrapping for the sake of threadcrapping.  

Don't come here to threadcrap.  You are not welcome here.  GTFO.

Well if you gonna be a h8ter like that LOLOLOL...

No, my computer doesn't slow to a crawl, and the advantages and disadvantages ultimately DO NOT MATTER.

you're right,


but your claim had been that your usb controller is better than PS/2 vanilla

THIS is not true.

I merely pointed that out.

First step of relieving that tension and sense of defeat is accepting the facts. I say this for your sake

[Gawkbasher]

You didn't point anything out.  the USB controller offers certain benefits over PS/2.  You're bringing up an apples-to-oranges comparison to refute his statement.  Nothing he claimed about his controller is incorrect.  The only thing you can maybe take issue with is his design choice about the polling rate, which you can either agree with or not but has absolutely nothing to do with PS/2.

You also don't know how PS/2 works on modern hardware (i8042 chips -- what alaricjs said about the PS/2 controller is ****ing keyboard science).  You are arguing from ignorance.  More importantly, you are threadcrapping.  Again.\

BTW - your system is probably using polling at some point in the chain  to talk to the PS/2 controller on the mobo these days    The PS/2  controller sits way off on a Super IO chip which uses LPC to talk to the  south bridge which then uses the exact same bus as USB controllers do  to talk to the north bridge and on down to the CPU.

[tp4tissue]

You didn't point anything out.  the USB controller offers certain benefits over PS/2.  You're bringing up an apples-to-oranges comparison to refute his statement.  Nothing he claimed about his controller is incorrect.  The only thing you can maybe take issue with is his design choice about the polling rate, which you can either agree with or not but has absolutely nothing to do with PS/2.

You also don't know how PS/2 works on modern hardware (i8042 chips).  You are arguing from ignorance.  More importantly, you are threadcrapping.  Again.

mm.. alrite, you got me on the i8042, I will be back after I read on that.

[litster]

The fact is that tp4tissue is ignorant, he threadcraps, he is a jerk, he doesn't know how to use punctuation properly, and he is not welcome.  He is a sad sack.  

Again, TP4, GTFO.

[Gawkbasher]

I guess my last post got deleted

[alaricljs]

BTW, does the Filco NKRO bug exist with with this converter? The one where you release bunch of keys at the same time and some would be stuck on.

Ah.. hmm.. well personally I've encountered the issue on my cm storm, the razer bw, and the corsair k60 and k90..

CM Storm is a Costar based directly on the Filco 87key layout using the same Holtek controller.  

No direct evidence on the BW, but there was plenty of speculation that it's also Holtek.  The U9BL-S has a Cypress chip in it tho...

Corsair may use Holtek since it is one of the most used controllers.  Shame people aren't ripping apart Corsairs to take pictures.


And with that I bow out...

[tp4tissue]

I guess my last post got deleted

It's cuz ur a jerk and don't actually know anything about the i8042 urself,.. At least I am capable of admitting what I do and do not have an expertise in. LOLOL

[tp4tissue]

CM Storm is a Costar based directly on the Filco 87key layout using the same Holtek controller.  

No direct evidence on the BW, but there was plenty of speculation that it's also Holtek.  The U9BL-S has a Cypress chip in it tho...

Corsair may use Holtek since it is one of the most used controllers.  Shame people aren't ripping apart Corsairs to take pictures.


And with that I bow out...

For serious?? All I heard was mer mer mer mer mer, maybe maybe, mer mer mer.. tail between ur legs, scurry away.

[laffindude]

Ah.. hmm.. well personally I've encountered the issue on my cm storm, the razer bw, and the corsair k60 and k90..

No i don't know if they all use diff controllers.

How do you encounter it on the Blackwidow when it is 2kro?

[Gawkbasher]

How do you encounter it on the Blackwidow when it is 2kro?

vBulletin needs like buttons.

[Soarer]

You can poll it over 9000 all day, it is not handled the same way as the hardware interrupts over ps/2 connection.

PS/2

keyboard tells the cpu, hey stop, look at this...

USB

Cpu goes, hey keyboard what's going on buddy,

---then it does this up to 1000hz


STILL,, very different ball game.

This is PS/2's main advantage

Heh, that's not how USB works. The polling isn't done by the CPU, it's done by the USB chips. Only IF there has been a packet received does it bother the CPU.... and that's an interrupt, baby! And packets are only sent when there is some change in key state.

So, polling keyboards at 1000Hz doesn't load up the CPU any more than at 100Hz.

Mice are different - they will load the CPU up more if you poll them more, because they can usually find something to report (they just report smaller movement increments each time).

However, a second lesser but important advantage is that the Keyboard will never be fvcked over by other usb devices, because PS/2 does NOT share bandwidth with all other usb devices.

If you got a usb hard drive, a usb mouse, and a usb keyboard, they are all polled by the usb controller, so if everything was running, this could introduce significant latency and drops

USB devices reserve bandwidth on the bus, so it's only if you've overloaded the bus that that can happen. And that's pretty unusual these days, with most motherboards having multiple USB hubs.

I already did, read above.

And I know I'm only a minor authority on this forum but here's what "steelseries says"

They are usb and ps/2, so it's not a biased opinion

Steelseries:
We absolutely recommend using the PS/2 connector when possible. First,it will give you total freedom with no limit to the amount of simultaneous key presses. And, equally as important, using the PS/2 may just improve your overall gaming experience. The reason is that when you use a USB keyboard your computer is actually using CPU time polling your keyboard. The higher the polling rate the more CPU time is used to perform the polling. And because of the built-in debounce rate found on any quality keyboard, any polling rate above 200Hz is simply a waste of CPU time and really just a result of pointless marketing hype. Unlike USB keyboards a PS/2 keyboard isn’t polled at all. The keyboard simply sends a signal to the computer as key presses are made, which causes a hardware interrupt, forcing the CPU to register the signal.

Bear in mind - that sort of stuff is written by a marketdroid, not a techie. Even the techies working on a keyboard are unlikely to know much about USB, and even less about OS drivers, since they tend to just buy in pre-programmed chips from Holtek or whoever.

This has been determined to be a windows driver issue. because the same phenomena happens on numerous other keyboards.. mostly with the "shift" key.

a) The Windows driver issue does not affect my converter - NKRO avoids the problem.
b) It's fixed in Windows 7 anyway.

I am Helvetica.

No... I am Helvetica!

[Gawkbasher]

I am the Walrus.

[laffindude]

Bride of Helvetica?
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 48614[/ATTACH]

[laffindude]

a) The Windows driver issue does not affect my converter - NKRO avoids the problem.
b) It's fixed in Windows 7 anyway.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?18674-Filco-Stuck-Modifiers-and-Keys <== this issue is related to that issue fixed here?

[tp4tissue]

Heh, that's not how USB works. The polling isn't done by the CPU, it's done by the USB chips. Only IF there has been a packet received does it bother the CPU.... and that's an interrupt, baby! And packets are only sent when there is some change in key state.

So, polling keyboards at 1000Hz doesn't load up the CPU any more than at 100Hz.

Mice are different - they will load the CPU up more if you poll them more, because they can usually find something to report (they just report smaller movement increments each time).


USB devices reserve bandwidth on the bus, so it's only if you've overloaded the bus that that can happen. And that's pretty unusual these days, with most motherboards having multiple USB hubs.


Bear in mind - that sort of stuff is written by a marketdroid, not a techie. Even the techies working on a keyboard are unlikely to know much about USB, and even less about OS drivers, since they tend to just buy in pre-programmed chips from Holtek or whoever.


a) The Windows driver issue does not affect my converter - NKRO avoids the problem.
b) It's fixed in Windows 7 anyway.


No... I am Helvetica!

It is totally not fixed in Windows 7. is this a recent patch?

[Soarer]

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?18674-Filco-Stuck-Modifiers-and-Keys <== this issue is related to that issue fixed here?

It is totally not fixed in Windows 7. is this a recent patch?

Oh wait, this is a different issue then. Thought you were talking about the 6-keys-plus-modifiers bug in Windows' USB drivers.

Any PS/2 keyboard has a queue of output events - maybe only 16 bytes or so. It can only send one byte a millisecond, roughly. Since each key release results in at least two bytes, it doesn't take much to fill the queue. And it's much easier to simultaneously release many keys at once, than press them at once (unless you use something flat to help you).

Some keyboards might have bigger queues than others, but the fundamental problem remains.

There's nothing any converter can do to fix it.

[laffindude]

Gotcha. I don't know what issue TP4 is talking about though, since his BW triggers whatever it is.

[tp4tissue]

Gotcha. I don't know what issue TP4 is talking about though, since his BW triggers whatever it is.

I hate the black widow with a passion. Damn that keyboard suck so hard,,, thank god for amazon return policy.. K60 and k90 were downers too.

[litster]

How do you encounter it on the Blackwidow when it is 2kro?

Gotcha. I don't know what issue TP4 is talking about though, since his BW triggers whatever it is.

I hate the black widow with a passion. Damn that keyboard suck so hard,,, thank god for amazon return policy.. K60 and k90 were downers too.

Your black widow hatred still doesn't explain how you experienced the problem with black widow, a 2KRO keyboard.

[Soarer]

I hate the black widow with a passion. Damn that keyboard suck so hard,,, thank god for amazon return policy.. K60 and k90 were downers too.

Nearly all keyboards are... 'barely sufficient', LOL. Of course, most of them are fine for typing, but beyond that there really aren't many (any?) brilliant ones.

Replacement controllers is the way to go for the ultimate board currently - Full-speed USB, 1000Hz polling, fast scanning, etc. is what you really want. You'd never touch PS/2 again, I assure you.

[laffindude]

Hate it as much as you want, but which bug did you actually trigger?

Edit: I really should get into the habit of replying immediately after opening a new tab. Ninjaed by 10 minutes is just embarrassing.

[Soarer]

And, tp4tissue, how about some comment on the myth-busting parts of my post?

[laffindude]

I wish Teensy would get a firmware/software combo that is as easy to reprogram as Aikon or the Chameleon.

[tp4tissue]

And, tp4tissue, how about some comment on the myth-busting parts of my post?

I'm having trouble finding specific literature on the i8042 chip,, but you did not do any mythbusting, you've merely added more fluff without any substantiation or sources.

It's like calling into question what the plus sign means, and what does 2 really mean, when asked 2+2,, you can do this indefinitly,

[Soarer]

I'm having trouble finding specific literature on the i8042 chip,, but you did not do any mythbusting, you've merely added more fluff without any substantiation or sources.

It's like calling into question what the plus sign means, and what does 2 really mean, when asked 2+2,, you can do this indefinitly,

Oh, you're funny. 2+2. Hahahaha.

Myth #1: The CPU polls the keyboard. PS/2 is better because it uses an interrupt.

False. It's the USB chip that polls the keyboard. Read about USB drivers.

Myth #2: Keyboards will get swamped by other devices on USB. PS/2 is better because it has no contention.

False. USB devices reserve bandwidth, and are guaranteed to get it, unless you've put too many devices onto the same controller. Just don't do that! Read the USB specs.

Where is your substantiation and your sources? Please don't quote any more marketing material... that really is 'fluff'.

[Soarer]

I'm having trouble finding specific literature on the i8042 chip

Try 8242BB: "Intel 8242BB Technical Reference Manual Version 1.0 August 15,1994". Since...

The Intel 8242BB is programmed with IBM's keyboard
controller firmware. The 8242BB provides an
off the shelf keyboard and auxiliary device controller
for AT, PS/2, EISA, and PCI architectures.

[limmy]

I saw custom PS/2 boards that has super fast repeat rate. Can a USB board do that? By repeat rate I mean number of key signals per second when a key is pressed down.

Here is a youtube video of 356CL (OTD project custom keyboard) testing different repeat rates.
[video=youtube;I7puVuMktzk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7puVuMktzk[/video]

I set repeat rate to the maximum on my windows keyboard settings, but I want faster rate.

[breakaway]

You can get a faster rate with a autohotkey script or go linux whichever suits you.

[bhtooefr]

USB is a far more elegant approach, here.

Rather than spam the computer with keystrokes, it just sends one make code, one break code. If the OS wants fast repeat, it can do fast repeat. If the OS wants slow repeat, it can do slow repeat. If the OS wants no repeat at all, the OS can do no repeat at all.