Is the basic process of a keyboard controller taking signals from the PCB and allocating meaning to these signals based on the position a key is in? IE the function is basically like a teensy hooked up to a matrix keyboard?
I am wondering because the price of a bpiphany controller is $35 which is about 2x the price of a teensy. The teensy is more versatile since it is not limited to any single keyboard. It can be reused for nearly everything except mouse functions.
Please don’t misunderstand and think that I’m putting bpiphany down. I believe he has done a fantastic job, and has been very nice in answering some of my questions. It is also obvious that his controllers do a very important job of replacing damaged or broken controllers on specific popular models of keyboards. But I’d like to start a discussion about the general use of bpiphany controllers. I simply don’t see mobility as all important to most full size keyboards, for instance. Most people don’t carry around Filcos nearly the same weight as their laptops and more heavy than their tablets.
I am now using a matrix keyboard (drum roll: Dorkvader) and have gotten much more interested in teensy programming.
The way I see it, it is too expensive to use a bpiphany for most situations. Shouldn’t most people be better off taking a fullsize USB jack, wiring that to their teensy, and plugging the USB output on their favourite Ducky or Filco into the teensy’s fullsize USB jack? Your teensy can surely identify all the keyboard scancode signals coming in and reprogram them. You won’t need to open your Filco (tearing the warranty sticker), and when you are tired of your Filco you can just take it off and plug your cooler master and you have the same reprogrammed functions without having to buy a second bpiphany controller for the CM (and also tear the warranty sticker in the process).
Right now I am about to invest in getting a super teensy project box built, with multiple teensies inside hooked up to different input jacks/ female ports. The biggest problem I have with bpiphany controllers is that most of my keyboard collection can never use his stuff, but since I do have a CM and a Filco I am considering between buying bpiphany controllers to make them programmable, or passing them through the same teensies I already own so that I don’t need to spend more $$$.
XXX
A second angle to the problem comes from the stock controller’s special functions key. As you know, many keyboards have proprietary function keys. Eg fn+f1 might be mute. The keyboard controller won’t pass the fn on as a scancode that the teensy can recognize. But wouldn’t it be possible to program the teensy firmware to recognize whatever fn+f1 sends? After all, whether you are using Deck Hassium or Ducky Shine 3 or PLU (all of which are incompatible with bpiphany controllers), there is only a limited ‘vocabulary’ of special functions that teensy will need to recognize. ‘Open mail’, ‘Home page’, Mute, Fast Forward, etc. If the teensy recognizes that the keyboard is sending the Mute command, that can be remapped also. So while we can’t actually make the fn key do something on its own, with the right firmware we can use the teensy to remap the use of fn+f1 and similar combos.
XXX
A third consideration is that the keyboard controllers that bpiphany's stuff replaces, are themselves very much like teensies with pins. My CM QFR's controller has 40 pins, which means a teensy 2++ would be able to take in all inputs assuming I hooked up a teensy 2++ and 40 jumper wires?
I'm not saying I want to save ten plus bucks and wind up having to run a whole bunch of wires. Am just trying to understand how these things work.
My real motive actually is that I also have a TG3 keyboard that runs on 12V. Thechemist has identified that it is the keyboard controller forcing all the LEDs to operate on 12v, but thinks that if I got a teensy and made that the keyboard controller, not only would the LEDs (once replaced) henceforth be able to work on normal computer voltages, but also the keyboard would be programmable, and USB -cabled at the same time.
So does anyone know how to replace the controller in these pictures?
http://i.imgur.com/3VjEPMa.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/mmWCwmC.jpgI'm thinking the teensy 2++ can do it, but I have no idea how to take these connectors and connect them to the teensy since they are finer and smaller than standard jumper cables. Is there some kind of adapter cable I can use?
Eagerly awaiting what everyone has to say!