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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ethics- on Wed, 29 June 2011, 18:48:54

Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Wed, 29 June 2011, 18:48:54
I've been using Spark with my Filco MJ-2 to map some media functions to the F row.  As of now, I have:

F6 - Back
F7 - Pause
F8 - Forward

F11 - Decrease volume
F12 - Increase volume

These all work flawlessly...when I don't have Starcraft running fullscreened.  When I do, all of the keys cease to perform their programmed functions.

In addition, I'm unable to have my top right keys (Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause) perform any function at all.  For example, when I press Scroll Lock, the LED doesn't even light up.  Anyone have any ideas?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Wed, 29 June 2011, 19:00:00
Quote from: ethics-;370305
I've been using Spark with my Filco MJ-2 to map some media functions to the F row.  As of now, I have:

F6 - Back
F7 - Pause
F8 - Forward

F11 - Decrease volume
F12 - Increase volume

These all work flawlessly...when I don't have Starcraft running fullscreened.  When I do, all of the keys cease to perform their programmed functions.

In addition, I'm unable to have my top right keys (Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause) perform any function at all.  For example, when I press Scroll Lock, the LED doesn't even light up.  Anyone have any ideas?

 
Shouldn't those be F13, F14, F15?
Did your F12 work as "eject" before you used Spark?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Wed, 29 June 2011, 19:29:01
I don't believe it did. I'll try it again when I get home. Does his have something to do with the keyboard itself? Are some keys just not compatible with Mac?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Wed, 29 June 2011, 19:54:09
It's my understanding that a PC keyboard will automatically remap the "unused" Windows keys to what I mentioned above. Maybe that's not right?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: theferenc on Wed, 29 June 2011, 23:07:36
The F13-F15 on the Matias Tactile Pro send Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause. So I would assume a "PC" keyboard would send F13-F15 when connected to a mac.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Chobopants on Thu, 30 June 2011, 09:03:36
Quote from: ethics-;370305
I've been using Spark with my Filco MJ-2 to map some media functions to the F row.  As of now, I have:

F6 - Back
F7 - Pause
F8 - Forward

F11 - Decrease volume
F12 - Increase volume

These all work flawlessly...when I don't have Starcraft running fullscreened.  When I do, all of the keys cease to perform their programmed functions.

In addition, I'm unable to have my top right keys (Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause) perform any function at all.  For example, when I press Scroll Lock, the LED doesn't even light up.  Anyone have any ideas?

Yeah those should be F13-F15. Scroll lock, for example, doesn't exist in OS X. That's why the key doesn't make the LED light up.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: nathanscribe on Thu, 30 June 2011, 12:57:00
I've been using Spark to map Print/scroll/pause (which are indeed F13-15) to the volume operations for months.  Works flawlessly.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 14:57:26
I try to remap it but it doesn't recognize when I hit either Scroll or Pause.  Only recognizes Print Screen.  Could this be a problem with my keyboard...?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 30 June 2011, 14:58:56
Do you have a pos? heh heh

Maybe a good excuse to buy the killer mechanical wet dream keyboard you've always wanted. lol
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 14:59:54
Are there any programs I can get for OSX to test keyboard input?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:02:58
Great question, I don't know but would love it if there is. I have a Kinesis Contour, so I have a couple problems very similar to yours.

If no one responds, I'll look around later on. If you find one, let me know?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Chobopants on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:10:44
Quote from: ethics-;370704
I try to remap it but it doesn't recognize when I hit either Scroll or Pause.  Only recognizes Print Screen.  Could this be a problem with my keyboard...?

I'm actually with you on this one. It doesn't recognize any of those three keys for me in Spark, just tried.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:19:51
Got it figured out.  Gotta go into Keyboard Shortcuts -> Display and uncheck the two boxes for increasing/decreasing brightness.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:21:46
Hmm.  I just changed Previous/Play/Next to F13/F14/F15.  It shows the keys as mapped, but they do nothing when I hit them.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:27:55
Yet, Command + F15 works flawlessly (I mapped it to Sleep), meaning that the keys are registering, but there is likely some conflict.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:32:45
Quote from: ethics-;370722
Yet, Command + F15 works flawlessly (I mapped it to Sleep), meaning that the keys are registering, but there is likely some conflict.

Exactly. On my Kinesis, I can map Pause to brightness, but the Scroll is configured to bring up the shut down menu by Kinesis. Moments ago, the F12 was an eject, and now it's Dashboard. I can fix that though I think.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: ethics- on Thu, 30 June 2011, 15:43:43
Whoo.  Got it all working.

1) Went to Keyboard Preferences and unchecked brightness boxes
2) Mapped F11 to Volume Up, F12 to Volume Down
3) Mapped F13/F14/F15 to Previous/Play/Next
4) Rebooted.

And now it's working flawlessly.  Now to get it to work when Starcraft is open...
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 30 June 2011, 16:07:14
Ahhh...rrrrestAAAAArt the damn thing.....

Does that have anything to do with Spark at this point?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: nathanscribe on Thu, 30 June 2011, 16:26:50
Yes, if you have system preferences set, Spark won't override them, from what I remember.  I take it you've added Spark to your login items?

Funny this should come up today, it's only yesterday I disabled Spark as I wasn't using the volume controls at all.  All my other shortcuts are set in Sys Prefs.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: czarek on Fri, 01 July 2011, 05:55:51
Guys - get controllermate :)
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Fri, 01 July 2011, 15:12:39
Quote from: czarek;371124
Guys - get controllermate :)

Ya. I've played with BetterTouchTool mentioned by someone on this site, also very good.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Aznguyen316 on Sat, 23 July 2011, 23:20:46
I use better touch tool. Originally for the trackpad options but very solid keyboard remapped as well. Got all my f keys f1-f15 good to go.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: aggiejy on Tue, 26 July 2011, 11:49:50
FWIW, I use KeyRemap4MacBook (http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/) to remap all my keys on my mac. (Despite the name, it's not specific to Macbooks)
I also use PCKeyboardHack (http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/extra.html) to remap the capslock key.

I've had good luck... there hasn't been anything I can think of that I haven't been able to remap that I wanted to.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Aznguyen316 on Thu, 28 July 2011, 13:34:54
I also have keyremap4macbook and pckeyboard hack installed.  I just installed spark and using that was able to reconfigure in OSX the arrow cluster to have caps (actually control via dipswitch) + wasd for the arrow keys.  It's a bit easier than right thump Fn wasd for arrows on the Poker.  I think this can probably be configured on any keyboard actually but this works for me now.  Also made secondary arrow cluster mapped similarly to the HHK with thie [;'/ keys to arrows with the right ctrl to see if I c an get used to that if I do ever get an HHKB, however the CTRL_R is a little further down than on a real HHKB.

Thanks OP for the spark suggestion, it's working fine for me, to have remapped arrow keys =)
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: czarek on Thu, 28 July 2011, 13:57:58
Guys honestly check out ControllerMate - you can do absolute magic with it. I have tweaked Optimizer emulator when I press caps lock for example + my endurapro does 2d scrolling when i hold both mouse buttons, but you can do much more, like emulating other keyboard layouts, mouse, scrolls, joysticks, everything using visual programming (connecting boxes and setting values). Really simple and honestly it's every geek hacker's dream program - unfortunately available only for Mac :)
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 28 July 2011, 14:00:18
Are you using the free Controllermate or the paid version?

Are you familiar with the free version?
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: czarek on Thu, 28 July 2011, 15:56:15
I'm using paid as I do a lot of tricks with but for basic stuff you should be fine with free one which only limits you to 10 programming blocks which is enough to get the idea of how it works and to make some simple tricks like scroll emulation on a mouse / trackball without scroll, key remapping, pointing device axis inversions and similar simple things.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: aggiejy on Thu, 28 July 2011, 15:57:59
I used to use controllermate (paid version) to get on old board to work.  It was buggy as hell and put a bad taste in my mouse.  But that was a couple years back, so perhaps I'll try it again.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Input Nirvana on Thu, 28 July 2011, 23:02:35
I'm not positive, but I THINK that that may have been an issue that has been improved upon. I strongly suggest you call Pi Engineering and discuss, they'll give you the straight story. They have always been very upfront and helpful. I'm a big fan of their Y-mouse (2-PS/2 into 1-USB). I have a bunch and need to sell a couple that I won't use now.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Chobopants on Tue, 06 September 2011, 15:57:13
I used a version of ControllerMate ~3 years ago that destabilized my OS and put me into constant Kernel Panics. It wasn't cool.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: Gerk on Tue, 06 September 2011, 17:29:46
In OSX you can use the built in "Keyboard Viewer" app to test keys:

Enable the menu option in the Keyboard control panel:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26038[/ATTACH]

Select the Keyboard Viewer from the menu (top right of menu bar)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26039[/ATTACH]

The actual keyboard viewer (works for NKRO testing, etc):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26040[/ATTACH]



P.S. This is all in Lion, I'm sure it was in the same places in earlier OS releases though.
Title: Mac OSX: Spark
Post by: czarek on Wed, 07 September 2011, 06:47:53
Quote from: Chobopants;411630
I used a version of ControllerMate ~3 years ago that destabilized my OS and put me into constant Kernel Panics. It wasn't cool.


It's very different now. I have used it for over a year with plenty of programming and mapping pages for multiple devices and I haven't had a single kernel panic neither in Snow Leo or now Lion. The driver failed once during that year though but all I had to do was to open ControllerMate and click restart driver from menu.