Simviation Forum - First keyboard mod thread- COMPLETED

Reply #15 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 2:59pm

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

..it's a funny old do...

...but just thinking about it...

On most/all of my usual General Aviation, Piston Props, I rarely use my keyboard for controlling the Aircraft, except for:

F9: FS Navigator display on/off.
Y: Slew.
Numpad 7 and 1: Trim up/down. (could be performed on the Joystick if required).
G: Gear Up/Down. (could be performed on the Joystick if required).
Ctrl + E: For engines without a starter.

That's about it!

My Saitek Cyborg Evo Joystick carries out:
Throttle.
Aelerons/Elevators
Twist Rudder.

...and the buttons...

Brakes.
Flaps Up/Down.
Bendix-King Radio Display On /Off.
Cycle Views: (W and S).
Hat switch Pan around.

All the rest of the controls are operated on the Main 2D (/3D) Panel with the Mouse.

That leaves the Keyboard free for chattin' in Multiplayer...
(Just got to remember to place the Cursor in the Chat Box BEFORE typing!)...LOL... Grin

...!

Paul...G-BPLF... Cool

...!

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
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Reply #16 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 3:13pm

machineman9 Offline
Colonel
Nantwich, England

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my saitek cyborg evo covers the basic flight controls... and landing gear, brakes (parking or tap on brakes)... flaps, lights, drop tanks and engines off/on

oh, and hat switch... and change views

but yeh, i just hate having to think of all the keypresses, so it would be nice to get a visual representation

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Reply #17 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 3:15pm

Sir Crashalot Ex Member

Same here, Paul. I rarely touch my keyboard (except for ATC commands). My Saitek X-52 has enough buttons and switches to do the rest together with the mouse. It was just that I thought it was a nice idea to see if it was possible to make something of an old keyboard. Haven't finished modding it though. Need to remove the buttons I don't use, fill up the space left, make something to put it somewhere, maybe give it a grey/metallic paintjob. So many things you can do.......

Crash Wink

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Reply #18 - Nov 30^th, 2007 at 3:39pm

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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well tomorow im going all the way down to Plymouth to see my grandad and cousin... should be buying an old keyboard... and also a DVI to VGA so i can get 2 monitors working

should be fun.

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Reply #19 - Dec 10^th, 2007 at 10:54pm

AnGeL_MaKeR Offline
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AAhhhhhh... The call of
the wild!!!
Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida

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Any update to this keyboard mod thread?

A_M&&&&&&&&&&eVGA 8800 GTX... AMD X2 5200 (AM2)... ASUS M2N32-SLI mobo... 4 GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz... Sound Blaster X-Fi Gaming Sound... 2x 250 GB S-ATA, 1x 500 GB S-ATA... Windows Vista Ultimate 64... Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard... Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse... Saitek X52 Joystick... Saitek Rudder Pedals... TrackIR Pro 3...

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Reply #20 - Dec 11^th, 2007 at 11:28am

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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im still awaiting the keyboard im afraid... maybe friends arent the most reliable source Cry

(he turned it into a dvorak keyboad and there isnt much chance of me seeing it again)

shall see if i can find a cheapy one in a shop tomorow after school

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Reply #21 - Dec 22^nd, 2007 at 4:11pm

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Posts: 5255

Alright, looks like a really nice guy named Jeff L has given me an amazon voucher for £25... I shall be ordering my cheapy keyboard tomorow after I get the final £5 (buying new gaming headphones/mic combo aswell. Should be quite fun for speaking to the controller on FSX

)

So yeh, sorry for the long wait, but this project will be starting next weekend probably... I shall take some images and release any details/media I used.

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Reply #22 - Jan 4^th, 2008 at 12:00pm

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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I am sure quite a bit of faith has been lost, but I have recieved the keyboard (cost me £8 just to rip it up hehe) and I am waiting for my dad to get home so that I can have some assistance with the silver spraypainting.

Has anyone any other suggestions before I start? I hear the start and return keys are a bit of a pain to remove and put back on... I am also checking if I should just take off the keys or take the frame off the chip board when I paint it. On the top there are multimedia controls which are silver too... So it should look quite good when complete.

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Reply #23 - Jan 5^th, 2008 at 9:08am

AnGeL_MaKeR Offline
Colonel
AAhhhhhh... The call of
the wild!!!
Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida

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Posts: 337

No faith lost here... but I have been keeping my eye on this post since last year to see if there had been any updates!! Grin

Are you going to have to remove keys just to make this work? I thought the only modifying was gluing printed cardstock and then remapping your key configurations?

*Patiently waiting on updates...* Wink

A_M&&&&&&&&&&eVGA 8800 GTX... AMD X2 5200 (AM2)... ASUS M2N32-SLI mobo... 4 GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz... Sound Blaster X-Fi Gaming Sound... 2x 250 GB S-ATA, 1x 500 GB S-ATA... Windows Vista Ultimate 64... Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard... Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse... Saitek X52 Joystick... Saitek Rudder Pedals... TrackIR Pro 3...

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Reply #24 - Jan 5^th, 2008 at 10:32am

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Posts: 5255

You make it sound like this project has been taking ages to complete Grin

(like 2 or 3 months actually... damn)

The other 'modifications' are they I am spraypainting the non-keys bit of the keyboard a sort of shiney grey/silver. Where the keys arent being used I will probably fill the gaps with cardboard to make it look like more of a panel.

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Reply #25 - Jan 5^th, 2008 at 2:49pm

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Posts: 5255

Keyboard is currently being painted... Shall update with images soon

(Damn its annoying removing over 100 buttons and their poppers in the keyboard)

Keyboard buttons and labels are currently drying from the glue. This Araldite hardener and resin are sticky as anything Grin

My dad suggested using a 1:1 mixture so hopefully it will dry properly. The space bar was a bit tricker because the paper (all laminated buttons) is longer and more liable to bend.. and also the space bar isnt as concave as the other keys and the contacting surface area is lower, so it will be a bit harder to glue down

Pictures will be coming up at about 12 noon tomorow GMT.

« Last Edit: Jan 5^th, 2008 at 6:09pm by machineman9 »

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Reply #26 - Jan 6^th, 2008 at 12:23am

AnGeL_MaKeR Offline
Colonel
AAhhhhhh... The call of
the wild!!!
Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida

Gender:
Posts: 337

machineman9 wrote on Jan 5^th, 2008 at 10:32am:

You make it sound like this project has been taking ages to complete Grin

(like 2 or 3 months actually... damn)

Hehe... twas just trying to throw in a New Year's joke... Wink

Still waiting tho...

A_M&&&&&&&&&&eVGA 8800 GTX... AMD X2 5200 (AM2)... ASUS M2N32-SLI mobo... 4 GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz... Sound Blaster X-Fi Gaming Sound... 2x 250 GB S-ATA, 1x 500 GB S-ATA... Windows Vista Ultimate 64... Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard... Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse... Saitek X52 Joystick... Saitek Rudder Pedals... TrackIR Pro 3...

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Reply #27 - Jan 6^th, 2008 at 7:54am

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Posts: 5255

Updates shall be coming soon... but I have run into quite a snag...

One of the keys I am using is the Sleep key... and as I just found, it will act as a system function over a keyboard command.

Does anyone have any ideas how to turn the system commands (Start, print screen, sleep etc) into regular buttons like A,B,C,D etc

Cheers

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Reply #28 - Jan 6^th, 2008 at 5:18pm

machineman9 Offline
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Nantwich, England

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Posts: 5255

Here are the images... the lighting wasnt the best, but I am sure it is enough to get the general idea.

There is a fine line between awful and terrible... I think this came out awfully... but just because it is that awful I really like it Grin

. I still need to get it to work in the sim, the problems are listed above.

Thumbnails are linked to imageshack because compression looked really bad on these shots.

The keyboard on my desktop before getting modified

The keyboard on my desktop before getting modified (second view)

The keyboard half way through spraypainting it. Took about half an hour to get all the keys off and the keyboard open (I took only the top half off, the bottom half is still black)

*Insert missing image of where I show you the keys drying with the araldite adheisive*

The keyboard with the required keys put back on. If I need to I can use some tweezers to put the rubber bouncer into the keyboard through the holes to add more keys.

Just a picture of the final piece.

Just a larger view of the above image (1024, not 800). The keyboard is sitting happily amongst the rest of my hardware family... A saitek cyborg evo, Wacom Volito 2 tablet, router, keyboard, mouse, router etc... and my 19" widescreen monitor

I hope youve enjoyed these past months more than I have Wink

Cheers for the patience.

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