As reccomended by John, and with required keyboard being supplied for free as its old... I am going to be trying to make something similar to what has been done here and here


im just wondering, is there a free picture pack for something similar to those buttons shown there? in particular i am looking for modern fighter/modern civilian jets (like boeing 777s or something)


or, in general, anything that comes as a sticker that i could apply to my keys. any designs welcome (either yours, or someone elses, just to make the thing look cool)

oh, and knowing how to program it would be great too... is it just PnP and then change it in the sim? (i will be using 2 keyboards as talking via chat on multiplayer is always nice)

cheers muchly.



my first sim-pit creations are underway-


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Alright, thanks to a late delivery I am able to start work on the keyboard... Stay Tuned!

yeh, i was just wondering if there is any site where i can see what the buttons might look like- so that it doesnt look out of place

and ive got GIMP and Paint.net if i need them 



can i ask what you think of the 'beta' layout?




i wasnt really sure what to put, but its mostly the things that i use most often (and importantly, the autopilot controls as whenever i lean over with my mouse, i always loose horrific control of my aircraft- so having it right there in front of me will be nicer)


cheers

you think i should sell the rubbish i make? 

i would be suprised if someone bought the sort of tacky stuff i make 

Cool! Just a thought paint the bezel to the keyboard boeing brown or airbus grey for that cockpit control effect

Thread title changed, per request of originator.

thanks john, thanks crash..

the keyboard should be here next week (friend is getting a gaming keyboard, im getting the old one) so ill revive it then... but if anyone else has any questions, suggestions or anything then please say so.

Quote:


well, actually shouldnt it just work by default? the cockpit keyboard will be programmed differently for the ingame controls... but the keys are actually the same... so a L is just doing a different function... so adding the normal keyboard shouldnt be an issue... it still gets the same keypresses but interpretes them differently

Ok, to bring this thread back to life, so to speak. Yesterday I bought myself a brandspanking new (not, it's at least 10 years old) Compaq keyboard for the enormous amount of.......... 2 Euro and 50 cents. I still had some printable stickers so I started something. It's just a test, I'm not to pleased with it yet. But it's a start...



I encountered some small problems. Most of the things work just fine except for some of the autopilot commands. IAS resets the autothrottle to the speed you're flying at that moment, ALT resets the altimetersetting to the height you're at and HDG resets your heading to the heading you are flying at that moment. Haven't figured out how to solve this yet.

Crash

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

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.

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

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.

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

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


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


Still waiting tho...

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  . 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 


Cheers for the patience.