USB Control Of Powerpoint

Hello,

Part of my PIC project involves the control of Powerpoint presentation slides which can be addressed by keyboard entry (1 enter, 2 enter etc.). I have set up a serial to USB converter cable and by using Serout in a loop I am able to port and verify the nesessary digits to the MCS serial communicator through the USB port.


'Serial to USB control test

Val = 49
loop:

Serout PORTE.1,N2400,[val,13]
val=val+1
if val = 53 then
val = 49

endif
pause 2000
goto loop


However, when Powerpoint is set to show slides by manual control, nothing happens. A Keyboard entry changes slides but it does not respond to the USB inputs sent by the PIC. I have also tested with a numerical USB keypad, which does work. I tried different com ports. How do I get the USB input to look like a keyboard or keypad input to Powerpoint.

in my opinion, you will have to do a little application which will send commands to Powerpoint

have a look at that
http://officeone.mvps.org/vba.html
http://skp.mvps.org/vb/pptvbwnd.htm

I didn' see anything on those sites that looked useful. I think I need a patch that will take characters input to com4 and make them look like they came from the keyboard. A USB keypad I have does what I want. What is the difference between this and characters coming from the pic Serout

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Homerclese

I didn' see anything on those sites that looked useful. I think I need a patch that will take characters input to com4 and make them look like they came from the keyboard. A USB keypad I have does what I want. What is the difference between this and characters coming from the pic Serout

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Take a look at "Accessability Options" in windows. There is an option to accept a "keyboard" input from the serial port which is intended to be used with some of the equipment used by people with severe motor disabilities who can only control things by suck/blow or eye movements etc

Its under the "General" Tab in accessability options. "Serial Keys" Serialkey devices allow alternate access to mouse and keyboard features.

HTH

Thanks,
I have investigated your suggestion with mixed results. In the Powerpoint setup screen I am able to select items in the text boxes by having the pic send ascii codes for keys 1 through 7 with return. But when in the slideshow mode there is no response. The show is set for manual control - repeating till esc key. I seem to be able to control dialog boxes but not the actual slide selections. Am I not "focused" on the show screen?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Homerclese

Thanks,
I have investigated your suggestion with mixed results. In the Powerpoint setup screen I am able to select items in the text boxes by having the pic send ascii codes for keys 1 through 7 with return. But when in the slideshow mode there is no response. The show is set for manual control - repeating till esc key. I seem to be able to control dialog boxes but not the actual slide selections. Am I not "focused" on the show screen?

---

Well it was worth a try :)

Powerpoint is a strange beast at te best of times. We used to have a problem with "Screen Burn" on CRT projectors at work and ensured that all PCs had screen savers enabled. Unfortunately it still didnt save the projectors because presenters would leave corporate powerpoint presentations on the screen usually of the first or last slide which was always the company logo.

Powerpoint disables all screensavers so the projectors still got burnt :(

Can you get your PIC to fake either a PS2 or USB keyboard instead ?

We used to have a Kodak slide projector IR remote control that was interfaced to the cursor keys on a keyboard for controlling Powerpoint because it had better range than cordless mice and was 100% reliable.

Yes, exactly. That is what I'm trying to do. Make my USB input look like it's a USB keyboard or keypad. Is there some built in code or "tag" within these devices that makes the PC recognize them as human input devices?