Advice on PS/2 Scan Codes

[penelopepug]

Hi. I've been working on a project where I have built my own RF remote control to control Winamp which serves as the MP3 player on a PC for my music collection. Winamp is visible running full screen in a 19" monitor embedded in a wall. The purpose of the remote is to send commands to operate Winamp remotely. I was using an X10 remote control and have tried others like Remote Wonder (a USB based RF remote), but their repeat rate is way to slow and as such scrolling through 100 song play lists is painfull. My remote transmitter consists of a 433 MHz RF transmitter module, a PIC16F876 and some buttons. The reciever is a 433 MHz RF module that feeds serial commands (received from the transmitter) into a PIC16F876 which in turn has several port connections to a KeyWiz keyboard encoder.

Everything works perfectly and it is super fast at scrolling (about 100 songs in 2 seconds) however my use of the Keyboard encoder was required because I do no know how to feed serial data directly into the PCs USB or serial port to be interpreted as PS2 scan codes. I know how to physically feed it but what is required to elliminate the keyboord encoder desinged for MAME? Any pointers would be appreciated. I assume I need to learn some VB or C++ to do what I want.

[Melanie]

I don't know if this is what you're after...

http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=81

[penelopepug]

Thanks Melanie. I'm trying to find a means to avoid the use of a keyboard encoder to receive keyboard commands. For example, if I purchased an RF receiver module that plugs into a USB port of a PC, do I have to develop an application that runs on the PC that would accept serial data and convert it into keyboard commands?

I came accross this page that lists USB 16 bit keyboard positions at
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/scancodes-13.html.

Does this imply that a USB port can be used to receive keyboard commands directly without running a special application? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Luciano]

http://tekgems.com/Products/tg-pbr.htm

WinAmp Multimedia PC Remote

$4.99 USD

[penelopepug]

Thanks Luciano. I've seen that Packard Bell remote before. That remote is IR, not RF howerver I could likely adapt it However, vertually every remote I have encountered has a very slow command repeat rate for some reason. Do you know if this remote is capable of trasmitting 50 to 100 commands per second? I see the software allows you to set how many times the command is repeated but I wonder about the repeat rate. The other thing I wanted to avoid is having lots buttons that are not used (like the mouse and curser buttons) and buttons whose native funtions are mapped for something else. Currently, my remote (although not exactly pretty) has 13 dedicated buttons for the following commands or macro commands;

Volume Up (Keypad 8) - Fast Repeat Rate Required
Volume Down (Keypad 2) - Fast Repeat Rate Required
Scroll Up (Up Arrow) - Fast Repeat Rate Required
Scroll Down (Down Arrow) - Fast Repeat Rate Required
Queue Track (Q)
Play/Select (Enter)
Play Previous Track (Z)
Play Next Track (B)
Pause (C)
Toggle Shuffle Mode (S)
Sort Playlist By Title (CTRL + ShIFT + 1)
Randomize Playlist (CTRL + SHIFT + R)
Reverse Playlist (CTRL + R)

[Luciano]

Hi,

Maybe I have a solution, but what's wrong with your current
keyboard encoder? Why do you want to replace it?

Best regards,

Luciano