Feasibility: Teensy as Keyboard Intercept Macro Hub

[Doc1969]

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to find out if Teensy is the right device for the project I am contemplating. If not what other possibilities might work. I found this project on instructables https://www.instructables.com/id/Engineers-Buddy-Bluetooth-Kbd-and-Mouse/ that seems to be similar to what I am looking for with the exception of it uses a tablet or android phone as the input device.

I use a lot of macros at work and at home whenever I remote into a customers system which often have custom software installed. Most of the macros consist of various key presses, delays and mouse events/clicks. I can do this using various macro software packages but they all require you to install the software on the system I am using. I would like to be independent of software and operating system.

What I envision is a small box into which I plug a keyboard, possibly even a mouse as well and the blackbox reads the input from the keyboard/mouse. The blackbox should be recognized by the system it is attached to as a keyboard and/or mouse. If there is a macro defined for the specific key(s) and/or mouse actions then it sends that defined macro instead of the actual keypress. The macro profiles would be a simple os independent file type such as .csv and be able to be uploaded into the Blackbox. I would like to be able to avoid adding to much delay into the cycle and also allow for debouncing regardless of what type of keyboard I use and what type of OS is on the PC I am attached to.

An additional feature I am contemplating is using a touch screen attached to the teensy to control which set of macros is being used.

Thanks

Doc

 

[blackketter]

Totally feasible.

I've built a Teensy 3.6 based keyboard similar to what you describe. While it has a 5x14 mechanical keyboard matrix, it also has a USB host port that can support an external keyboard or mouse (or both with a hub). Also has a LCD touchscreen for control and setup and an audio amp and speaker for clicks and sound effects. Macros can be recorded on the device and saved into NVRAM and triggered from the keyboard or touch screen.

It also has a pretty large software framework that includes "apps" that can be compiled in and can intercept key events as well as provide interactivity on the touch screen.

I've been meaning to put together a more extensive post describing the hardware and software design, I'll do that and link it here soon, rather than fill up your thread. The software is here if you want to poke around: https://github.com/blackketter/britepad

I haven't put the hardware design up on github yet, but I'll do that too.

 

[blackketter]

Hardware design is up here: https://github.com/blackketter/briteboard