Comments on: Adapting a toggle switch to a ‘keyboard hack’ (toggle on/off to pulse)

By: rico

rico — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:31:57 +0000

im having trouble with my toggle switches i have a 9v battery hooked up to the switch and i have the positive side of my capacitor hooked to the ACC {what does ACC mean?} part of the switch and i have my reed relay hooked to the ground part (my relay only has 4 prongs) and the negative side of my capacitor is hooked to the relay and when i put the 2 wires from my ps/2 keyboard it types the correct letter but does not stop even when the switch is turned off or on

relay:0.5 amp\5vdc
capacitor:35vdc\470uf
20 gauge wire

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:31:00 +0000

SVmapper can only really be used with USB devices to change a button click INTO a keystroke. The keyboard hack is a good soloution to a simple problem.

By: karl

karl — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:56:29 +0000

Instead of having to do all the wiring etc, there is a program called SVMapper which changes the toggle to momentary in software.

By: nick

nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:38:40 +0000

Thanks for the tip David. This is certainly a potential alternative. As you point out, this won’t result in the true ‘on/off’ type toggle switch that some folks want… but it so much simpler to build and wire together that I imagine most folks won’t mind ;-).

By: David

David — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:29:25 +0000

Thanks for the tips on toggles. I found a much cheaper and simpler solution. I simply installed three-way toggle switches and wired the keyboard button to the centre position of the toggle only. The top and bottom are both null. So by toggling up or down, you pass through the centre, causing a pulse, just like pressing a button. Works well, though not a pure way of doing it.

By: nick

nick — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:27:15 +0000

Oh, in case anyone wonders I ordered my components in bulk from Mouser Electronics.