Posted by Dave Dribin on September 30, 1999 at 20:52:41:
In Reply to: Diodes Work! posted by Matt B. on September 28, 1999 at 19:47:57:
: Absolutely they work! I read this article before I hacked my first keyboard. I did some testing with and without the diodes and sure enough, it worked! Just like the article explains.
Great to hear someone actually read my page and learned something! :)
: However, diodes do not prevent blocking. But you can fairly easily prevent (or reduce the effect of) blocking. Ghosting seems to be a bigger problem than blocking anyway, as blocking requires at least two keys to be held down and ghosting happens if two buttons are pressed simultaneously.
What exactly do you mean by blocking? I assume this is a different issue from the masking I talked about on my page?
: The best way to use diodes is to create diode wires. Just take two pieces of wire, solder the diode to both peices and then use some heat shrink around the diode. Piece of cake, even for non-electronic types such as myself.
Agreed! It saves a lot of potential breadboard work as well if you just stick the diode in the wire.
-Dave