Posted by Just Michael on 25, 2000 at 3:37 PM:
In Reply to: Control panel building questions. Help! posted by Rio Baan on 25, 2000 at 8:52 AM:
: I just got myself a wicked metal covering for a do-it-yourself control panel in Tokyo this afternoon - and already I've dolled it out with Japanese controls (hey they're not the best - but they'll have to do).
: The thing looks great already with 8 buttons, 2 start buttons and a microswitch joystick.
: Now I'm new to this control panel building stuff, and I'd like to know if anyone can tell me which side of the leaf-switch buttons I have to connect to the keyboard hack I'm attempting.
: Facing the right way up looking from underneath, there are two connectors on the buttons. One on the left and one on the right. After studying this I cannot see which one is the on switch and which isn't. Is there a rule of thumb when dealing with these so I don't have to solder and unsolder them? The joystick is much more friendly and has which points of the micro switch are on and off.
If the buttons have only two pins neither pin is on or off. Those are usually a normally open switch (like the common and NO pins on the microswitches. You would need to connect one side of the button to one row of your keyboard matrix and the other side to the other row of your matrix. When you press the button it will act like a key was pressed on the matrix.
: Next, I haven't started trying to map the matrix of my hacked keyboard yet - but I am curious as whether it is possible to damage your PC if you aren't careful ,when toying with the keyboard matrix pins to test it.
: I don't exactly fancy blowing my laptop up.
It is always possible to harm the keyboard and/or the computer if your not careful (possibly yourself too, you may fall out of your chair and hit your head if your not careful). You can harm anything by not being careful enough. Connecting one row of the matrix to the other row is what normally happens in a keyboard. As long as that is all you do, you should be fine.
: Thanks in advance. If you can answer it will save me a lot of work.