Software programming the PS/2 Xkeys

[moosejaw]

When I bought my Xkeys pro I really wanted to use the unicode symbols on my xkey to prevent conflicts on Keyclone. Lacking a programmable keyboard I was left to use the standard modifier keys. While this does work well I did have to bind a bunch of key combos to a dummy macro to prevent issues on the master WOW. Such as CTRL-ALT-9 being passed as 9 if it wasn't bound to something.

PI engineering has programming software for the PS/2 Xkeys (free download) buy you need to buy an adapter ($90) for it which is currently out of stock. Looking closely at the item photo I realized it is simply a USB -> PS/2 adapter (I hope). So I have one on order from Newegg for Less than $10. This should allow easy mapping of unicode without a special PS/2 keyboard.

Has anyone tried this? I really hope this works because using all those modifier keys is going to bite me in the butt eventually.

[Xzin]

I realized it is simply a USB -> PS/2 adapter

It's not. Nor can it do what you want.

[bigjt]

Are there a difference in the USB version and the PS2 one? Or is this some extra nice function? ?(

[zanthor]

PI engineering has programming software for the PS/2 Xkeys (free download) buy you need to buy an adapter ($90) for it which is currently out of stock. Looking closely at the item photo I realized it is simply a USB -> PS/2 adapter (I hope). So I have one on order from Newegg for Less than $10. This should allow easy mapping of unicode without a special PS/2 keyboard.

The device they sell is a USB Driven PS2 emulator that sends keyscans to the PS2 bus of the X-Keys. The problem with what you are wanting to do is that it simply wont work... been there, tried that :(.

[moosejaw]

PI engineering has programming software for the PS/2 Xkeys (free download) buy you need to buy an adapter ($90) for it which is currently out of stock. Looking closely at the item photo I realized it is simply a USB -> PS/2 adapter (I hope). So I have one on order from Newegg for Less than $10. This should allow easy mapping of unicode without a special PS/2 keyboard.

The device they sell is a USB Driven PS2 emulator that sends keyscans to the PS2 bus of the X-Keys. The problem with what you are wanting to do is that it simply wont work... been there, tried that :(.

Damn. Thanks for heading me off at the pass.

[cepheus]

Atm I have bound alt+about every key on my keyboard for my x-keys, but I get a lot of runaway clones. I think the reason for this is that they often recive move commands, and alt-clicked stop move commands. Therefore they just continiue running.

If I buy the PS/2 adaptor from PI, is it then possible to program a lot of different strange characters to my x-keys pro for wow-use? Then I could reprogram my x-keys without the alt-modifier and hopefully this would be less of a problem.

[moosejaw]

Yes, if you read Xzin's 10 box sticky he mentions using unicode. If you examine the character map feature of windows you will see that the codes alt-161 -> alt-255 are available and are functional for wow. These are the characters you see on toons names that piss you off because you normaly can't type them without the character map.

Those character don't have to be blocked (or require a white list) if you use them properly on macro/spell bindings.

I had a binding map all set up for the Xkey pro but had to erase it and use the modifiers instead. Once I get the programmer I will use the unicode method.

[cepheus]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I think I need some forreing or programmable keyboard then:) I just hope this will help towards my run-aways. For some reason I get this a lot more now that I am boxing shamans instead of warlocks. It may be because I am using follow/stop follow a lot more since shaman have to stand still a lot more to cast.

[cepheus]

I've been doing some googling on forreign keyboards, but they usually just seem like normal english keyboard with just added characters in one corner. I guess this would not help much as they probably wont send other scan codes to the computer, but you are just selecting different language profiles in your OS. Or am I wrong here?

[zanthor]

Keyboard layouts are 99% the same and send the identical scancodes which are handled differently by windows.

I actually have access to UK and French layout keyboards through work and have verified this.

[moosejaw]

Keyboard layouts are 99% the same and send the identical scancodes which are handled differently by windows.

I actually have access to UK and French layout keyboards through work and have verified this.

This is good to know.

PI Engineering is still out of stock on the programming adapter. Xkey Pro Usb is also OOS. I was going to get a usb model so I could get up and running with unicode instead of modifiers.

/sigh