Keyclone + X-Keys Pro USB = Unreliable?

Hey there,

I love the X-Keys Pro, and I love Keyclone... but unfortunately the two together don't seem to work so well. I've got WoW and Keyclone set up on 2 different computers (desktop and laptop). If I mash space on the keyboard for the desktop, my laptop character happily jumps away. But if I use the X-Keys Pro USB (I specify USB because it comes with a little utility called MacroWorks II rather than being pure hardware), then suddenly it's dropping more than half of my keystrokes.

I know it's not the X-Keys because everything local works just fine. Hell, I can type directly into Keyclone using the X-Keys with no problem. It's only when it's replicating the keystrokes to the other computer.

I've upgraded to 1.7d. Any other suggestions?

GreyGore

afaik, the Xkeys Pro USB does require a special driver.. which could change how the keys are sent/received. without one of the boards, it would be nearly impossible for me to debug.

if you decide to use odd keyboards (odd being anything that requires a special driver in order to work) then, my guess is... you need to have the same board on the other machine so it can understand the keys being sent.

do you have the same keyboard on both machines? how about installing the xkeys on the other machine so it has the driver (might help)... that way, maybe the vendor scan code will be recognized by the remote machine. (just install the driver... not leave it on that machine... just trying to get the drivers over there)

have you tried keymaps? do they work?
ie: space --> jump --> space

the keys would be recorded locally in case they are different on each machine... if keymaps work, then there is some difference in how the keys are interpreted between the source and destination machines.

I don't have multiple X-Keys Pro keyboards (that would be... counterproductive... the idea is to use it on my desktop to control my two laptops).

At your suggestion I tried installing the drivers and MacroWorks II software on the laptop, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything.

I also tried keymapping as you suggested. On the desktop (main), I have Numberpad1 mapped to a mounting macro. On the laptop (secondary), I have Y mapped to a similar mounting macro. If I hit Numberpad1 on my desktop, it does indeed mount my alt on the laptop. But the X-Keys still only works like 50% of the time.

It sounds similar to the previous problems with modifier keys... the keystrokes are being passed, but it's as if half of them don't make it.

Any other suggestions?

GreyGore

Okay, this is just weird now... doing a bit more troubleshooting.

I have two different keys mapped to the X-Keys: spacebar and numberpad1. If I hit enter on the laptop to open up a chat window... all the keys are getting passed. Every space and every "1" appears in the chat window.

If I close chat and try to use the keys those functions are mapped to... they only work half the time.

So in conclusion... what the hell? Something weird is going on here.

GreyGore

like i said, without that keyboard and driver, it would be difficult to debug. my suggestion was just a guess.

btw, are you saying that you can hit a keymapped key once, and it'll work.. but hit it a second time, 5 seconds later, and it doesn't? weird.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keyclone

btw, are you saying that you can hit a keymapped key once, and it'll work.. but hit it a second time, 5 seconds later, and it doesn't? weird.

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Yes, exactly. It'll work 3 times in a row, and then not work 5 times, then work 2 times, etc.

But even weirder: if I open a chat dialog, it shows every keystroke. It's only when I'm trying to use keybound actions that it doesn't work.

I guess I'll have to look into exchanging it for the PS/2 version. Does anyone have reports of success/failure with that and keyclone together?

GreyGore

my suggestion would be to slow the broadcast down on the xkeys... I have an xkey pro usb (pre SE). I was having a similar problem but slowed the transmission speed of the xkeys down (globally) and all is well now.

IT Monkey might be onto something. I have had similar issues with a keyboard broadcaster that I wrote a while back which did not work properly if WoW.exe was set to normal priority in the process list. As soon as I dropped it to low, no more dropped keys. Strange. Makes me think Windows has some sort of latency/timing sensitivity in their keystroke processing libraries.

Thank you IT Monkey. That wasn't quite my solution (I do have the SE model), but it got me started down the right path.

Trying to figure out how to change the broadcasting I came across "Memory Resident Mode". Instead of a Windows program intercepting input from the X-Keys and translating it into macros on the fly, you can program keystrokes directly into the device itself. Then, the X-Keys will show up as a USB keyboard device.

After doing this I've had no problems whatsoever. If anyone else has a similar problem, you can find the relevant information at: http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/memresident.php

GreyGore