How can I use Multiple Keyboards?

[MRedRaider]

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=split-screen+tech

First search result.

[zou]

Microsoft Windows support only one keyboard, one mouse at any given time.

To do what you want, you have to create your own device driver.

[MRedRaider]

You can use 2 keyboards (Try one via PS2 port and another via Bluetooth) But you can't tell where the data is coming from.

Your best solution would be a second PC or the split screen tech mentioned previously... but neither compares to the price of the LabVIEW license you already have.

[GPC]

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@MattH wrote:

You can use 2 keyboards (Try one via PS2 port and another via Bluetooth) But you can't tell where the data is coming from.

Your best solution would be a second PC or the split screen tech mentioned previously... but neither compares to the price of the LabVIEW license you already have.

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I used already 2 USB keyboards and it works fine but I cannot identify from which keyboard the characters are coming.

License for Labview/Windows does not counts as project cost.

[GPC]

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@zou wrote:

Microsoft Windows support only one keyboard, one mouse at any given time.

To do what you want, you have to create your own device driver.

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Do you know how I must proceed to create my own device driver?  Or where I can find information on how to do it?

[MRedRaider]

Here is a thought... may not be feasible:

Bluetooth keyboards can typically be installed as SPP(Serial Port Profile) or HID(Human Interface Devices). If it is an HID it would look like a regular keyboard and thus you can't tell where the data is coming from... BUT if you had a USB keyboard and a bluetooth setup as SPP, then you should be able to get data from a bluetooth serial port for one operator and from the regular keyboard for the other.

[GPC]

HUn... it might work... the problem is, the computer I am using is a Industrial Computer with no bluetooth (my application is actually running on the pruduction floor of a huge eletrical motor factory, even if I had bluetooth I am almost shure it would not work properly there).

Maybe I can plug two USB keyboards and tell windows not to use one of them. Then, through labview I might be able to access it.

or

I can use a USB to serial adapt. and plug my keyboard on the serial port. Then, through labview I might be able to access it.

or

I can build my device drive but I don't really know how to do that.

or

I can learn linux and build a huge multiterminal.

Let me know what you think,

Best regards,

GPC

[MRedRaider]

* USB Bluetooth Dongle. We use these on our shop floor with industrial PCs for our Bluetooth barcode scanners... They use SPP so that they don't interfere with the regular keyboard. This requires something called a software wedge (I.E. you have to watch for bytes at the port and manipulate them manually). If I used a Bluetooth keyboard in a similar fashion, I could have a keyboard that a single application can use. I have done something similar with VISA functions with the bluetooth scanners.

[GPC]

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@MattH wrote:

* USB Bluetooth Dongle. We use these on our shop floor with industrial PCs for our Bluetooth barcode scanners... They use SPP so that they don't interfere with the regular keyboard. This requires something called a software wedge (I.E. you have to watch for bytes at the port and manipulate them manually). If I used a Bluetooth keyboard in a similar fashion, I could have a keyboard that a single application can use. I have done something similar with VISA functions with the bluetooth scanners.

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The problem is not the impossibility of adding the bluetooth capability to the IC.

The problem is that bluetooth does not work properly under the conditions that we have on the factory. It does not have the necessary reliability for the work, I can barely use RS232 there, it takes just one induction furnace to make everything go down.


GPC

[zou]

You can hook multiple keyboard to a pc, but your OS service them alternatively.  End user only see one buffer, type into one window.

To create your own Windows driver, you need DDK.  You can found it on MS website.