Question about keyboard for cnc build

you can go for a SILIKON Keyboard as it can be clued to the machine itself

Kind of the point here is to use something that is already made for the purpose, and designed to control the machine itself?

bymccoy wrote: Using screen, or something similar (I'm using CoolTerm), you can get the HEX and ASCII output - and it's simply ASCII corresponding to each button. Nicely there's a button down character and a button up character (handy for modifiers, and repeating an entry until the up character is received).

Of you can get the key-down / key-up codes in to HAL then the matrix_kb component can make them toggle HAL pins.

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/matrix_kb.9.html

It is possible to send keystrokes to the OS from HAL. In fact matrix_kb used to do it, but I was unsure if the kernel function calls were thread-safe for realtime.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for that...

Reading the docs, I'm genuinely confused how I would map any data coming in from the keyboard using the matrix_kb component?

I've been having a look at HAL_INPUT, and that seem to be the way to go. I just have to coerce the serial keyboard into being a Linux input device - I'm trying to figure out how to have a serial keyboard treated as an input device.

So, would seem to be the solution there. I need to have a play around and see what inbuilt keyboard types will work.

I've also been looking for a serial to USB HID device... That should just convert anything coming by serial into keypresses.

Can out get physical access to the row\col of the keyboard matrix ? if so a 7i73 could be the answer if you are going the MESA route of a custom USB solution, Arduino ProMicro or another mcu that has native USB.
Or as per your solution an MCU reading the serial and connecting via USB.

Any pics of the guts of the device ?