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OLIMEX / DIY-LAPTOP

Do It Yourself Open Source Hardware and Software Modular Hacker's Friendly Laptop
Apache License 2.0
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TERES-PCB5-KEYBOARD: Use keyboard/mouse simultaneously #31

Closed jcstaudt closed 2 months ago

jcstaudt commented 5 years ago

Users do not normally have to use the keyboard and mouse simultaneously during everyday computer use. However, this feature is extremely useful when performing tasks such as gaming. In a first-person shooter, for example, it is imperative that you are able to move and look around at the same time.

The TERES-PCB5-KEYBOARD keyboard and mouse devices function one at a time, as if the signals are mux'ed onto the same communication channel. I understand that the TERES-I isn't currently a gaming beast, but it would be highly useful in light gaming applications (such as Minetest, FreeDoom, etc) to use them together with OEM hardware.

An easy work-around is to simply use USB-connected peripherals, but again, it would be nice to use the OEM hardware when these peripherals are unavailable.

DanKoloff commented 5 years ago

Good suggestions, a little more info about that: this is not a hardware or muxing limitation. This was done on purpose with usability considerations in mind - we found it hard to use the keyboard freely when the touchpad is enabled - the palms were triggering the touchpad accidentally.

This can be improved by software means in the firmware of the keyboard/touchpad board.

jcstaudt commented 5 years ago

That's a very good point, and a good decision to do that for better general usability. It sounds like the capacitance cap is not active, where the trackpad goes dead when a threshold is exceeded. I'd have to do some research on the AVR processor to see if this is possible. Additionally, I did notice that there is a dedicated key on the keyboard to enable/disable the trackpad. Maybe this could be used to toggle simultaneous operability instead? However, this modification would then not provide the standard/expected functionality of that key and would be better suited as an optional patch as to not confuse people.