AutoHotkey Community

green_seacow · Joined: 04 Mar 2004 Posts: 7

A very cool thing would be if it was possible to have different actions depending which keyboard a button was pressed on. For instance you could connect a cheap USB numeric keyboard and program the buttons on it to start different apps instead of beeing a dumb numeric keyboard. When I did a quick search I read that Windows XP has some WM_INPUT event that supposedly could tell which keyboard a keystroke was comming from. What do you people think, is this totaly off?

/Peter

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10464

It's an interesting idea. I read what MSDN had to say about WM_INPUT. It seems it's only supported on XP and beyond. It seems very similar to the low level hook that AutoHotkey already uses to support mouse hotkeys and advanced keyboard hotkeys.

Unless someone else wants to code this, the most I'd want try to implement something simple like:

GetKeyState, state, LastKeyboard ; Find out which device generated the most recent event.

But even that would probably be non-trivial. As a practical matter, you might already have enough available hotkeys on the main keyboard and keypad, and the extra effort of having to reach over to a different device might lose any time saved by not having to press down a modifier key.

It's good to expand one's horizons, so I'm glad you mentioned this.

twwilliams · Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 23 Location: Bellevue, WA USA

I recently bought a Belkin Nostromo n52. It's intended as a gamepad, but it has 14 finger keys, two thumb buttons, an 8-way direction pad, and a scroll wheel, plus four shift states. I found it on sale for $30 locally, although I've seen it as low as $19 on some online sites.

The clincher for me: each button can be programmed as Joy1 - Joy32 using the software and AutoHotKey recognizes and responds to these buttons, so I have hotkeys set up that are Joy1:: or Joy2:: or whatever.

I've been very happy with this solution so far.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2071&pcount=&Product_Id=157024

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10464

Wow, fancy gadget. I'm sure gamers love to customize all its buttons & keys. It would probably make a great remote control too (maybe they will come out with a wireless version).

Beastmaster · Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 182

That reminds me at a mouse I've "banned" to the basement. It has about 30 buttons and was originally used in a CAD (computer added design) office.

I wasn't able to find a driver for it, cause the manufaturer has disappeared. Embarassed

WhiteCloud · Guest

i've used the Nostromo n50 and bought the n52 when it came out around last November... It's better than using a keyboard for your left hand (in games) but the two problems are 1) the keys wore out faster than any keyboard i've used before. Wore out as in they press down if a bug lands on them and don't quickly come back up anymore. And 2) they took a shortcut approach to assigning their buttons to keyboard keystrokes. If you bind all of those keys the odds are about 5 of them will combine and conflict to form other keystrokes that shouldn't be happening. It's a good controller with a lot of software configurability but someday soon i'm going to use AHK and duct tape a gamepad vertically onto the keyboard next to my left thumb.

btw it'd be incredibly cool to support two mice. I know when i am at friend's houses i'm always wishing i had my own cursor on their screen.

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10464

WhiteCloud · Guest

yeah i'd think if it was possible in the OS it'd have been done by someone already. But there is probably a workaround that doesn't work great but is still beneficial. If you could make it alternate control between the mice at about 50 times a second that'd be fine. All youd have to do is save and restore the mouse cursor position at between each swap of control. The two cursors wouldn't look great but it'd be neat to see in action. If the buttons are independent between the two mice that might let you do some work-around coding that enabled dragging and double clicking. hmmm

savage · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 206

I just ordered one of those N52's. For $17 I couldn't pass up the chance for a potentially sweet gadget.

Whitecloud, is sounds like the springs (if that's what's being used) in the keys went bad. They can probably be replaced without much fuss. You can buy little springs in most good hobby places.

Robert Carnegie · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 53 Location: Scotland

Decarlo110 · Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Posts: 303 Location: United States

automaticman · Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 300

automaticman · Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 300

I googled a little and found also this.
_________________
Imo the usability of ahk-solutions and ahk-forum postings can be improved.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. --Albert Einstein

Mousey Mick · Guest

Why couldn't a Program be created to make a 2nd Mouse code of some sort with its own cursor ?

I mean, you can open up programs with ahk ... so why wouldn't it be possible ? It may just be simpler than you all think.

It is possible to read which port the mouse is plugged into, am I right ?

And is it possible to read a specific port as a "joystick" even if a mouse is plugged into it ? .. if there is a way to override the automatic mouse control for the second mouse ...

Then it should be feasable that the "joystick" mouse can be used to control the mock up mouse cursor program to click on items on the desktop.

Is this reasonably doable ? ...

Some people who know the specifics of the tech, lemme know what ya think please.

rockum · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 3

You can use multiple mice...

http://cpnmouse.sourceforge.net/install.html