Quote:
Originally Posted by KindleMeAndrey
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And to reiterate my own questions:
* If the switches are designed for bare contact, how come activating the arrow pins digitally moves them around as expected?
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This makes me think that the entire keyboard could be controlled that way.
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You made an observation, what does it tell you?
This is a branch of science, not of alchemy, take advantage of that fact.
If the observation has no immediate explanation, break down what you are observing into stages of reasoning out an explanation.
Start here:
How can a bare contact be sensed electronically?
Do not be satisfied with only a few answers, get down to the basics, consider those electrical characteristics that can be changed by a mechanical contact.
For each of those answers you found, what would be the result of applying the digital signal you are using to each of those cases?
Follow that path of examination of your observation and you should be able to answer the higher level question that you pose.
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Why?
Why does that observation make you think that?
How are each of the keys on that key board related to each other?
How are changes in that relationship sensed electrically?
Just reason it out, looking up any additional information that you need.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KindleMeAndrey
* While the arrow key pins behave as if Pin 20 is always shorted, the other keys behave as if ALL the row keys were shorted/activated. For example, activating pin 12 gives me the output (more or less) of it being shorted with pins 1,2,3,4,5 and 6: "qoj8b". Per chart linked in my first post: Q=2+12, O=3+12, J=4+12. The last two characters are a bit of a mystery, since it's supposed to trigger Back=5+12 and Space=6+12 and I don't think the two of them would make "8b", but it's pretty close. Is it possible to "deactivate" these row keys through Teensy, thus triggering only one key press at a time?
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That observation should tell you several things about how the keyboard interface should be expected to work.
Do enough research into the basics of how mechanical keyboards are interfaced to electronics.
Use you favorite information search tool.
Lookup obvious keywords and phrases, such as: "keyboard controller".
There are a number of ways in common use to sense changes in the electrical characteristics of a mechanical switch.
Reading the data sheet on the individual keyboard controllers will tell you how that controller works.
Read about how different ones work until you have a fair sample of the common methods.
Presume that the keyboard interface in the Kindle is one of the common ones.
Combine this new knowledge with your observations and determine which of the common methods is in use on your Kindle.
With that knowledge, you can then answer your own questions above.
With those answers, you will then be ready to decide how to emulate the Kindle's keyboard in a way that the Kindle's keyboard interface will "understand" (your additions will be compatible with the Kindle's keyboard interface).
Remember:
It is a Science, not a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination (Alchemy).
Once understood, it will no longer seem like PFM.
(I'll even give you the first and third word, you figure out the second: Pure, F......, Magic).