{"id":53,"date":"2011-08-11T10:25:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T14:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2011-08-11T15:28:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T19:28:21","slug":"usb-umlaut-keyboard","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/?page_id=53","title":{"rendered":"USB Umlaut Keyboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

I only have US keyboards but sometime I need to write in German. The German alphabet has some more letters like \u00e4 \u00f6 \u00fc for example.\u00a0 Wikipedia<\/a> has some information on the Umlauts.<\/p>\n

In the past I use the Windows (only works on MS Windows) Alt Key Codes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00c4<\/th>\nALT+0196<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e4<\/th>\nALT+0228<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00d6<\/th>\nALT+0214<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00f6<\/th>\nALT+0246<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00dc<\/th>\nALT+0220<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fc<\/th>\nALT+0252<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00df<\/th>\nALT+0223<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u20ac<\/th>\nALT+0128<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This works very good but I wanted to just have to press a key or two and not to remember a code. I found V-USB<\/a> project on the web and I still had some old AVR AT90S2313-10PI at home. I used the HID Key reference project to develop my little keyboard. I had to change the code to not just send one key if pressed but hold ALT down and send 4 other keys. The code uses nearly all the flash of the 2313 so if you want to add more keys or larger commands I suggest to use a AVR with more flash. I think this would also make a good macro keyboard for games. This hardware can send key strokes just like a keyboard and it should work with any application.<\/p>\n

Fist I started to put all on a breadboard and got it to work, the only challenge I had was I forgot about the reset 10k resistor to start it up \ud83d\ude42 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After everything worked on the breadboard I decided I liked it and wanted to make it more permanent installation. I use this version for a long time…<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

… until I decided I want to try out CiKad<\/a> to create a real PCB made by BatchPCB<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I added all the part to the schematic editor and connected all the lines, I used the soldered breadboard as a reference. There is one more program not shown here where I had to assign the form factor to all the part.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The auto route feature worked OK and I only had to change very little to get how I wanted it. Now I created a Gerber files like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I used my laser printer to print out the Gerber files and made sure all the parts would fit by just laying the part on the sheet of paper.<\/p>\n

Here is a parts list:
\nC1\u00a0 10uF
\nC2,3\u00a0 15pF
\nD1 D4\u00a0 LED
\nD2,3\u00a0 1N4148
\nIC1 AT90S2313 or ATTINY2313
\nJ1\u00a0 USB_1
\nJ2\u00a0 ISP-6
\nR1,6\u00a0 320 R
\nR2\u00a0 1.5K R
\nR3,4\u00a0 68 R
\nR5\u00a0 10K R
\nSW1-5 SW_PUSH
\nX1\u00a0 12 Mhz<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The green LED is always on if USB has power and the yellow LED is controlled by the micro controller: it flashes quickly if a key is sent and it blinks slowly all the time.<\/p>\n

The most left key is the shift key and the next 4 keys are \u00e4, \u00f6, \u00fc and the \u00b0 symbol if you hold shift you get \u00c4, \u00d6 ,\u00dc and \u00df<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Please download all the source code and schematics (KiCad project) and Gerber file from here: Umlaut_Keyboard_V0.2.tar<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also find the PCB on the BatchPCB<\/a> web page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I only have US keyboards but sometime I need to write in German. The German alphabet has some more letters like \u00e4 \u00f6 \u00fc for example.\u00a0 Wikipedia has some information on the Umlauts. In the past I use the Windows (only works on MS Windows) Alt Key Codes like this: \u00c4 ALT+0196 \u00e4 ALT+0228 \u00d6 … Continue reading USB Umlaut Keyboard<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpharesearch.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}