macro Arduino replacement to Intercept.exe

romibi · November 29, 2018

After seeing the Macro-Keyboard series by Taran … with the issues with lua and intercept … i thought it should be possible to cheaply intercept keystrokes with something like arduino …

And yes: Some Arduinos can act as keyboards. And there is an USB Host Shield to be able to connect Keyboards (and many more USB Devices) to an Arduino …

There are (still) some drawbacks … which might get solved with updated code … see below

What you need

Arduino that can interact as USB HID (Keyboard)
e.g. Arduino Leonardo (≈20€)
Arduino USB Host Shield (≈25€)
Arduino IDE
Keyboard(s) and USB Hubs (if more than one Macro-Keyboard)
Your AutoHotKey scripts (where every Keyboard has its own F-Key)
See Tutorial by Taran: DIY 87 macro keyboard: The sequel -- Intercept.exe and [TEN] EXTRA KEYBOARDS
(If you don't have any yet: Skip anything related to Intercept.exe)
Script attached to this post

How to setup:

Install Arduino IDE
open script attached to this post
install "USB Host Shield Library 2.0" via Library Manager
(Sketch→Include Library→Manage Libraries … not the USBHost Library)
Connect Arduino,
select Arduino Board Type and port under Tools
Read through code to learn
Upload to Arduino
Connect "Macro Keyboards" to USB Host Shield (and connect that first if not already done)
Check Key presses in AHK (maybe press reset button on Arduino or Shield)
Maybe change order of F-Keys in Code and redo 4-7 or swap usb connections
uninstall intercept.exe?

Pros:

Special handling of different Keyboards is outside OS
All code is open source
relatively cheap for unlimited(?) macros
easy to modify
theoretically even gamepad & midi devices are supported (not implemented in code but supported by used library)

Cons:

Some Keyboards might not work
Currently only keys which have an ascii representation are supported*
Currently Numpad Numbers are interpreted as normal Numbers*
Non-US Layout Keyboards might behave different than expected**
Using Arduinos can sound "scary"
(If you do something wrong you could brick/semi-brick your arduino)

*I tried to change to sending raw keystrokes instead of the "write ascii char" function …
But I somehow managed to brick one of my Arduino Leonardos in the Process … it's quite a bummer because i only got them today

I might attempt it later again (or someone else could?)

** Thats because of the same reason as the "only ascii"-issue

(Currently the code supports up to 12 Keyboards connected via up to 4 USB-Hubs … but that is changed easily)

Keyboard_Reprogram.ino

manikyath · November 29, 2018

6 minutes ago, romibi said:

Arduino USB Host Shield (≈25€)

pro cheapskate tip: if you want to avoid using this one, get a cheap keyboard, take it apart, rip the keyboard controller out, reverse engineer the keymap, and use the arduino as your keyboard controller.

you could technically skip the "keyboard" part all together, and just piece together a macro keypad with buttons form your favourite components retailer. using just one layer of 3-bit multiplexers you can hook up 136 buttons to the arduino leonardo without resorting to using analog pins as digital I/O, and if you go with two layers for 6 bits worth of multiplexing you can go up to 896 buttons.. which probably pleases even the grandest macro kings of the land.