TheBackShed.com

Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Right ALT Key locks Maximite?

Author

Message

JonS
Newbie

Joined: 28/02/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4

Posted: 04:57am 08 Mar 2013

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Continuing with the Keyboard issues; I have noticed why, well more when, one of more serious problems occurs.

From time-to-time I've had keyboard lockouts where some keys still work, Function Keys for example and a couple of others. However none of the main keys work so you have to cold-boot losing the current program.

My Keyboard has an ALT key to the right of the spacebar. When I tap this, and that�s whenever I tap this, the keyboard will lockdown and I have to reset. I presume this is the case for �AltGr� also.

Any chance this could be confirmed by a few others?

Hopefully it is not just my keyboard and as such can be fixed.

PS. I have read a few other posts where people have reported a similar issue

Many thanks

JonS - teamFUZE

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9307

Posted: 01:13pm 08 Mar 2013

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

I too was having KB lockout issues etc(see my other thread), but since I swapped the switchmode plug-pack for a transformer and linear regulator PSU, pretty much all my KB problems have vanished - for the moment, anyway - I am still monitoring the situation.

I have ALT keys either side of the spacebar on my current test KB, and pressing any of these, or even combinations like WIN+ALT does not lock the KB at the moment, with the current PSU choice. My menu program just exits from a sub-menu, back to the main menu, if you press any other key then what is on the menu choices, so I could go into one of the sub-menus, then press things like ALT keys and WIN+ALT etc, and in all my tests, the menu came back to the main menu, which is exactly what it is supposed to do.

Are you using a switchmode plug-pack to power your MM?

It was suggested to me in the other thread, that some of the switchmode plug-packs are noisy(electrically), so I swapped it for a transformer based regulated plug-pack, to see if that helped, and it certainly did seem to, as far as MY problems with the KB were concerned.

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

paceman
Guru

Joined: 07/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1329

Posted: 02:01pm 08 Mar 2013

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Jon,
Mine also has an "Alt" key to the right of the space-bar (and the left) and have never noticed a problem on any keys, including that and the function keys - my "Alt/C" produces an ordinary lower case "c" on the screen.

The keyboard is a bog standard, full size 10yr old "DELL Quietkey" PS2, Model: SK-8000.
The sticker underneath it says:
DP/N 035KKW Made in malaysia
DS/N MY-035KKW-38843-08F-6750 Rev A00

Mine is plugged straight into the Maximite and that is powered usually by a good bench 9v supply but also sometimes by my old NEC notebook from a USB port.

I use the same setup for both my original Maximite and my CGCOLORMAX1 without trouble.

Greg

Edited by paceman 2013-03-10

cosmic frog
Senior Member

Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 284

Posted: 02:52pm 08 Mar 2013

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

There was a bug which caused this problem before V3.2c - "Corrected a bug that caused MMBasic to hang if the right ALT key was pressed on a PS2
keyboard configured as the standard US default layout."
See .Change Log for more info.

Dave.

shoebuckle
Senior Member

Joined: 21/01/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 189

Posted: 03:13pm 08 Mar 2013

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

@JonS
I have Alt keys either side of my space bar. Pressing either of them doesn't lock the keyboard in fact it returns Ascii 139. My keyboard is a Logitech PS2 which I have had for some years.
Cheers,
Hugh

p.s. I am using a Laptop brick to power the mono Maximite.Edited by shoebuckle 2013-03-10

Print this page

To reply to this topic, you need to log in.