deshipu.artDouble-function Modifier Keys¶
Published on 2020-08-08 in Dorsch 40k Keyboard.
The feasibility of this keyboard hinges on the ability to use the modifier keys both as modifier keys and as regular keys. How is this going to work? The basic idea seems very simple: if you use it with another key, it’s a modifier, otherwise it’s a regular key. But how exactly can we tell? There are a lot of details here.
I got the whole idea from the QMK keyboard firmware, where this is called Mod-Tap . However, it doesn’t work exactly how I wanted — the difference is in the time you keep the key pressed. If you press it and release it quickly (tap), it acts as a regular key, but if you hold it down longer, it acts as a modifier. This mostly works, except that sometimes I press a key too slow (especially when it’s a space, pressed with my thumb), and then there is no visible effect (modifier keys don’t usually do much on their own) and it seems like the switch is mechanically failing, which was very frustrating, at least until you realize what is happening (I replaced the switch before I did).
So I want to do something a little bit smarter:
When you first press a mod key, the fact is recorded, but no keycode is sent immediately. They keyboard waits to see what happens next.
If you press any other key (regular or mod key), the recorded mod key is considered to be a modifier, and the internal status is updated accordingly.
As soon as that mod key is released, the status is updated again to remove the modifier.
You can chain modifiers like that indefinitely — only the last pressed mod key needs to be remembered and delayed, as it’s the only one that can have two functions.
As soon as you press any regular, single-function key, the last mod key pressed is considered to be a modifier, and the keycode is sent immediately.
If you release a mod key without pressing any other new keys, it is considered to be a regular key and its keycode is sent.
This is, in my opinion, a little bit better, because no timings are involved, so you can do it as fast or as slow as you like. There is still the downside that you can’t hold down the key to make it repeat — though I could probably do that with a timeout, or something like a double-tap. You also can’t send the modifier key alone, so forget about using the ctrl key for shooting. It should still be easy to program, and the only extra memory needed is the variable holding the last pressed key, plus the modifier key status, which now has to be separate from the actual key status.