I was able to use ControllerMate to build a simple connection of three blocks:ĬontrollerMate then runs in the background under OS X, watches the Scroll Lock key, keeps track of it’s on/off state with the “Toggle”, and tells the keyboard’s Scroll Lock light (aka the keyboard backlight) to stay on after I press the Scroll Lock key, then stay off after I press it again. ControllerMate is free to try out, and $15 to buy, which is an incredible bargain. It uses a “connect the blocks” graphical design system to let you assign key / button presses to various sorts of actions, including things like: running AppleScript scripts telling keyboard lights to turn on and off (!) sending single keystrokes (in other words, remapping keys on the keyboard–handy for Windows-Mac “switchers” and those with keyboards that are missing some of the function keys) sending strings of key presses, mouse movements/clicks, and delays (shades of QuicKeys, which it would be an excellent adjunct to) application launches and nifty add-ons like logic and arithmetic. CM also supports all of the standard keys and buttons from USB keyboards and mice, plus a ton of esoteric ones. CM plugs into OS X and allows it to see inputs from various USB gadgets like joysticks and game controllers. So, that was enough of an excuse for me to start hacking away at the problem.Īfter many false starts and dead ends, I stumbled across a wonderful product called ControllerMate. As with many eBay bargains, the price of the keyboard wasn’t much more than the shipping cost, so if I paid for the shipping to return it, I’d only net a few bucks after getting my refund. Well, once I figured this out, I was faced with a choice: return the keyboard for a refund, or try to figure out how to get the Mac to support the Scroll Lock key. So, when the Frisby keyboard is hooked up to a Mac, pressing the Scroll Lock key is ignored by OS X, and thus OS X never tells the keyboard to turn the backlight on. Worse, some operating systems (Mac OS X mainly) don’t really know about or care about the Scroll Lock key and don’t support it OS X doesn’t keep track of the Scroll Lock’s on/off toggle state, and doesn’t tell the keyboard to turn the Scroll Lock LED on and off. At first glance, this seems like a clever idea, except for a couple of problems: Some applications (Excel for one) and gadgets (many low-price KVM switches) also make use of the Scroll Lock key, and expect it to be available. Here’s apparently what’s going on: The Frisby keyboard (along with many other budget illuminated keyboards) uses the Scroll Lock key as a switch for the backlight because it essentially replaces the Scroll Lock indicator light with the entire keyboard backlight. What was going on?Ī lot of googling led me to believe that this problem is fairly common on Macs, Linux PCs, and even under Windows, although not many people have found a solution. But, when I first plugged the keyboard into the USB port (or into a powered USB hub), it did light up for about 1/2 second or so. Pushing it didn’t do anything, even when pressed in combo with Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Windows/Command, or any gaggle of the above. The instructions that came with the keyboard (all 1/8 page of them) indicated that the Scroll Lock key was the On/Off switch for the keyboard’s backlight. In fact, the scroll wheel, volume knob, and mute button all “just worked”. When I first plugged it into my Mac, it didn’t work. The only thing it lacks is indicator lights for the Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock keys. Not only is it illuminated, but it has a scrollwheel, volume knob, and like 20 extra buttons (in addition to the usual 16 or so function keys). I just bought a cheap Frisby illuminated keyboard on eBay. According to people on the CM forum, this is likely because the controller is both USB and BlueTooth, and it is still paired with the PS3 overall the Mac needs to send some sort of handshake signal to the controller to get it talking over USB. But CM doesn’t see any of the button presses from the controller. Yes, CM does, and it sees all the buttons and even the tilt sensors. I plugged my PS3’s SIXAXIS controller into the Mac to see if ControllerMate could see it. But it works well, I like it, and it was really cheap on eBay. The scrollwheel still works, for instance. (The standard function keys are tied to the keyboard device.) The strange thing is that some of the mouse buttons still work after the Mac sleeps, but most don’t. What is a little surprising is that all of the 20-odd buttons around the edges of the keyboard are tied to the mouse device. I suppose that this isn’t terribly surprising considering that the keyboard includes a scroll wheel. ControllerMate showed me something interesting about the Frisby keyboard: The keyboard actually reports itself as two separate USB devices, a keyboard and a mouse.
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