Sending characters continuously

[Bill Clark]

WBK,

Is there a way to program a button so that when pressed and held down, it will send out a character or character string continuously until the button is released.

For example, I want to move the eye point over in FSX a fair distance, currently I have to press the button many time to get the eyepoint where I want it.

Any ideas?

Bill

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Yep. Look at the 'Hold' button type in the Toolkit help. You can tell it to push the key down with one touch. And it stays down! Then you can tell it to release the keypress them next time you touch the button. ie:

macro_select = predef:W, KEYDOWN
macro_deselect = predef:W, KEYUP


Or, you could do the same thing using the 'Touch' button type, so it continuously sends the keystrokes as long as you are touching the button. Be sure to check the 'Repeat' checkbox for this so it repeatedly sends the keystrokes. For this one I'm not sure which works better:

macro_select = predef:W, KEYDOWN
macro_deselect = predef:W, KEYUP

-or-

macro_select = predef:W
macro_deselect =

WBK

[Bill Clark]

Thanks Bill,

Bill Clark

[Bill Clark]

Originally Posted by Bill Clark

Thanks Bill,

Bill Clark

Bill,

I'm attempting to now send characters continuously, but it's not working. Here is my keystroke setup, see anything wrong?

macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:w, KEYDOWN
macro_deselect =predef:w, KEYUP
macro_deselect = predef:SHIFT, KEYUP
macro_deselect = predef:CONTROL, KEYUP

By the way, I'm in a client server setup.

Bill

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

I'm not clear on what you want. Do you want to repeatedly press the Ctrl-Shift-W keys over and over like this?

I would use the repeat checkbox on a touch type button like this:
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:w
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYUP
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYUP
macro_deselect = {}

or this

macro_select = ^~W
macro_deselect = {}


Or do you want to hold down the Ctrl-Shift-W keys until you release them?

[Bill Clark]

Originally Posted by Wild.Bill.Kelso

I'm not clear on what you want. Do you want to repeatedly press the Ctrl-Shift-W keys over and over like this?

I would use the repeat checkbox on a touch type button like this:
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:w
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYUP
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYUP
macro_deselect = {}

or this

macro_select = ^~W
macro_deselect = {}


Or do you want to hold down the Ctrl-Shift-W keys until you release them?

Bill,

What I would like to do is use the touch feature so I can repeat sending the "w" character until I release the button.

I noticed that you don't need the "macro_deselect = predef:w" statement when I looked at your example. However, I'm confused about what the last line in your example does?

macro_deselect = {}

Bill

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

The macro_deselect is not supposed to be required if you don't want to use it. But I found a bug where the button does not work correctly in network mode if this is missing. So, I just put that line in as a dummy command. It sends no keystrokes.

As far as just repeating the w key and not all of the other keys (Ctrl-Shift), that cannot be done. The only way I can think might work is using a touch button with the repeat checkbox and this macro:

macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYDOWN
macro_select = w
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYUP
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYUP
macro_deselect = {}

I tested this using the Test window in my Saitek Game Controller Profile Editor. It has a window that will test any keys, controllers, mouse buttons that are pressed on your system. As long as I kept the button touched on the touchscreen it repeated pressed, then released the Ctrl-Shift-w keys about every .2 seconds. If that is too slow for you you can just repeat the w key until it works better for you like this:

macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYDOWN
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYDOWN
macro_select = wwwwwwwwww
macro_select = predef:SHIFT, KEYUP
macro_select = predef:CONTROL, KEYUP
macro_deselect = {}

[Bill Clark]

Bill,

Thanks, this did it. I'm a little curious about the multiple "wwwww's" in your second profile. Does it make it go faster, I'm not sure what the benefit is?

Bill

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

If you put in just one w, then since TB is hardcoded to repeat the sending of keys at only a once per .2 seconds, you only get one w every .2 seconds. If you put in wwwww then you get 5 w's every .2 seconds. It is like sending keys 5 times faster than TB allows..... sort of....

[Manta]

Would this be a good work around for the bombsight stuff in your Il2 profile?