Arduino Act like a USB keyboard

[marloeleven]

I want to make my Arduino to send array of keystrokes with a delay to my PC just like a normal keyboard was, the only difference is that, keys are already declared and an ON/OFF button to start/terminate the program when running.

what confuses me are this questions in my mind:

- and i think there's a library needed to be called to make this thing works
- can i reuse keyboard chip, control it to send button to pc?


Actually, i have no idea how arduino works.. this was just a redesigned idea of my program that i want to do. my first program works but when i want it to be applied on different application, it didn't. so i was hoping that an external like keyboard that will send keystrokes to my computer will allow me to use it in any applications i want. please help me..  ^_^

- sorry if this post is not in its right place 

[Grumpy_Mike]

This is the arduino you want to get:-
http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoLeonardo
This will allow you to look at key presses on external hardware and ship them off to a PC and it will look like it came from a PC keyboard.

[karlok]

It works with Arduino UNO as well.
I tested it successfully with mine using UnoJoy.

[Paul Beaudet]

It works with Arduino UNO as well.
I tested it successfully with mine using UnoJoy.

Isn't programming the second mcu required for this?
looks like UnoJoy is a firmware for the serial comm chip
would seem a little too much for someone just getting started

I'm with mike on this one, but I would go further to suggest the Arduino Mirco as well. Dont know about else where but they stock them at my local electronics shop

- and i think there's a library needed to be called to make this thing works

its integrated when you select leonardo, micro, lilypad usb,(MEGA34u4 chip) or due. Given you have any of these boards.

otherwise I think your in for a bit of hacking, checkout UnoJoy

[karlok]

Everything needed is included here
http://code.google.com/p/unojoy/
and here
http://www.atmel.com/tools/FLIP.aspx

Yes the Arduino's USB interface has to be flashed. This is done with Atmel's FLIP tool.
There is a Arduino-keyboard-0.3.hex available here:
http://hunt.net.nz/users/darran/weblog/b3029/Arduino_UNO_Keyboard_HID_version_03.html

[robtillaart]

The teensy2.0 has native keyboard support - http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_keyboard.html -

I've played with one last week and the examples work out of the box - uploading to a teensy is only slightly more difficult, but blazingly fast!