Off topic question, partly

[rberq]

This is a little off topic, but there are some smart people here so I'm going to ask anyway.

 

I have an ancient but wonderful MCK-142 programmable keyboard. It has 24 programmable keys, call them PK1 through PK24. No special drivers or software are used with the keyboard -- all the programming is done on the keyboard itself and stored internally.

 

I used the keyboard with Macro Express by programming keys to activate macros. For example, PK1 might be programmed to send sequence Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F1. Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F1 would run a macro. It was just easier to do a single keystroke than a four-key combination.

 

Anyhow, the keyboard has an AT connector plug, then an AT-to-PS/2 converter cable, and it always worked fine with my old computer's PS/2 keyboard socket. My new PC has no PS/2 socket, so I daisy-chained a PS/2-to-USB converter onto the cable. So now it is AT-to-PS/2-to USB. It works fine for anything I physically type. However, when I activate one of the programmed keys, garbage data goes to the PC and indicator lights on the keyboard go off.

 

I have a feeling that maybe USB can't handle the AT scan codes sent by the keyboard. But then why would manually-typed character work? I have no clue where else to look to fix it. Suggestions gratefully accepted.

[paul]

Here's a utility to view what scan codes are generated by any key on your keyboard.

Keyboard Scan Codes