Laptop MP3 player...

[SAS]

A mate of mine has a laptop which he will be installing under the passenger seat which will be loaded with mp3s. The problem is how do you change the tracks? Stop / Play them?

I have a electrical engineering background so can help install some sort of panel on his car, but does anyone have any ideas how you could connect a system to a laptop in this way?

Idea so far:

Ash says:
No mechanical devices, more about keyboard mapping. Ctlr+Shift+F means next track but that's stupid to push in a car.
Ash says:
I need just the numpad part or something and I can make software that will remap keys
Ash says:
so 7 = CTRL+SHIFT+F thats my best best so far.
Ash says:
Use 8,6,2 & 4 giving me next track prev track next cd prev cd
Scott says:
so onthe panel you press 1: and pc sees it as CTRL... e.t.c
Scott says:
or "play button" and pc sees you pressing "1" which is mapped to CTRL... ?

 

[babs]

I'd be tempted to make a nice little set of buttons/switches and then get an ipac to connect it with. Those things are brilliant and a godsend when building arcade panels for PC emulation, because they avoid ghosting from multiple keypresses. But I digress.

They are keyboard emulators basically, inputs are mapped to a standard keyboard input and work via ps2 and usb. One of those and some nice buttons would be painfully easy to wire, no soldering and is totally configurable.

 

[SAS]

http://www.ultimarc.com/orderp.html == Babs in this example what would I need to order? :/

 

[sibanac]

A mate of mine has a laptop which he will be installing under the passenger seat which will be loaded with mp3s. The problem is how do you change the tracks? Stop / Play them?

I have a electrical engineering background so can help install some sort of panel on his car, but does anyone have any ideas how you could connect a system to a laptop in this way?

Idea so far:

Ash says:
No mechanical devices, more about keyboard mapping. Ctlr+Shift+F means next track but that's stupid to push in a car.
Ash says:
I need just the numpad part or something and I can make software that will remap keys
Ash says:
so 7 = CTRL+SHIFT+F thats my best best so far.
Ash says:
Use 8,6,2 & 4 giving me next track prev track next cd prev cd
Scott says:
so onthe panel you press 1: and pc sees it as CTRL... e.t.c
Scott says:
or "play button" and pc sees you pressing "1" which is mapped to CTRL... ?

There is a logitec remote controll that some people wrote winamp and xmms plugins for.

A other solution i've seen is using one of them usb laptop keypads and just remaping those keys

 

[babs]

SAS, u only need the ipac 2, you don't need the 4 with 56 inputs as that's designed for 4 player cabinets, 28 ought to be more than enough. about 22 quid, plus you get to make a nice little control box or panel or whatever, I love projects like that

 

[SAS]

ok cheers Babs I'll take a look

Also sibanac they only do USB versions and my mate is stick with a ps2 port only. I'm guessing using a USB->ps2 thingy would work fine though?