Multiple external keyboards

[Trefex]

Do you think it could be possible to manage 2 external keyboards?

Currently it only remembers the settings for 1 external keyboard, even when 2 are used.

Cheers,

[somaGFX]

It's a great app. For sure.

But...yesterday I installed your app. Works good and I could handle the german location settings for my german magic keyboard and it switched the location to english(international) when I used my english magic keyboard. but today after a reboot it handles settings for just USB or Bluetooth. Every bluetooth keyboad has now the english location (or what ever you selected) and every usb keyboard has the other location.
That's inappropriate because I use the two different bt keyboards.

Is there a workaround for that problem? And on the other hand, why did it work for the first time and after the reboot not? It's strange, isn't it?

[jeantil]

Hello soma,

I will get myself a 2nd external keyboard to try and understand what's going on. I was fairly sure that
the combination of ( product/vendorId/productId ) would be enough to distinguish between 2 different devices but it seems not.
As I explain in the pull request, I am not willing to add the locationId as it would effectively bind the mapping to a specific usb port (as far as I understand the API)

if you are willing to compile the source and add a print statement that lists the identifying keys that would be helpful..

thanks

[Trefex]

The reason i made a PR with locationid is because with two external keyboards the mapping is not unique anymore. Especially if it's the same keyboard type, which would effectively have the same productid.

[jeantil]

I understand why you made the PR, and how the key I used up until now may not be unique. What I disagree with is using LocationId :) So I have to find fields which the usb vendors/manufacturers actually DO fill (unlike serial number for instance) which could be used to uniquely identify
devices without tying them to a specific physical port.

there are a few which seem promising:

#define kIOHIDTransportKey                  "Transport"
#define kIOHIDVendorIDKey                   "VendorID"
#define kIOHIDVendorIDSourceKey             "VendorIDSource"
#define kIOHIDProductIDKey                  "ProductID"
#define kIOHIDVersionNumberKey              "VersionNumber"
#define kIOHIDManufacturerKey               "Manufacturer"
#define kIOHIDProductKey                    "Product"
#define kIOHIDSerialNumberKey               "SerialNumber"
#define kIOHIDCountryCodeKey                "CountryCode"
#define kIOHIDLocationIDKey                 "LocationID"
#define kIOHIDDeviceUsageKey                "DeviceUsage"
#define kIOHIDDeviceUsagePageKey            "DeviceUsagePage"
#define kIOHIDDeviceUsagePairsKey           "DeviceUsagePairs"
#define kIOHIDPrimaryUsageKey               "PrimaryUsage"
#define kIOHIDPrimaryUsagePageKey           "PrimaryUsagePage"
#define kIOHIDMaxInputReportSizeKey         "MaxInputReportSize"
#define kIOHIDMaxOutputReportSizeKey	    "MaxOutputReportSize"
#define kIOHIDMaxFeatureReportSizeKey	    "MaxFeatureReportSize"
#define kIOHIDReportIntervalKey             "ReportInterval"

from https://opensource.apple.com/source/IOHIDFamily/IOHIDFamily-247/IOHIDFamily/IOHIDKeys.h

[Trefex]

I agree but have no clue about Swift so I don't know how to get it :)

…

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On 2 Jun 2017, at 14:08, Jean Helou ***@***.***> wrote: I understand why you made the PR, and how the key I used up until now may not be unique. What I disagree with is using LocationId :) So I have to find fields which the usb vendors/manufacturers actually DO fill (unlike serial number for instance) which could be used to uniquely identify devices without tying them to a specific physical port. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[jeantil]

I have created a branch feat/track-multiple-location with a verbose output which lists most of the keys above.

• compile the app from source on that branch (see the readme)
• start it
• press 2 keys on each keyboards
  then please paste the output here

thanks

[jeantil]

@Trefex I have added a command line parameter to make autokbisw use the keyboard locationId as identifier.

[Trefex]

Great thanks.