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Made my own Photoshop Shortcut Keypad

2004-10-29 modified: 2005-02-13

Looking for a list of available shortcut key combinations in photoshop? This is not the place, see this list for example. There's a photoshop bible in pdf format on the web as well I believe, the book is here.

It works! After a long period I finally managed to get my own programmable keyboard working.

I work a lot with Photoshop, both in a professional and personal way. After years of experience I became to use shortcut keys more and more, like alt + shift + [letter] for blend modes and ctrl + alt + shift + s for saving for web. Lots of these combinations require a lot of hand gymnastics to perform (ctrl + + and ctrl + - for zooming for example require at least my right hand, which is usually busy handling my Wacom device). Therefore I decided to look for a simple keypad with all those actions under one key.

PI Engineering for example does make a beautiful X-keys keypad which is fully programmable in an easy way. Furthermore keys are easily labeled and can be joined to form bigger buttons. If it wasn't for the price that would be the thing next to my pc now (as one can see the thing costs $150,-, but in The Netherlands the thing sells for €240,-, which is really a lot of money for a student like me).

After some research I came across Code Mercenaries, a little company in Germany that makes the brilliant KeyWarrior chips (see site, I can't give you a direct link due to frames). All that chip needs is an USB cable on one side and up to 128 buttons (8 x 16 matrix) on the other (and also some standard stuff like resistors, capicitors and a resonator) and it only costs €15,-. Furthermore, the thing works with an external eeprom which is programmable through the USB port, so in case I am unhappy with the current layout of my keypad, I simply reprogram the thing.

So I ordered the chip and 50 pushbuttons (at Segor Electronics in Germany) and started etching and soldering. Best part is when you plug your creation into your computer and it is recognised as being a HID compliant keyboard device. After the programming, which involves writing a master translation table and uploading it into the eeprom with a little program, I got my own programmable Photoshop Shortcut Keypad, which had cost me about €70,-. After having bought the pushbuttons I discovered PI sells buttons too, which might be interesting for others.

Anxious for some pictures? See below. As you can see I still need to make a casing for it and the buttons still need some labels, since I cannot remember where I've put all functions

The etched print

Top side, (almost) all components added

Bottom side, you can see there are only a few components

For more information about this chip, please see de Code Mercenaries site, where you can find the following:

• The KeyWarrior chip's datasheet
• Information about programming
• Programming Tool Windows

For those interested: my pcb layout can be found below, but I do not recommend the use of it. Tracks are a little thin, which causes the risk of over-etching (I had to make some repairs myself). furthermore, since the pcb is two-sided and I added tracks on the component side of the chip, I had to use an elevated chip holder, which was very difficult to solder.

• Front side pcb layout
• Back side pcb layout (note: this is a mirrored view).

Update: 2004-11-05

I now added some LED's (for num-, caps- and scrollock) to my print, I had to make some additional repairs to the tracks on the pcb (I told you they were thin), but they now work, as you can see below. I also finished the bottom part of the casing, which is the easiest part.

Added status leds

Update 2004-11-07

I played around with some paper models to determine the shape of the top cover. I will have this piece lasercut, which saves me a lot of handcutting.

Testcase with paper cover

Update 2005-02-13

I've modified a USB hub to fit in my keyboard, I removed one port and attached my keyboard to it, furthermore I removed the mini USB-b socket and replaced it with a normal one. I made a hole in the board to nicely fit the hub. I still have to determine what to do with the cable: could be an attached cable or a b type plug.

Removed one port

Added some wires

The whole (working)