CustomKeyboard

akiss163

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4 Feb 2024MIT12 min read

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A swiss knife for myself - automotive development tools and a plenty of other embedded things

This is a personal project for myself to improve my daily computer usage, particularly with programming and testing. I've implemented things what I really needed to be more productive and accomplish things faster. It's open source, because why not, maybe somebody will benefit from it one day.

If you want to use/resuse some part(s) of the project, you have a question or an idea, feel free to open a Pull Request. Bugs can happen, as this is just a side project beside my full time job. I do not have the time to always retest everything when I change something how it's done in a proper managed company.

Unfinished, abandoned Qt port of this application is available here, has no meaning to port everything to Qt from my perspective: https://gitlab.com/kurta999/QustomKeyboard

If the project is useful for you and you're able, please consider small amount of donation over PayPal: nmsstulaj@gmail.com

Quick overview

1. For Automotive development:

CAN-USB Transceiver - Send and Receive standard and ISO-TP CAN Frames over CAN bus via computer trough USB - see more info below
CAN Script handler - Execute tests scripts by settings specific frames and sendinig them to the bus automatically
UDS DID Reader & Writer - Read and Write UDS DIDs over GUI, DIDs have to be defined in DidList.xml - DIDs also can be cached locally

2. For General development:

Modbus Master - Simple Modbus Master for polling Modbus Slave devices with GUI support. Coils, Input, Holding and Input registers supported over Serial and TCP/IP interface. Supported register sizes are (u)int16_t, (u)int32_t, (u)int64_t, float, double. Proper logging and error handling implemented.
Command excutor - Bind specific commands (cmds) to GUI buttons with parameters support, which is then excuted on GUI button click - see more info below
Data Sender - Send specific messages periodically or by trigger with specific input from DataSender.xml and wait for a response, the parse the response and display it in GUI. Can be useful for data visualization.
StructParser - Generate offsets of C structures and it's members
TerminalHotkey - Hotkey for terminal, like in Linux. Can be launched from Windows Explorer with current path as starting directory and from Desktop
File explorer opener - Open file explorer by sending a specific TCP packet to this application

3. For Personal use:

CustomMacro - Connect a second keyboard and binding macros to it's keys - full GUI support for macro editing with macro recorder
Sensors - TCP Backend for sensors with SQLite database for measurements & HTTP Web server for reading measurement's graphs. By default, graphs can be accessed at: http://localhost:2005/graphs - Source code for STM32 which processes the sensors are available here: https://gitlab.com/kurta999/AirQualitySensors
Backend for Corsair's G Keys - Bind macros to G keys as those were on second keyboard, without even installing iCUE
AntiLock - Bypass idle timeout for Windows to avoid lock screen by pressing SCROLL LOCK & moving mouse in given interval. Can be useful for workstations if you can't disable idle logout or you're being monitored.
AntiNumLock - Doesn't allow to disable NumLock, re-enables it immendiately when it's disabled.
CPU Power Saver - Saves power by reducing CPU frequency after X idle time to Y percent. For example I can save 10-15W hourly by reducing my overclocked i7 10700K to 800 - 1200Mhz while my PC is in idle. If the median CPU usage gets above max configured percent due to some background tasks, the frequency will be restored and won't be limited again until it falls below configured minimum median load again.
ScreenshotSaver - Saving screenshot to .png from clipboard
DirectoryBackup - Backup folders to another place(s) from tray menu - with checksum and compression support
Filesystem browser - List files and directories recursively by size starting from specific path - useful for finding bloat on storage
wxWidget's GUI editor - A very basic GUI editor with move & resize support *(1)
MTA -> SA-MP MapConverter - Convert maps from MTA-SA Race and MTA:SA DM to SA-MP with every item which is supported by SA-MP; objects, actors, vehicles with components, checkpoints and pickups.
LinkCreator - Easy symlink & hardlink creator within Windows' file explorer

*(10) This is an outdated part of this project, it doesn't support sizers. It's not recommended to create GUI without sizers, only use it if you know what you are doing.

In depth details of implemented features

1. For Automotive development:

CAN-USB Transceiver - Requires LAWICEL CAN USB or NUCLEO-G474RE board with UART-TTL to USB adapter & Waveshare SN65HVD230 3.3v CAN Transceiver or something else which converts TTL signals to real CAN signal. Supports standard, extended, ISO-TP (ISO 15765-2) CAN frames (eg. for sending and receiving UDS frames easily), logging and searching between them. Bits and bytes for CAN frame also can be binded to be able to manipulate them easyer with GUI. Firmware for nucleo board is available here: https://gitlab.com/kurta999/CanUsbTransceiver The default baudrate is 500kbit/s, it's changeability isn't implemented - it might be in the future.
CAN Script handler - Execute tests scripts by settings specific frames and sendinig them to the bus automatically
UDS DID Reader & Writer - Supported DID types: uint8_t, uint16_t, uint32_t, uint64_t, string, bytearray. Strings and bytearrays are padded when their lenght is smaller than the predefined length, otherwise truncated.

2. For General development:

Modbus Master - Registers have to be configured in Modbus.xml. Registers can be edited on the fly over GUI, also the communication log can be viewed and saved to a .csv file
Command excutor - Binding commands to GUI buttons possible in Cmds.xml or in the "CMD Executor" panel. That command will be executed on Windows with CreateProcess if you click on it's button, see the image below. This is very usful feature if you work often with command line, you don't have to copy paste every comand or type it's alias. 16 variable parameters can be added to one command, you can change that before execution by clicking with MIDDLE mouse to the command button instead of the LEFT. Command button customization (like bold font, color, font face name), duplication - everything can be done over GUI.
StructParser - Paste the structure to input dialog and click on prarse. The application automatically calculates offsets for it's members. It's useful if you work with communication and had to calculate the offset of members in bytes manually. Supports embedded structures, struct alignment (fixed alignment supported, pragma pack implementation isn't finished yet), preprocessor definitions & unions.
File explorer opener - This function can be useful if you work with VirtualBox or WSL and using samba for accessing specific parts on guest OS filesystem. First you have to map the network drive in Windows, default drive character is Z: (can be changed in settings.ini - "SharedDriveLetter"), also don't forget to enable TCP_Backend in settings.ini. Here is an example command for opening the file explorer on Windows: "echo expw$(pwd) | netcat <TCP_Backend port from settings.ini>". For the best experience, I recommend creating an alias for this command.

3. For Personal use:

CustomMacro - Currently requires an external Nucleo L495ZG board with UART TTL to USB adapter for transmitting key-presses to PC and additionally an USB-A to Micro-USB adapter if your keyboard has USB-A port. The nucleo is just a simple USB Host, which receives key-presses from the connected keyboard and transmits it to PC via UART. It could be done with hooking in windows, but this solution always crashed the debugger in MSVC, so I went with the more expensive way - another way would be to create a custom driver for the secondary keyboard, but I do not have time for that. Macros can be added in configuration page or in settings.ini file directly - they can be bound to a global profile or per application, even key combinations are supported too. Firmware for Nucle board is available here: https://gitlab.com/kurta999/UsbHost\
This feature also works for Corsair G keys without using iCUE, read the "Backend for Corsair's G Keys" section

Supported macro types:
BIND_NAME[binding name] = Set the name if macro. Should be used as first
KEY_TYPE[text] = Press & release given keys in sequence to type a text
KEY_SEQ[CTRL+C] = Press all given keys after each other and release it when each was pressed - ideal for key shortcats
DELAY[time in ms] = Waits for given milliseconds
DELAY[min ms - max ms] = Waits randomly between min ms and max ms
MOUSE_MOVE[x,y] = Move mouse to given coordinates
MOUSE_INTERPOLATE[x,y] = Move mouse with interpolation to given coordinates
MOUSE_PRESS[key] = Press given mouse key
MOUSE_RELEASE[key] = Release given mouse key
MOUSE_CLICK[key] = Click (press and release) with mouse
BASH[key] = Execute specified command(s) with command line and keeps terminal shown
CMD[key] = Execute specified command(s) with command line without terminal
CMD_XML[PageName+CommandName] = Execute predefined command from Cmds.xml
CMD_FG[app_name.exe,Window title name] = Bring specified app with given title to the foreground
CMD_IMG[path_to_image,offset x,offset y] = Scan for given image on screen and clicks on it if found

Examples:
G1 = BIND_NAME[uint8_t] KEY_TYPE[uint8_t]
G4 = BIND_NAME[reddit CPP button] CMD_FG[chrome.exe,C++] CMD_IMG[test_image.png,3,3]
Sensors - Backend means simple TCP server where sensor connencts and sends measurements. Average of easurements within specified integration period is inserted to SQLite database and a graph generated with last 30 measurements, last day & last week average data by default, this can be changed in settings.ini. Database is updated in every 10 minutes, but you can update manually by clicking on "Generate graphs" in front panel. Graphs can be seen at "you_local_ip:2005/graphs" by default. If your computer running and your sensor is connected, you can see the graphs in real time - even from your phone.
Backend for Corsair's G Keys - Corsair pretty well f***ed up it's iCUE, sometimes memory usage can grow to 500MB. That's enormeous for an application which runs in background and executes macro for binded keys. It's possible to use CustomMacro feature to bind everything to Corsair's G keys (beside second keyboard, of coruse). This is a simple HID API which receives keypresses for G keys. Supports K95 RGB (18 G keys, older one) and K95 RGB Platinum.
ScreenshotSaver - Press the screenshot save key (F12 by default, on second keyboard) and the screenshot from the clipboard will be saved to (app path)/Screenshots folder by default as .png file. Can be changed in configuration.
DirectoryBackup - Setup backups in configuration or in settings.ini manually and those will appear in tray menu of this application. Click on them, and backing up files will start. Supports ignore list & SHA-256 checksum for backed up files for more secure backups.
wxWidget's GUI editor - Oversimplified GUI editor which sometimes can be useful beside wxFormBuilder. GUI items are movable & resizable - directly without sizers. C++ code generation also implemented, current workspace can be saved & loaded to/from XML file.
MTA -> SA-MP MapConverter - If you worry that some webpages will stole your maps during conversion, you can safely use this tool. Even if you don't trust me, you can check the source code and rebuild this project yourself.
LinkCreator - Select desired files from File Explorer and click the mark key (key down on second keyboard by default) and files (directories too) will be marked for link creation. Go to target directory where you want to place the links for marked files, press symlink key (KEY UP) by default for symlink or hardlink key (KEY RIGHT) by default for hardlinks. That's all, symlink or hardlink is created from marked files in target directory.
CryptoPrice - Fetching ETH & BTC buy/sell price from coinbase.com and printing it on main panel - disabled by default. Can be enabled by setting CryptoPriceUpdate period other than zero in settings.ini

Libraries

Required external depencencies:

Required external hardware:

Second keyboard & Sensors: AirQualitySensors
Second keyboard only: UsbHost
CAN: STM32 CAN USB OR Lawicel CAN USB

Building

Windows

Get the latest version of Visual Studio 2022, boost & wxWidgets. My default directories are;

boost: C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_83_0
wxWidgets: C:\wxWidgets-3.2.2
HIDAPI: C:\hidapi (*)

Feel free to change, but don't forget to change them too in Visual Studio's project file.

(*) If you worry that this project contains keylogger due to HIDAPI, then copy the parts what you need from the source or just remove HIDAPI from depencies with CorsairHID and recompile everything.

Open CustomKeyboard.sln and build the desired build.

Available build configurations:

x86 - Debug, Release, Static Release, Release_BSec (release with BOSCH's BSec library)
x64 - Debug, Release, Static Release, Release_BSec (release with BOSCH's BSec library)

CMake support for windows is available, hovewer I'm not using it so it's abandoned. Up to date version is only for Linux, use .sln files when using Windows! Example command for CMake on Windows: cmake .. -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:\GIT_Local\CustomKeyboard\fmt-8.1.1\build;C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_83_0\stage\lib\cmake" -DwxWidgets_ROOT_DIR=C:\wxWidgets-3.2.2 -DBoost_INCLUDE_DIR="C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_83_0" -DBoost_LIBRARY_DIR="C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_83_0\stage\lib" -DFMT_LIB_DIR=C:\GIT_Local\CustomKeyboard\fmt-8.1.1 -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"

Creating symlinks on Windows when debugging under VS for x64/Debug, Release, Release_BSec folder

mklink "TxList.xml" ....\TxList.xml mklink "RxList.xml" ....\RxList.xml mklink "FrameMapping.xml" ....\FrameMapping.xml mklink "Modbus.xml" ....\Modbus.xml mklink "DataSender.xml" ....\DataSender.xml mklink "settings.ini" ....\settings.ini

Linux

The project is using C++20 features, so I recommend using the newest compilers. !! Building on linux isn't an option right now because only MSVC is C++20 complete. !!

Install boost 1.83.0, wxWidgets 3.2.2, fmt 8.0.0, hidapi
Execute these commands in project root directory:

If you do not want to use HIDAPI, you can disable it by setting USE_HIDAPI CMake option to false. (cmake .. -DUSE_HIDAPI=false or do it within CMake GUI)

With Make: mkdir build cd build cmake .. make (or "make -j$(nproc)" for faster build)

With ninja: mkdir build cd build cmake -GNinja .. ninja

Advanced topics

ECU Simulation

ECUs can be pretty easily simulated if you want to go with the "stupid" way, but you need to build the project locally. For a smarter solution generate some scripts and use them. Open CanEntryHandler.cpp and paste this code to OnFrameReceived function:

if(data_len == 8 && data[0] == 0x03 && data[1] == 0x22 && (data[2] == 0xF1 || data[2] == 0xF0))  /* Data length: 8, 22 = READ DID, DID ID LSB: AA */
{
    uint32_t send_id = frame_id;
    if(frame_id == 0xAAA)
        send_id = 0xBBB;
    else if(frame_id == 0xCCC)
        send_id = 0xDDD;

    uint8_t byte_buffer[8] = { 0x04, 0x62 };  /* Data length: 4, 0x62 DID reading (code 22) wa successful */
    memcpy(&byte_buffer[2], &data[2], 6);  /* Copy source DID from receive buffer */
    CanSerialPort::Get()->AddToTxQueue(send_id, sizeof(byte_buffer), byte_buffer);
}

Scripts for CAN bus

Scripts can be executed in CAN panel under Script tab. CAN Frames and it's fields have to be mapped in FrameMapping.xml, otherwise script won't work. The script support is in early stage, bugs can happen.

WaitForFrame <frame name> <timeout ms> - Waits until specific frame with given data appears on CAN bus
SetFrameFieldRaw <frame name> <raw CAN data> - Set frame field in byte format
SetFrameField <field name> <value> - Set CAN frame's FIELD value by name. Do not mismatch with CAN Frame's value!
SendFrame <frame name> - Send CAN frame with name. Field have to be mapped within FrameMapping.xml
Sleep <delay in milliseconds> - Script will sleep for given milliseconds

// Waiting until DID reading (service 22) appears on bus for DID 2000 
SetFrameFieldRaw XXX_to_DTOOL 0x03222000AAAAAAA
WaitForFrame DTOOL_TO_XXX 120000    

// Set vehicle has cluth to 1 in VEHICLE_INFO frame 
SetFrameField VehicleHasClutch 0x1
SendFrame VEHICLE_INFO
Sleep 500