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I build a macro keyboard and one thing I do alot is add a set amount to numbers mostly in 3d modeling programs. I add and remove 0.25 and 0.125 all the time. I want to make a macro that copies selected text, adds or subtracts a value then pastes it back.

I known the simple copy and paste commands but how do I get my arduino program to grab that copied value?

Can this even be done?

Ben Crawford
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  • What keys does it have, what is the current sketch (or related parts), how is text selected, can it handle multiple keys simultaneously? I miss the actual requirements and current code you have. – Michel Keijzers Feb 23 '21 at 14:38
  • My keyboard has 9 keys and mutable modes I can put it in for different programs. How I want it to work is I select text on my screen its normal an z x or y I need to move by a set amount. I push one key on the arduino macro keyboard and it copies that text imports it as an int adds or subtracts the needed amount then pastes the edited value back. – Ben Crawford Feb 23 '21 at 14:42
  • You can't. A keyboard is a one-way device. – Majenko Feb 23 '21 at 15:02
  • "Can this even be done?" Not without help from the PC side. It's not like the clipboard stored in the keyboard. And there are no scan/codes or USB-HID messages that will cause the host to send a copy of the clipboard to the device. – timemage Feb 23 '21 at 15:02

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You have to write an application for your PC that

  • reads a number from the clipboard
  • adds some constant
  • puts the result back in the clipboard
  • quits

Then you have to configure you desktop environment in order to have this application launched from a keyboard shortcut.

Once you have done that, you can do the whole operation from a regular keyboard: Ctrl-C + Launcher shortcut + Ctrl-V.

If you can do it from a regular keyboard, you can do it from the Arduino emulating a regular keyboard.

Edit: The way you do the first two steps is very dependent on the OS running on your PC. On Linux, for example, the mentioned “application” can be a minimal shell script:

#!/bin/bash

x=$(xclip -o -selection clipboard)
xclip -i -selection clipboard <<< $(bc <<< "$x + 0.25")

These steps are, however, outside the scope of this site.

Edgar Bonet
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  • I guess I will see if I can make a blender plugin that does what I want and just have it bind to a key combo I can have they macro keyboard do – Ben Crawford Feb 23 '21 at 16:49
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    Well, as long as we're just doing tech support: For what it's worth, in Blender you can click into the number, hit END and type +0.25 and ENTER or whatever other expression you want to do, * pi or / 2 etc. – timemage Feb 23 '21 at 18:32