Most AAC software has a way of connecting to an external application. Some call this "Run Programme or something similar. As long as RelayKeys is installed and the correct hardware is connected you can then call the installed command line application - with the correct syntax.

Take a look at the guides for your software.

The key application you want to access is the relaykeys-cli-win.exe found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Ace Centre\RelayKeys \ For a full list of commands you can send see here.

A tip on notifications

If you pass the --notify flag to the cli application you will get notifications about the devices you are connected to and the status of the device. See here for more information

There is no documented way for third parties integrating their software into commercial AAC software for example integrated notifications. So we have to make use of the operating system notification system. The difficulty on Windows is that by default full screen apps do not see notifications. So to make this work we recommend three alterations to your notifications.

1. Turn Focus Assist off.

2. Turn off the setting "When I'm using an app in full screen mode"

And next - because AAC users wont typically be able to dismiss notifications change the time that they appear for. To do this follow the steps here.

Communicator 5 is a AAC software for Tobii Dynavox communication aids . Follow the steps below to add commands to your pageset

Sending the message bar

This is the best way to enter longer texts and allows you to use the communication aid's prediction and phrase banks etc. Use the "Copy" command followed the Run Program command to run relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the paste argument

Simple keystrokes

This is useful for making a keyboard-like page with individual letters and other keys that send one keystroke at a time. Use the Run Program command to run relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the keypress:LETTER argument (where letter is the key you want to send)

Sending keyboard shortcuts

For special commands and shortcuts such as control-C, alt-F4 etc use the Run Program command to run relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the keypress:KEYNAME,MODIFIER argument (where keyname is the key you want to send)

Sending mouse commands

Use the Run Program command to run relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the mousemove:X,Y argument (where X,Y is the distance you want to move the mouse), or the mousebutton:BUTTON,ACTION argument (where BUTTON is the button to use, and ACTION is click or doubleclick etc.)

Controlling RelayKeys

Use the Run Program command to run relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the ble-cmd:reconnect, ble-cmd:switch, or ble-cmd:devname --notify commands

Serial Commands

So if you want to communicate directly with the serial device - instead of via the server you can. So to do this, you would need to write your software to open the serial connection and use the correct commands to talk to the hardware.

Connection - Baud rate, nr/vid settings

• Baud rate should be 115200

• Hardware flow control CTS/RTS on

• nrfVID = '239A'

• nrfPID = '8029'

Then you send and receive commands over Serial. The following is a list of the commands and what you should expect to receive back

Mouse and Keyboard commands

AT+BLEKEYBOARDCODE=KeyboardCode

The good thing about RelayKeys is that we dont try and send actual characters - we send actual keys. This is good - as it means we dont deal with the multilingual problems and different keyboard maps. However - it does mean the the command to send and press a keyboard key can look a little daunting. Here is what it looks like.

AT+BLEKEYBOARDCODE=02-00-00-00-00-00-00-00

This is pretty standard stuff when it comes to a keyboard HID code. E.g. look at this to see what its all about. In short though:

    Byte 0: Keyboard modifier bits (SHIFT, ALT, CTRL etc)
    Byte 1: reserved
    Byte 2-7: Up to six keyboard usage indexes representing the keys that are 
              currently "pressed". 
              Order is not important, a key is either pressed (present in the 
              buffer) or not pressed.

The letter "a" is usage code 0x04 for example. If you want an uppercase "A", then you would also need to set the Byte 0 modifier bits to select "Left Shift" (or "Right Shift").

Hint: Look at this file for a way to format this nicely

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEMOVE=MouseMoveX,MouseMoveY,0,0

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEMOVE=X,Y,WY,WX

• X = Right Pixels

• Y = Down pixels

• WY = Scroll Down

• WX = Scroll Right

MouseMoveX = Pixels RIGHT and MouseMoveY = Pixels DOWN. So to go RIGHT/UP = use negative numbers.

e.g. This moves it Right by 10 and Down by 10

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEMOVE=10,10,0,0

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEBUTTON=MouseButton

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEBUTTON=Button[,Action]

Button is one of

• l = Left

• r= Right

• m=Middle

• b=Mouse backward

• f=Mouse forward

NB: Mouse backward and forward are not available functions on all Operating Systems

Action is

• Click

• Doubleclick

• O (which acts as press/release toggle)

e.g.

Single click:

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEBUTTON=l,click

Double click:

AT+BLEHIDMOUSEBUTTON=l,doubleclick

Connection commands

AT+BLEADDNEWDEVICE

Adds a new device to the cached list of devices. After giving this AT command the user should connect with the board via BLE. If connection is successful then the device's name will be added into the list and the board will connect with the device.

Note: A user can only add a new device if the cached list is not full. If the list is full then the board will return with an Error. If no new device connects with the board till the timeout (set to 30 seconds), a Timeout Error will be returned.

AT+BLEREMOVEDEVICE="DEVICE_NAME"

This AT command will remove said device's name from the cached list. Device's name should be written between double quotes. You have to be exact with this! If device_name is not found in the list, then the board will return with an Error.

If device_name is currently connected to a BLE device, then the board will disconnect from this device and then remove device's name from the list.

AT+BLECURRENTDEVICENAME

This AT command will return the currently connected BLE device's name. If the board is not connected with any BLE device then it will return NONE.

AT+SWITCHCONN

This AT command will switch the BLE connection to the next device in the cached list. The board will try to connect with the next listed device till the timeout, then Timeout Error will be returned and the board will try to connect with the next device listed in the cache.. and so on..

AT+PRINTDEVLIST

This AT command will return a list of device names.

AT+BLEMAXDEVLISTSIZE=NUMBER

This AT command will change the maximum number of BLE devices possible in the cached list. The number should be greater than 0 and less then 15

AT+GETMODE

Gets the current mode - either wired or wireless.

AT+SWITCHMODE

Switches the current mode from wired to wireless. Or Wireless to wired.

Before you look at using RelayKeys with Snap have you considered AccessIT 3? Its available for TD software and is good! There are some snags - its not multi device compatible and does require the dongle being plugged in.

Adding an action - calling relaykeys

You need to edit your snap pageset - and create a "General" button - then you can add an action to a button. The action

If you don't want to use any specific AAC software, you can get going with our demonstration software "RelayKeys-QT" (aka RelayKeys or RelayKeys Desktop). You will find this on your desktop as well as your start programmes if you have installed our software. It has 4 main buttons on the left:

Capture

This screen enables you to capture the keystrokes and mouse movements and any captured input gets sent directly to the currently connected device. To connect a device - see "Devices" screen.

Macro

This screen enables you to create a macro file. This records your mouse or keystrokes and enables you to play it back. This is useful for creating long sequences of commands or say for writing a common piece of text such as a signature. You can play it back in this software or use the macro with the CLI tool.

Connection

This screen enables you to switch between paired devices and change the current mode. This means the RelayKeys hardware can run either as a wired dongle or a wireless device. Use the switch mode to change these modes.

Devices

This screen enables you to add and remove paired devices - as well as removing all devices from the relaykeys hardware.

The Grid 3 is a commonly used piece of software for AAC. Follow the steps below to add commands to your gridset

Simple keystrokes

Use the relaykeys-cli-win.exe with the keypress:LETTER argument (where letter is the key you want to send)

Sending the message bar

Use the "Copy" command followed by the relaykeys-cli-win.exe paste argument

Sending multiple commands - e.g. keyboard shortcuts

Sending mouse commands

You can use RelayKeys in a number of different ways depending on your needs

• Using our desktop software

• Using a Command Line Application (that Third-party software such as AAC software can use)

• Directly communicate over serial in your software.

Command Line flags

We have created a command line interface which allows you to send mouse and keyboard commands to your RelayKeys hardware.

To run it access

relaykeys-cli.exe command:data

or if running it in pure python

python relaykeys-cli.py command:data

and the non-verbose, non-windowed version

python relaykeys-cli-win.py command:data

Where 'command' and 'data' are provided below.

Defining a Keymap -c

Keymap files are located in cli_keymap folder. You can choose which keymap file the CLI is going to use in the cfg by assigning file name to keymap_file variable (see here)

By default the us_keymap.json is loaded. To run relaykeys-cli with other keymap either change the cfg setting or use the -c flag on the cli application. E.g.

relaykeys-cli.exe -c .\relaykeys-example.cfg type:@

See more info on the format here

Command: paste

This takes the pasteboard of the computer (i.e. when you copy some text) and pastes the resulting string to RelayKeys

i.e.

relaykeys-cli.exe paste

Command: type:text

Types the string following the :. Note you will need to escape spaces etc

relaykeys-cli.exe type:Hello\ World

A special note about type/paste

You can send special characters, ones that are usually shifted, by sending the key and the shift modifier (see keyevent below). But for the type and paste commands we have some other characters that are hardcoded and it will do the conversion on the fly.

So for example, to send the @ symbol:

relaykeys-cli.exe type:@

All codes which are converted can be seen below. NB: \t = Tab \r\n are line breaks~

Command: keypress:KEY,MODIFIER

Sends the KEY and any modifier, For example:

relaykeys-cli.exe keypress:A

Will emulate pressing and releasing the letter A. What about a shift?

relaykeys-cli.exe keypress:A,LSHIFT

Will emulate pressing the A with Left Shift. i.e. Upper casing the A.

relaykeys-cliexe keypress:RIGHTARROW,LSHIFT,LCTRL

Will press the right arrow, left shit and left control (would select the next word in programs like word)

Modifiers

• Left Control/CTRL: LCTRL

• Left Shift : LSHIFT

• Left Alt/Alt: LALT

• (Left) Meta/Windows Key/Mac Key/Command Key: LMETA Note: On Windows there is generally only one Windows key. So use LMETA to emulate pressing the Windows key

• Right Control/CTRL:: LCTRL

• Right Shift : RSHIFT

• (Right) Meta/Windows Key/Mac Key/Command Key: RMETA

We also have a limited number of consumer keys - namely volume related (if you need others do let us know)

• Volume Up: VOLUP

• Volume Down: VOLDOWN

• Mute: MUTE

So all the other keys are defined below. We will try and explain what these are when its ambiguous

Command: keyevent:KEY,MODIFIER,Up/Down

Emulates holding or releasing one key with a modifer. For example:

relaykeys-cli.exe keyevent:A,LSHIFT,1

Emulates pressing a A with Shift Down. To release:

relaykeys-cli.exe keyevent:A,LSHIFT,0

So a classic example is to emulate pressing the Alt key and Tab key. Commonly used to switch applications. To do this you would need to send two commands.

    relaykeys-cli-win.exe" keyevent:TAB,LALT,1
    relaykeys-cli-win.exe" keyevent:TAB,LALT,0

Command: keyboard_release

Releases any keys that may have been held down, e.g. a modifier Particularly useful if you need to type on one the receiving device with a different keyboard.

Command: mousemove:PixelsRight,PixelsDown

Sends the command to move the mouse x Pixels Right and x Pixels Down. To go in the other direction send negative numbers. Eg. To go Right by 10 and Down by 10

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:10,10

and Left by 10, Up by 10:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:-10,-10

Straight up:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:0,-10

Straight down:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:0,10

Straight right:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:10,0

Straight left:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousemove:-10,0

Command: mousebutton:Button,Behaviour

Sends the Mouse button press. Mouse buttons available:

• L: Left

• R: Right

• M: Middle

• F: Scroll Forward

• B: Scroll Backward

Behaviours:

• click

• doubleclick

Note: If you don't provide a behaviour it will hold and release the button for 0 Seconds.

Send a doubleclick:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousebutton:L,doubleclick

Send a right click:

relaykeys-cli.exe mousebutton:R,click

What about dragging?

Activate Drag Start button

relaykeys-cli mousebutton:L,press

User moves mouse

relaykeys-cli mousemove:x,y

User moves mouse some more

relaykeys-cli mousemove:x,y

user activates Drag Stop button

relaykeys-cli mousebutton:0

Command: delay: nms

Adds a delay. Particularly useful when writing a macro and you need to wait for something to happen on the client operating system.

relaykeys-cli delay:1000

Puts in a a delay of 1 second.

Device Management Commands

Optional extra flags --notfiy --copy

On the following commands you can provide a --notify flag. If so your Operating System will return a system notification. Useful if you dont have access to view the command line. Or if you wish provide a --copy flag. This will return the results to your pasteboard for you to paste the data back. Be careful with this. It will overwrite any copy/paste functions you may already have.

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:devname

Returns the currently connected device

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:devlist

Gets a list of devices that the device has in memory

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:devadd

Put the device into a pairing state

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:devreset

Reset the entire stored devices (its like wiping the volatile memory)

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:switch

Switch the current connected device to the next one in RelayKeys memory

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:switch:"Name" --notify Switches BLE device by the name of a device.

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:devremove=DEVNAME

Remove just one named device from the memory.

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:reconnect

Tells the daemon/server to try and reconnect to the serial port.

relaykeys-cli.exe daemon:switch_mode

Tells the daemon/server to try and switch between wired

relaykeys-cli.exe daemon:get_mode

Returns current mode

relaykeys-cli.exe daemon:dongle_status

Returns whether it is connected or not

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:get_mode

Gets the current mode - wired or wireless

relaykeys-cli.exe ble_cmd:switch_mode

Switches mode from Wired -> Wireless and Wireless-> Wired.

Command: -f file.txt (Macro)

Provide a macro file - where each line in a text file is a cli command. For example ios_open_notes.txt found in the macros directory of the installation folder (i.e at C:\Program Files (x86)\Ace Centre\RelayKeys\maccros)

relaykeys-cli.exe -f ios_open_notes.txt

or like this

relaykeys-cli.exe -f Documents/open_ios_notes.txt

where it reads the file from a file path.. or.. relaykeys-cli.exe -f ./open_ios_notes.txt

where it reads the file in folder where current exe is run from\

where ios_open_notes.txt is:

keypress:H,LMETA
keypress:SPACE,LMETA
type:notes
delay:500
keypress:ENTER