Introducing ... Arduino Mega 2560 USB Micro-Controller

Just arrived, (Iduino) Arduino Mega 2560 ... with its 54 Digital I/O pins and an array of 16 analogue pins.

Needless to say I am going to utilize a large majority of the digital pins!

Much fun is ahead of me now, as I delve into the world of programming this beast.

Essentially, I will be programming it to be an elaborate 'keyboard emulator' ... Telling the Arduino board via C++ and uploading to its onboard chipset what is connected to its pins ... eg: a momentary push button ... (or an LED as shown below) and defining what it is to do if the voltage to that pin is 'High' (5v) or 'Low' (0v) ... attaching this response (on or off) to the desired keyboard 'key function' ... eg: keyboard button 'k'.

In the Train Simulation Software, 'k' might be setup as a 'switch' to cancel the Vigilance system, so by pressing the physical button on the AusRail Cab Sim console, it is communicating to the software this 'k' command, instead of having to press it on the keyboard.

It is also possible to set up MACROS to be triggered from the console. Quite impressive!

Let the fun begin ;)