Patch day got you down? Here is a Hardware idea

[Bardlover]

Ok, so when I first started playing EQ, I didn't have a lot of time, but I noticed when I went to my friends house seeing him watch a movie while foraging for Planar branches that there were things in EQ that could be done with just pressing 1 key over and over. That started my own Quest. I tore apart RC Cars, Paper shredders, CD-ROM drives, anything with gears and pullies. I made my first foraging machine, Plexiglass and a lot of gears, it pressed my physical spacebar over and over. Then it came time to put things in the bags. Well, not sure if this was before /autoinventory command or iif I just didn't know about it, but I couldn't get the same system working right on the mouse. After a couple more weeks, I found this solution: a 555 timer circut connected to 2 relays that interfaced with my keyboard and mouse with headphone jacks. Nothing could stop me now :), here is a HARDWARE based, aka not against EULA foraging machine. This is what I fall back on on patch days. Flame me if you want, or if you want more details, let me know :)

[missingfiles]

Post some pictures of the finsihed product

[Bardlover]

KK, Here was how I started.



And here is what it became




Macroquest RULES

[bheathrow]

if I abosultly have to forage something and MQ2 is down, I use a product called autotester.

It really sucks ass talking to EQ, even though EQW, but I can send keypresses to EQ easily.

But, it's not as cool of a hack as yours. Kudos!

[Vayeco Dynn]

First off, I just wanna say: cool. lol that, and you're a freak!

Seriously, I could never think of something like that, let alone have the willpower to construcct it, lol

Now for a question:

2 relays that interfaced with my keyboard and mouse with headphone jacks

Do elaborate. I don't have any clue how you're doing this.

[peach]

i always knew KNEX would be used for greatness!

[Wendel]

this kind of reminds me when homer got the drinking bird to do his job at the nuclear plant lol

A long time ago I used to use a devide called the thumper! http://www.thumperv2.com/Index.htm

items would build up on the cursor(do they still do that? it was SOOO long ago)

Then i found xylobot, cool program for doing foraging or spell training.

However nothing compares to MQ!

[Bardlover]

Hehe, Thumper is cool, same concept. Well here was how I did it. You take your Keyboard apart, and look for this chip:



Then you start shorting out the Spider legs comming off it. Start by going Pin 1 to pin 2, pin 1 to pin 3, pin 1 to pin 4... then pin2 to pin 3, pin 2 to pin 4...... On and on till you find which combination gives you the keypress "1". You have to have your keyboard plugged in and computer powered on and in a txt editor so you can see what you are doing to the computer. The Red Line represents how you short them, I just use a 6 inch wire bared at both ends.

OK, so you have found the "Right" combination, you solder 2 wires to the chip as illustrated with the Blue Lines and take those to a Headphone jack available at
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... id=274-248

Then Drill a hole in side of keyboard and mount it.

Then you make the Timer, there are a couple Resistors that control the discharge rate of 2 capacitors, that controls the Timer. So by using different sizes of Capacitors / Resistors, you get different delay times, Mine clicks about every 1.5 Seconds. Then you take the Output of the 555 Timer, also available at raidio shack http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... d=276-1723 and connect them to some Reed Relays. If you value your sanity, don't use standard relays, I leave this running non stop, and the constant clicking if I could hear it would drive me nutz. Reed Relays are quiter. Then take the 2 ends of the Relay, wire the headphone plug to that, I usually just chop the end off an old set of headphones, and wallah, you can Forage all day with no software. PS, I also did this to my mouse which has helped me out a couple times when working on computers and I find I have 17000 viruses and it wants me to click next on each one individually :)

Well, that was it :) Takes about 45 minutes to assemble (personal time may vary) costs about $15 but you will probalbly have leftover parts. and was much easier and cheaper than hitting all the Thrift stores for geared products like I did for my first one buying all kinds of RC Cars and paper shreders :)

[Steelhammer]

all i can say is..... Holy shit lmao, you should be off at harvard or something, lol

[El]

Very nice hack. Love to see these hardware hacks, they always seem so magical :-)

[Bardlover]

BTW 2 Things :
1. How long do we usually have to wait on patch days before we are up and running again?

2. Anyone have a favorite macro that you can put a favorites list on and then when in Bazaar just pull up the list of things you are always looking for? Spiderling silks, blue Diamonds.... I Saw some than you leave running overnight and they always search and scan, not kept looking yet for one that only does that.

[Arune]

Depends on the devs free time, and what was patched. I have seen as little as a couple hours, on up to a week.

Problem recently is SOE put some memory stuff that has to bypassed so it takes a bit before they can get things working in proper order.

Best motivation is to keep donating. More you donate, the more motivated they are to keep plugging away at it.

[ScubaSki]

Down Time sorta depends on the devs working on it. This last patch was a doozy so MQ2 may(or may not depending on the devs genius) be down for awhile.

[notadruid]

Just use AutoFire and a hotkey that does
/pause 100, /doability (# of forage)
/autoinventory

[Bardlover]

What is the purpose for these boards anyway? Everytime I see someone ask for help, they get ripped, they usually get no answers, just the Reiteration to find it yourself. Now, being new to MQ2, I might not have all the answers, but I know that asking sometimes saves a lot of effort. I spent weeks searching for different ways to sandblast text onto marble statue bases. I was getting search results ranging from using dry ice pellets and using the to clean floors with to cleaning car parts. But once I found the right term "photoabrasion" was able to find all the tools and info to help myself.

Now, lets see, I asked for PERSONAL favorites. Gave a review of the ones I HAD seen, and gave a more precise description of what I was looking for with the invitation to share tools that you enjoy. If the Open Source community all about putting your work up for people to use but if they have a question you are critical, then boards should be closed with the exception of posting completed works.
Just my $0.02

PS, I do understand getting frustrated with the Gimme attitude, but in the words of Thumper the Great "if you can't say anything nice, don't say nuttin at all" MQ Is not a precompiled program that most people are used to using, what is more, all the plug-ins and macros have to be installed individually and again are not precompiled. Maybe you could save your own time and energies and if you don't feel like posting a productive response when someone asks for help, you could go on to the next MSG and make room for people more willing to help.