Now the rest of the story: Sorry, I didn't do a great job of explaining the problem.
The objects we are "processing" are donated goods. We have no idea what they are ahead of time. These objects are broken onto six major categories and then by value. The value given to the object ranges from 50 cents on up. At this point, we are only interested in three categories (textiles, books, and Shoes) and the price ranges in each of .50,.75,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, and >7. There is a bin for each value point, but the object may be any one of the tree categories.
Now, the keyboard device that I created put three buttons in each bin. One button is to be mapped to one alpha numeric key stroke on the computer and the other two would be mapped to the alt or ctrl keys, thus changing the ascii code returned by the first key. The problem with this arrangement is that it is a wiring nightmare. I don't have any problem getting the buttons out to there locations using a conventional 25 conductor serial cable. The problem is at the machine with the device that replaces the keyboard. First, there is now no keyboard for other functions like bulk entry, and second, it looks like an old style switch board from the early 20th century.
I was hoping that there might be a way to send back a numeric value to the serial port indicating the bin and category selected What I would truly like to have is something that could send back something in the form BBCC where BB would be bin 00 throu 99 and CC would be category 00 through 99.
Do we feel challenged yet? Please remember that you are talking to a software developer who is interested in electronics and even started an EE degree, but never got past the point of understanding simple electricity and a extreemly vague understanding of resisters, capasitors, and diodes and such.
Thanks in advance. You'all are great for even considering this mess.
Charlie