I'm hoping to use Rock Band 3's piano keyboard/keytar in an App I'm working on. Does anyone know if this is possible? I'm not even sure how I would connect it to my computer, since it's wireless and has no USB jack. Thanks, any help would be appreciated!

No idea if it's possible. As far as connecting it to a PC, you could try using the connecter that comes with http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=090 . But if it works, you'd still need to see if the input maps at all or if the connection uses special drivers on the Xbox that aren't available through XNA currently. If you can test through an Xbox, I'd start with that to avoid spending the money on a wireless controller thing.

Cool! I'll give that adapter a shot if I can find one for cheap. But I'm not very optimistic, the keys are colour-coded to the face buttons, but have no effect in any menu or game other than RB3. If and when I do get that adapter, I'll use the tools mentioned in this thread ( http://xboxforums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/22640/121140.aspx ) to find out what the inputs are. Thanks!

At it's root, you can use the keyboard entirely as any other MIDI device and plug it into a MIDI port on your soundcard, or through a MIDI->USB adapter into the USB. I don't know whether it will transfer the data for the non-keyboard parts of the device though (face buttons, analog panel, etc).

Not sure if this is useful to you:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd254801.aspx

Im looking into this vis the rockband midi adapter (which i assume the wireless stuff uses the same protocol)

I did some testing on it at one point and there were some notes it simply wasn't possible to ascertain for the RB3 Keytar (it's been a while, but I think it was the upper octave). My best guesses were either that it uses a custom driver or else the conversion between the XINPUT struct ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.directx_sdk.reference.xinput_gamepad(VS.85).aspx ) which uses a short for each thumbstick axis and a byte for each trigger and XNA's GamePad struct (which uses floats for everything) obliterates some information or makes it really hard to ascertain. I forget whether I checked to see if it was feeding anything via Keyboard.GetState(PlayerIndex) - it might be doing that on top of GamePad in order to get extra data channels. That might be worth exploring.

Bob Taco Industries:

My best guesses were either that it uses a custom driver or else the conversion between the XINPUT struct

Even if you can get them to work, make sure to check with the company who makes them, they may be proprietary. Nothing puts a stop to indie development like a good old fashion lawsuit, so make sure you're not violating any copyrights by implementing them in your game.

Is the input device for the Wii, Xbox, or Playstation?

unfortunately for them, its not proprietary, its XInput. Yes, theyve used it in a weird way, but under DMCA rules, everything we do for compatibility reasons is nonpunishable. However, using the name of the product can be considered trade mark infringement.

i think youve misunderstood. its for xbox. Which is the platform we are trying to use it on. The issue isnt comms between device and console - its what to do with the data we get.

If any of you got this working nicely, it would be cool if you could post some sample code :D