I have a question. I bought a roll up membrane keyboard for cheap and it is USB, I was wondering if there is a process where I can make it into a wireless/bluetooth keyboard. Is there something (PCB board something of that nature) that I could get to transmit bluetooth from the USB Keyboard. Any idea's will help, I really liked this idea for college and being on my couch at home.
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Making a USB Wireless Keyboard
- Thread starter BSBarrows
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lee1210
macrumors 68040
I couldn't find anything like this and don't know that such a thing exists. The small brick you'd need to hold batteries, a small circuit board, an antenna and a usb port wouldn't be all that compact.
If you really want to build it yourself I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start. You'd need a board with a usb port, a port for a bluetooth antenna, a bluetooth controller, and some sort of programmable gate array to implement the communication between the USB and bluetooth and vice versa (the computer can send signals to turn on the 3 leds). You'd also have to deal with (I have no idea how this works) advertising that the device is a standard keyboard, or respond to a device id/type query with that, so a computer would know what it's dealing with.
If you're going to give it a go, good luck, but only do it because you think it's fun, as it is totally impractical compared to buying a bluetooth keyboard.
-Lee
If you really want to build it yourself I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start. You'd need a board with a usb port, a port for a bluetooth antenna, a bluetooth controller, and some sort of programmable gate array to implement the communication between the USB and bluetooth and vice versa (the computer can send signals to turn on the 3 leds). You'd also have to deal with (I have no idea how this works) advertising that the device is a standard keyboard, or respond to a device id/type query with that, so a computer would know what it's dealing with.
If you're going to give it a go, good luck, but only do it because you think it's fun, as it is totally impractical compared to buying a bluetooth keyboard.
-Lee
I am just going to buy a cheap wireless keyboard, take it apart and see what I can do from that. I might just be able to interface the two. thanks for idea's people, always good to have a springboard.
tehere are wireless usb transmitters but they are pretty useless for quick response devices like keyboards
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
I agree. By the time you buy two keyboards and the supplies to try to convert, not to mention the time and effort, you could spend $69 and get a refurbished Apple Wireless Keyboard, complete with warranty.