Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

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CYMotorsport
 
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Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by CYMotorsport »

I've got extensive history with your nRF52840 but it got me thinking:

Is there was a way to transform an existing split keyboard that uses a TRRS cable to connect the two halves powered by a USB cable into a bluetooth board that doesn't require a USB connection? With the understanding that the TRRS will still be needed to connect to allow the two halves to communicate.

Do you have a product I can look into the viability of making this work? I've attached an image of the keyboard just so you have a picture of what I'm talking about. I have a 32u4 board but not sure that's entirely useful for a keyboard with an existing pcb. I searched the forums and couldn't find exactly this same scenario but apologies if I missed it and this is repetitive.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by mikeysklar »

It looks like the code exists. Running on CircuitPython using the nRF52840s.
Bluetooth split support #169
...
Initial support added, and this can be closed when that merges. We will deal with the issues related when they come up.

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CYMotorsport
 
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Re: Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by CYMotorsport »

It appears the closed case is simply their desire to merge the issue and are still working on UART protocols but I could be mistaken.

Are you thinking the below means that it's possible to run on nRF52840s or they are implementing them?
"Running on CircuitPython using the nRF52840s."

What exactly is the takeaway? Does the "Code exists" mean you think it's possible? It does appear they have tackled the issue but from the logs I didn't get the impression it's ready to go. But maybe once you elaborate I'll understand better.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by mikeysklar »

By saying that the code exists I'm implying that putting together a BT split keyboard is a realistic goal. This is from the code merge June 20th 2021:
We need to mark BT splits as BETA, and we can't offer a guarantee, but I believe that they may work, and they were in a pretty beta state last I left them. It "worked" but it was not smooth, seamless, or easy.

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CYMotorsport
 
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Re: Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by CYMotorsport »

gotcha - but not transforming an existing one into a non wired keyboard using any adafruit hardware?

I just spoke with their team and beyond the hardware issues they are hitting re: reliability, things you pointed to in that merge, etc, it's a licensing issue. I'll consider this closed unless there is indeed some USB Bridge Bluetooth Adapter in the store I'm unfamiliar with that someone can point to so I can do some investigation into viability on my end.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Making a Non-Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth

Post by mikeysklar »

Adafruit does not have any guides or hardware currently to easily convert a full size USB keyboard into a wireless BLE / BT.

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