Converting a USB keyboard to a wireless one

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erotemic
 
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Converting a USB keyboard to a wireless one

Post by erotemic »

I have a Linux PC in my living room that I've currently got connected to a long USB extension cable so I can use the keyboard on the couch. I'm tired of the cables getting caught on things, and I'd like to upgrade my existing keyboard (which is a specialized ergonomic keyboard, so just buying a wireless keyboard is not an option) to be wirelessly connected.

Finding a product for this has been less easy than I would have expected. I came across a reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... _wireless/ that mentioned some products here that might be a good option. However, these seem like much more general components that could be used for a wide variety of projects, and I want to be sure that they can be used for my use-case.

The two products mentioned are:

Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE - https://www.adafruit.com/product/2829

Adafruit Micro-Lipo Charger for LiPo/LiIon Batt w/MicroUSB Jack - https://www.adafruit.com/product/1904

But I think the build will also need a battery itself? I'm not sure which one to get here. Is the 3.7V 105mAh sufficient? https://www.adafruit.com/product/1317

The Bluefruit itself also has several options, loose headers, stacked headers, and pre-soldered headers. For what I have in mind do I even need headers? The idea is that I should just plug it into my keyboard and a battery and then I should be able to pair it with my PC which already has a bluetooth receiver.

While I'm fairly technically component on a software level, I don't have soldering experience or equipment (perhaps it's time to invest in those skills?), so I'm wondering if this build is appropriate for my use case?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Converting a USB keyboard to a wireless one

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

You're right that the Feather and LiPo charger are general purpose development tools, but they will work for a project like a wireless keyboard.

We have several boards that do BLE, and several form factors. The 32u4 BLE board you linked is one of our older ones, and wouldn't be my first suggestion these days. The nRF52832 and nRF52840 both have built in BLE radios, making them a bit easier to program and more power efficient than the 32u4 version (which uses an nRF51822 BLE module).

The idea of simply plugging the keyboard into a microcontroller and getting a wireless device is possible, but not trivial. We have a board that can work as a USB Host:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5723

but it doesn't have built in BLE. You'd have to use an external BLE module, which we do have:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2487

The alternative would be to use a board like the nRF52832 and connect its IO pins directly to your keyboard's switch matrix:

https://learn.adafruit.com/commodore-ke ... cuitpython

Once the microcontroller has identified the keys being pressed, it can transmit that information using BLE just as easily as using USB.

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