cheaper bluetooth folding keyboards [Archive] - maemo.org

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speculatrix

02-19-2007, 06:14 AM

russ

02-19-2007, 06:30 AM

They look a lot cheaper...but has anyone tried one to be sure it works 100% with the N800?

Karel Jansens

02-19-2007, 06:37 AM

when I saw the price of the Nokia folding keyboard I though OUCH! US$150!!!

then I discovered these babies:
http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/search.php?st=category|Bluetooth%20Keyboard&GCID=S16828x001&KEYWORD=bluetooth%2bkeyboard

only half the price! hopefully this will be the first of a slew of mini bluetooth keyboards we could use.

That is a version/clone of the Freedom Bluetooth Keyboard. I have one of those and I can confirm that it is NOT HID-compliant and requires special drivers, which are not provided for Linux or the Internet Tablet. It can be made to work with the IT, but it is not straightforward and people have reported problems with the N800.

So, cheap: Yeah. "Slew": no. "Use": not easily.

Also, why the site mentions "Due soon" is beyond me: That keyboard has been out for ages; I got mine off eBay a year ago.

Mind you, as a keyboard it's not half bad: it has a dedicated row of number keys (extremely important for everyone who has ever tried to spreadsheet with the ThinkOutside) and, despite its looks, it's sturdy enough. It is however less stiff than the ThinkOutside keyboard (it really needs a flat surface to work properly), there is a little more hassle to open it (two sliders to operate) and it doesn't seem to pair automatically either.

hemplacrosse4

02-19-2007, 08:57 AM

Speaking of keyboards does have anyone have any brands/model that will def work for the 800 that are trouble free of installing and that are cheaper then 100 bucks or am i just dreaming?

vmr_n800

02-23-2007, 07:44 AM

speculatrix

02-23-2007, 09:28 AM

Just received a "Freedom Universal Keyboard" which states to be "Dual Standard HID/SPP".

pairing fails in HID mode (N800 message is "Authentication failure"). Pairing is successful in SPP mode but I guess that does not take me anywhere either. So, no joy with this thing and N800...

what happens if you tweak your /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf to disable authentication & encryption?

if you try "hcitool scan" then "l2ping xx:xx:..." can you ping the keyboard?

vmr_n800

02-28-2007, 05:17 PM

with a bit of trawling through the user mailing lists, I bumped into a "serial driver" that works with the Freedom Universal keyboard. It has fairly simple installation and configuration and can be found at:

http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#kbdd

Note that for "Freedom Universal" the default kbtype ("btfoldable") seems to work.

urilabob

07-26-2007, 07:28 AM

what happens if you tweak your /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf to disable authentication & encryption?

if you try "hcitool scan" then "l2ping xx:xx:..." can you ping the keyboard?

Sorry to reply to an ancient thread, but it has the most useful information I've found yet for my problem. I'm trying to connect a GG Telecom Smart Keyboard BTK-6000 (naaah, let's not go into the reasons - suffice to say there's not much option. It comes with proprietary drivers for palm, win ce, and some phones; but certainly not for the N800). Based on the above, I can ping the keyboard OK.

With the stock standard hcid.conf, it finds the keyboard, but an attempt to pair gives "Pairing failed. Authentication failed" (whether I have it set as trusted device or no).

I tried modding hcid.conf by changing 'security user' to 'security none' (couldn't find where to turn off encryption). The effect, strangely enough, was to cause the keyboard to be no longer found at all. So certainly not progress....

Does anyone have any ideas on what this means? Or what can be done next?

luketoh

07-26-2007, 11:28 PM

Hi Urilabob

http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#kbdd

I think the link above holds the answer....as per VMR_N800's post above yours...

luketoh

07-26-2007, 11:28 PM

Hi Urilabob

http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#kbdd

I think the link above holds the answer....as per VMR_N800's post above yours...

Luke

urilabob

07-27-2007, 12:46 AM

Hi Urilabob

http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#kbdd

I think the link above holds the answer....as per VMR_N800's post above yours...

Luke

Yes, I looked at that but I'm not sure it's a full solution for me. The difficulty is, my keyboard is a Chinese-made system aimed at the Korean market; since I don't speak Korean, I have to ask people to check stuff for me, and from what I can tell, the Korean distributors seem to be just resellers with no technical knowledge. So getting info on the keyboard is difficult - right now, I don't even know if it's HID or SP, and don't know how to check. For sure, getting enough info to write a keyboard profile looks next-to-impossible, except by querying the keyboard itself - which I think is what I need to do.

urilabob

07-27-2007, 10:58 PM

Yes, I looked at that but I'm not sure it's a full solution for me. The difficulty is, my keyboard is a Chinese-made system aimed at the Korean market; since I don't speak Korean, I have to ask people to check stuff for me, and from what I can tell, the Korean distributors seem to be just resellers with no technical knowledge. So getting info on the keyboard is difficult - right now, I don't even know if it's HID or SP, and don't know how to check. For sure, getting enough info to write a keyboard profile looks next-to-impossible, except by querying the keyboard itself - which I think is what I need to do.

Well, it turns out I was too pessimistic. Having enabled root - for which, see
http://www.karoliinasalminen.com/blog/?page_id=68
I installed kbdd. The default setting of btfoldable (i.e. the HP iPAQ foldable
bluetooth keyboard) didn't work, but setting keyboard to 'freedom' (i.e. the Freedom Keyboard) did! I'm not sure whether all the Korean-language bells and whistles on the keyboard work (actually, I doubt maemo supports hangul or hanja yet anyway), but the basic functionality is there.

Thanks guys!!