Stowaway Shasta Bluetooth Keyboard

[JohnStrand]

Hello!
I bought my 770 IT second hand, and just love it! I use it as a replacement for my laptop, and am hoping to start doing some programming on it. That said, I bought a Stowaway shasta Bluetooth keyboard at a CompUSA going-out-of-business sale for $30. It is brand new, and while it said for Blackberry, I thought Bluetooth was Bluetooth, kind of like Wi-Fi is Wi-Fi, right? Well, then I found out the difference, and now I want to find out if there is a driver I can install for this keyboard, or do I just sell the keyboard and buy a HID compatible one? I don't like the prices of the ones I have seen on eBay, so I was hoping for a solution that would allow me to use this keyboard. That's the joy of open source and linux right? Thanks for the info!

[Karel Jansens]

Hello!
I bought my 770 IT second hand, and just love it! I use it as a replacement for my laptop, and am hoping to start doing some programming on it. That said, I bought a Stowaway shasta Bluetooth keyboard at a CompUSA going-out-of-business sale for $30. It is brand new, and while it said for Blackberry, I thought Bluetooth was Bluetooth, kind of like Wi-Fi is Wi-Fi, right? Well, then I found out the difference, and now I want to find out if there is a driver I can install for this keyboard, or do I just sell the keyboard and buy a HID compatible one? I don't like the prices of the ones I have seen on eBay, so I was hoping for a solution that would allow me to use this keyboard. That's the joy of open source and linux right? Thanks for the info!

If the Blackberry keyboard is serial transfer compatible, you could try Fanoush's kbdd drivers:

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

I never tried them myself, so further requests for info or support should be directed to Fanoush.

[JohnStrand]

Thanks for the quick response! I'll update this post when I get it working.

[JimRooney]

Yup... did the same thing myself.
Oh the difference "Shasta" is from "Universal" ;)
I have a Think Outside Stowaway Universal now and love it.

I'll be interested to hear if you find a way to make the Shasta work.
Jim

[vees]

I just got my Stowaway Sierra bluetooth keyboard and while pricey, it is very good. I reccommend it without reservations, but I would be interested in hearing more about the Shasta

[TA-t3]

I would love to get a foldable BT keyboard.. but I want one with national letters. The only one I know about doesn't use HID. I could probably use a German one and re-label it somehow, but the US layout is physically different and would be inconvenient. But I can't find any German (or any non-US) version of the Stoway, for example. (Small "arrgh.." is there a smiley for those kind of utterings?)

[Karel Jansens]

I would love to get a foldable BT keyboard.. but I want one with national letters. The only one I know about doesn't use HID. I could probably use a German one and re-label it somehow, but the US layout is physically different and would be inconvenient. But I can't find any German (or any non-US) version of the Stoway, for example. (Small "arrgh.." is there a smiley for those kind of utterings?)

I have a German (QWERTZ) HID Stowaway. Someone printed "Dell" on it, but it works with my N800 nevertheless.

[gammer]

The Stowaway QWERTZ version is not usable. No bluetooth problems, but keys are incorrectly mapped and this cannot be fixed in HID mode. See related thread in this forum.

[vees]

yep, I also had a language problem and when i tried switching the keyboard to russian the stowaway continued to print english letters. also, there is no pointer of any kind on this keyboard so it is a pain to have to constantly grab the stylus to navigate the windowa. has anyone found a solution for that?

Cheers!

[JohnStrand]

Just to update the post, I tried the Fanoush drivers, and emailed with him, but couldn't get the keyboaard to stay connected. I am sttill going to keep working on it,but it might be awhile. Thanks for all the posts!

[JohnStrand]

I bit the bullet and bought a keyboard with HID drivers. I am actually using it to type this message. It works right out og the box. I know Linux is all about empowerment, but I also think it is about use-ability also. When I have the time I might go back and try to figure out how to make the Blackberry-only keyboard work, or if Fanoush wants it to update the drivers, I would be happy to send it to him for testing purposes. Thanks for everyone's suggestions, and I will keep reading the threads for updates.
Fanoush, you have my email address, so let me know if you need a Blackberry only keyboard. Take care!

[fanoush]

I'll be interested to hear if you find a way to make the Shasta work.
Jim
Hello. I have received Shasta keyboard from John and it seems to work with kbdd with the 'btfoldable' type. One issue is that the Shasta has different key labels on some keys so I need to make new mapping for it but it can be used even as is if iPAQ Foldable layout doesn't bother you. The difference can be seen on this image http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/Shasta-ipaqFoldable.jpg
The problematic keys are in left bottom corner, Escape,Menu,Alt,Fn on Shasta is in fact Ctrl,Fn,Windows,Alt on iPAQ Foldable. If that doesn't bother you than it can be said the Shasta works fine with kbdd.

Also with the latest kbdd version mentioned here
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6635
turning the keyboard on and off should be more stable and hopefully without any surprises. The initial configuration phase is still a pain for newbie but once you have it configured and the menu shortcut works, it should be usable.

I will add Shasta mapping to kbdd for the Menu,Alt,Fn to work as expected. As for escape I think it is better to leave it like it is on ipaq foldable, i.e. Escape in top left corner, Ctrl in bottom left corner. Opinions? Anyone really wants Ctrl in top left and Escape in bottom left corner on his Shasta keyboard?

Also in relatively near future I will make kbdd installable package without needing becomeroot. Later I'll also add optional graphical utility to search for the keyboard and create btkbd.conf automatically so osso-xterm or ssh is not needed for initial configuration. This work is sponsored by John's keyboard :-)

[zorg]

I'm slightly puzzled by this thread because I think my bluetooth keyboard is the "Shasta" type and it works fine out of the box. I think I just had to identify it as a standard keyboard rather than the Nokia keyboard. I use the ctrl key and both the blue and green Fn keys without problems.

The only problem I have had with this keyboard is that it sometimes repeats keys even if I don't hold the key down too long. This can be frustrating.

I have an old Stowaway keyboard similar to the new one (it folds into four parts and needs a flat surface), so I decided to go with the "Shasta" model because I never used to carry the old one. It was supposed to be used with a Palm V, but was too cumbersome for note-taking and I eventually just got a better laptop for note taking.

I took the "Shasta" keyboard and the N800 to a conference recently instead of a laptop, thinking to take notes. I found it MUCH more difficult to shift my focus to the N800 screen from the presenter than I ever have with a laptop. Athough the "Shasta" keyboard doesn't need a flat surface, I did find that having the N800 and the keyboard as two separate pieces was inconvenient in my lap, but easier for carrying (one in each pocket).

Overall, I like the convenience of this keyboard, but I am not carrying it everywhere even though it is more convenient than the old one. This is partly because of my poor eyesight. If you find it easy to look at the screen, you may find the keyboard worthwhile ...

[fanoush]

That's strange. The one I got from John has "Stowaway Shasta Bluetooth Keyboard for Blackberry" on the box and supports only SPP bluetooth profile. The product description is here
http://www.thinkoutside.com/products/stwbbbt/stowawaybbbt_product.html
manual is here
http://www.thinkoutside.com/support/download.asp?did=167&pid=25&link=/support/Download%20Support/RIM/En/om/Stowaway%20Shasta%20Owner%20Manual.pdf

[zorg]

Oops! I'm sorry. I would delete my previous post if I could! Mine is the Sonoma, not Shasta! My previous post was hasty and problematic in other ways. I referred to my "old" Stowaway keyboard (about 5 years old, but looks just like the Sierra). That's probably confusing because the Sonoma, although I just got it, is also old (I see reviews for it from around 2005). So it was just a poorly worded post even without my confusing the Shasta and Sonoma.

It might have been more informative to just say that even a relatively trouble-free keyboard doesn't turn the N800 into a laptop replacement, because the separation of the keyboard and screen and the small screen size make it fundamentally different. In some situations that will work, and in others it will not.

Given a choice between Sierra and Sonoma, I prefer Sonoma because it is rigid when unfolded (doesn't need a flat surface) and is about half the thickness of the Sierra, so I'm more likely to take it with me. I have, as it turns out, zero experience with the Shasta!