Does any one know of some instructions on how to create a bluetooth keyboard from and arduino or any other programmable chip.
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M$2 Answers
I can only think of 1 reason to build a bluetooth keyboard. That would be if you really like the keyboard you have. I have such a keyboard but I am on the edge regarding hacking it.
Can you guess how I might do it?
I am thinking of buying that $30 rubber keyboard (BTW, if you look, you can find some rather questionable bluetooth keyboards for less) and ripping it apart. With luck, I figure there is a 1 in 3 chance I can get it to work with my keyboard.
If you think reusing the already set up bluetooth guts from the $30 keyboard instead of something like the Arduino (sp?) is a cop out, please keep in mind there are no bluetooth development boards that come close to $30. I think sparkfun's board is over $100.
But will this work for you? Probably not. You are probably starting with a standard keyboard modeled after an IBM/AT keyboard reinvented along the way to use a USB port. I am starting with a Thinkoutside keyboard which is essentially pushing out something that looks like an RS232 port.
But, I am thinking, if you separate the keyboard from the circuit board for both keyboards and move the bluetooth guts to the other keyboard you might have a chance. The problem will be the keyboard arrangement. Keyboard switches are arranged in a matrix of rows and columns. 100 key can be scanned using only 10 rows and 10 columns by a processor. If the $30 keyboard switches are not in the exact same matrix as the keyboard you are moving the bluetooth guts to you are out of luck. And I would suggest not to try and rewire the keyboard. Today's keyboards are cheap cheap cheap. There is possibly nothing more then several sheets of plastic with a flexible printer circuit board printed on them. Modifying this will be a wast of time and / or a test of your patients.
In the end I would suggest you buy a ready made bluetooth keyboard and find something else to hack on. If you are a programmer may I suggest you help out with an established open source project like Audacity, Inkscape or Mythtv.
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M$-Straight up, a solid and reliable RS232 - bluetooth dev. board is well over $100, by itself.
You'll still need something to mitigate the communication between keyboard and BT module. Using a crap Atmel AVR and some spare parts and a kyboard, we may end up with something like a $120-$130 BT-crap-keyboard.
-Taking the full-on, lame newb route using the Arduino and corresponding Arduino BT shield we can have a working BT environment in about the time it takes to watch 'Sex in the City'. It will still cost about $100+ and people will laugh at you for 'not taking it off the board.' Probably easier than the first option.
-The last, and probably easiest option, would be to PURCHASE a bluetooth keyboard. I got the Logitech MX 5500 keyboard/mouse combo last week and it's awesome. That cost me about $150, but I've seen BT keyboards w/ trackpads for as low as $75. Hack the firmware and you're in business.
And now it's all about the time/money trade-off. How much time vs. money are you willing to put in? A DIY BT keyboard would be sweet, but the work required would be intense. Not to mention, encryption is the first thing I think of when I hear bluetooth, and I guess the plus side to all that work is that you could have the first quantum encrypted BT network.
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M$
Well i Thank you for the information but the comment about lame newb was not need. I had a valid question about where to look for the information on how to accomplish what i was looking on doing. i am a programmer by trade so digging into articles to figure something out i something that i like to do. If you know of any good articles about this process instead of posting nasty comments about some one doing something in one instead of the way you would do it. Would be allot more helpful to me and the rest of the people that might want to take on a project like this.
The 'lame newb' comment describes the process of using the Arduino to accomplish the task, it's not directed towards you. The Arduino is a very useful prototyping device, BUT it's a PROTOTYPING device. What you develop on the Arduino needs to be taken off of the Arduino and corresponding shields and worked into a different build. Keeping an arduino in a project is a lot like Lance Armstrong using training wheels during the tour de France.
I don't trust those cheap BT keyboards. You have to be careful about those. I got one from China once and it turned out it was actually RF instead of BT. We once had a competition at a LAN party to see who could play the farthest away from the screen. I had my Logitech MX 5500 and my friend had some keyboard he got for like $50 which went about a third of the distance mine went away from the computers. I feel as if you pay for the quality, the distance.
Ah, well... humm... not actually having used a BT keyboard I can only parrot what the instructions say... In short, I believe you need the number keys to enter the BT pairing information. So you might not be able to get away with only the two pots.
Let me think about this....
Thank you so much for all your information. Just as a side not as far as disabling it on one computer the enabling it on another is not so much of a problem seeing how the computer have a distance between them of about 5 mile so i can just have the connection active on both computer and when i am near one use it there and when near the other use it on that one. The other idea i was thinking of is taking a small hand held bt-keyboard then using something to send the same signal to the bluetooth module as the key press would. The only thing with that is i am not sure how to figure out what that signal would be.
Well The thing of it is. The project that i am wanting to do is create something that looks to a computer as a bt-keyboard but is just a set of potentiometer that with the combination of the two will seen a certain set of keystrokes to the computer. i would also like to make it so that it is hand held. The reason i would like to have it work like a bt-keyboard is that i want to have it work on multiple computers with out having to install a interface program on each computer.
...and the answer is... a question:
Can you put up w/moving a USB dongle between computers you want to control with this thing-a-ma-jig?
If you can, then why not pick up a wireless mouse. I find these (proprietary ?) wireless device (especially the newer ones) to be much more dependable then the BT ones. I have several wireless mice and I use them, even the cheap crappy one! I have one Micro$oft BT mouse and it is sitting on top of an old printer (last I saw it).
Rip that mouse apart and hack in you pot data as a string of pulses activating the mouse left (i.e. for zero) and right (i.e. for one) buttons. I am guessing, but I think you will find these mice will last longer on a set of batteries then their BT equivalents.
Also, I am not sure how happy you will be with trying to switch a BT mouse (or keyboard or what ever) from one computer to another. As most want to set up and leave BT connections running, there is no much said about switching between BT hosts. In the end it might be much easier to extract and insert a dongle then to enable and disable a particular BT device on a computer.
I think to send a signal from you box to a bt keyboard then to the computer is getting too obfuscated (look up Rube Goldburg). Besides, you will have to hack the keyboard to receive any such signal. But if you must, I'd look at the wireless MPS430 development kits sold by TI.com to promote their silicon. Humm.... why not just toss (chuck) the whole BT thing out the window. Just buy the TI.com development kits. Buy enough so you have two USB dongle type receivers and one transmitter (note, all 3 transceivers are the same and are about the size of a US 1/2 dollar or English pound). The difference, you'll need the development-kit-thumb-drive-looking-thing to plug the transceivers into when they are connected/talking to the computers over their USB ports. The 3rd transceiver will be in your pot box. It needs 3V. You will certainly have to program the 3rd transceiver. You may not have to program the other two. But you will have to come up with your own application to run on the PC. You will have to download the TI.com SDK for the MPS430 chip. That's free for the asking.
Here's a picture of the development kit hardware:
It's a lot of work. You should be able to arrive at exactly what you want. The development kits should cost you no more than $150 US, probably more like $75. And when you are done all I'll obligate you to do is to post the details somewhere on the web so the rest of us don't have to suffer as much as you do.