Bluetooth Poker?

cookie · 01 Sep 2015, 14:47

Hey folks,

I just stumbled over this here: http://www.pcwaishe.cn/article-12859-1.html
Seems very interesting despite the fact that I can't read this. Has anyone an idea what dis guy did?
I see a battery, I read "based on GH60", I see Gateron switches but I have no clue what PCB this is nor what Bluetooth controller he used.

I'd love to have a poker as HTPC keyboard

Can someone enlighten me?

Cheers

scottc · 01 Sep 2015, 14:51

The original page won't load at all for me, it's so slow... However, using archive.org as a proxy I was able to get around that.

From the marks on the PCB, I see it says "BLE" (= Bluetooth Low Energy, usually, but hold on tight). Later on, another sentence on the PCB reads "BLE is based on GH60 rev. B"

So, maybe some adaptation of the Chinese GH60 clones?

Edit: Got it on TaoBao! http://world.taobao.com/item/5200306587 ... 7uN#detail
Edit 2: And another cheaper one with a metal (???) case: http://world.taobao.com/item/5210700514 ... 7uN#detail

flabbergast · 01 Sep 2015, 15:05

Looks interesting. However unless they publish the firmware sources (I suppose modified TMK, the Chinese often seem to do that), I'm not getting one - changing layouts and adjusting settings is then either not possible or possible via some (usually weird) gui.

Also - metal case with a BLE board? That must decrease the range and increase battery drain quite a lot.

But it's good that these things are starting to show up - there will be a working and well documented project soon, I'm sure

Ray · 01 Sep 2015, 15:41

Quite some stuff of TMK is licensed under GPLv2 or later, so that would mean if they fork it and sell a product, the customer has to be able to get a copy of the fork, amirite?
Well, since it comes out of China, chances are they just don't care about IP, so this is a rather technical thought

scottc · 01 Sep 2015, 16:02

Ray wrote: ↑Quite some stuff of TMK is licensed under GPLv2 or later, so that would mean if they fork it and sell a product, the customer has to be able to get a copy of the fork, amirite?
Well, since it comes out of China, chances are they just don't care about IP, so this is a rather technical thought

Yep, that's right. Not even necessarily if they sell it, if they fork it and then even gave away the product they'd still have to provide the modified source (as far as I know). Like you said, good luck making them listen though.

cookie · 01 Sep 2015, 16:27

Ushhh, 150 bugs for a PCB is a lot.

Muirium · 01 Sep 2015, 17:16

Open source means something different in China. They have a… "permissive" reading of software licenses over there. Open = yoink!