Bluetooth mod for HHKB

[woody]

Some LEDs are bright enough even at 2-3 mA, you can go further down just for indication. But with the classic series (current limiting) resistor additional energy is wasted in the resistor itself, as the total will be V*I anyway. With 5V power supply and 2mA current that still makes good 10mW power draw.

[matt3o]

I am sure that with a super brilliant controller code you can obtain decent battery life, but at the end the bottleneck is that v5. How much of a bottleneck is that I have no idea, but as far I remember Hasu was able to squeeze just few days out of his BT HHKB.

[Muirium]

Are you sure he wasn't still using the stock controller? Power saving is a chain, and that controller is its weakest link.

[matt3o]

Are you sure he wasn't still using the stock controller? Power saving is a chain, and that controller is its weakest link.

yes I'm pretty sure he was using his own controller.

[Muirium]

I've asked Xwhatsit what he reckons.

The intriguing thing here is that there's enough of us out there who want Bluetooth HHKBs we could potentially get a volume discount on a full replacement PCB, to route around the problem entirely. That way we would have fully programmable controllers as well as wireless! Well, extrapolating that someone knows Bluetooth and wants to do the work…

[matt3o]

I've asked Xwhatsit what he reckons.

The intriguing thing here is that there's enough of us out there who want Bluetooth HHKBs we could potentially get a volume discount on a full replacement PCB, to route around the problem entirely. That way we would have fully programmable controllers as well as wireless! Well, extrapolating that someone knows Bluetooth and wants to do the work…

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=12047.0

[hasu]

Forgive me resurrecting this zombie thread, but I have one of these EZ-key units on the way (before I read all this *sigh*) and was wondering if anyone has gotten any further with it. Maybe written a replacement firmware?

EZ-key with the latest firmware will be great for HHKB mod. bcg converted his model M into Bluetooth keyboard without a problem.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=58015.0

Discussion on limitation of EZ-key was based on its older firmware and ill-documented.

[matt3o]

I was hoping hasu would chime in thanks

[cookie]

I am so tempted to try this out on my Pro1... It's the one I carry around the most.
But I have to finish some stuff first

[Muirium]

The EZ key no longer stinks? Oh, now we're talking!

Wait a minute…

Reading through the tutorial on Adafruit, I did however groan at this part:

Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 2500mAh



I've chosen a 2500mAh battery for this project, but you could substitute a smaller battery if you'd like as well. However the Model M has plenty of space inside to fit a decently sized battery, and the 30 year old electronics draw a respectable amount of current so the extra capacity is nice to have.

I've found that this size battery allows for approximately 24 hours of operation on a full charge.

https://learn.adafruit.com/convert-your ... ur-keybord

So, hideous battery life even without a capsense keyboard, eh? REPLACEMENT CONTROLLER PLZ!!!1!1!ONE!!

In fact, now I've done reading the whole thing, he agrees on the last page. If there's an encore with this project which does replace the controller wholesale, I'd consider it for my SSK!

[scottc]

His fork of TMK could be quite useful for you and your new Pro Micro, Mu. If I understand correctly, you should be able to flash it directly from the Arduino IDE.

[Muirium]

Thanks for helping me realise the obvious!

These cheap Pro Micros could be quite useful for making Bluetooth controllers, as well. Perhaps I'd better grab an EZ key and the battery stuff, in preparation…

[scottc]

This particular project seems to only have support for the PS2 converter part of TMK. I wonder how much effort would be required to port the controller. Hmm...

[Muirium]

I downloaded the Arduino IDE, and the first thing OS X tells me is that Java must be installed and, like, srsly, it's old and crusty and full of security holes, just don't do it man…

Anyway, I'm definitely intrigued by the newly actually useful EZ key. That little module has Bluetooth keyboards written all over it. Hopefully!

[scottc]

Yep, the IDE is written in Java, unfortunately.

I'm pretty excited about the EZ key too - I'm definitely going to give it a go at some point.

[cookie]

Nothing is wrong with JAVA!

[wheybags]

cookie, I'm afraid you have to leave...

[Muirium]

I'll give him the benefit of the boozy summer night's doubt.

[cookie]

Blasphemy!

I am actaully verry happy with Java, like every language it has its strengths and weaknesses.
Java is my daily business so it's more bearable to like it than to dislike! I kinda like the idea of the VM and compatibility on several OSs (On paper). Unfortunately this is not always the truth... On one hand it's nice to have a Garbage Collector and never ever worry about managing your memory, on the other hand you will get used to bad habits really quick and memory leaks are harder to find!

Sometimes I really miss the freedom to define own types and have unsigned primitive datatypes!
I've written a relatively complex WAV file checker and it was a pain in the buttock to always make sure that the sample values are correct. It is full of unnecessary bitshifting and stuff... Would have been a cake in C!

Please have some more love for java, java is loving you too!

[scottc]

No unsigned datatypes is so annoying.

As for manual memory management, nice stuff in C++ like smart pointers make it a lot easier to reason about the ownership of pointers. Still not idiot-free, but a lot closer than C.

[hasu]

I was woking on my project with RN-42 these days. That module is not so flexible to configuration in comparison with WT12 but it works like a charm. Without any power saving tricks, it lasts 9 hours with 850mA Lipo battery. Yeah, it is really poor battery performance, but not bad for my assuming use case, like short coffee shop coding session.

[matt3o]

Incredible work Hasu, thanks for sharing. We definitely need to find a way to pump that battery life!

[cookie]

My Pro1 would go wireless imediately

There could also be a slightly other approach, to have some kind of foundation which manages all the wireless stuff, you just have to plug your mouse and keyboard into and have your favorite devices as wireless without touching the electronics.

Take a look on the roccat sova: http://www.ownthecouch.gg/site.php

I think it would be a charm for all folks who would like to use their 60% keyboards and mices on the couch without modding them into wireless. You can equip them with giant batteries to overcome the bad power management of usually wired hardware.

I like the Idea that I can plug my HHKB and mouse into a aluminium plate and use it on my HTPC and stuff.

This is no real alternative to a well build controller who will last several days on a HHKB, but maybe worth a look!

[joric]

An interesting nrf51-based hhkb pro 2 controller has arrived on taobao, claims several weeks on a single charge. @hasu what do you think https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=71 ... msg2676544

[Menuhin]

An interesting nrf51-based hhkb pro 2 controller has arrived on taobao, claims several weeks on a single charge. @hasu what do you think https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=71 ... msg2676544

What an open challenge for Hasu.
Hasu's various designs have gone through numerous revisions with careful considerations and continuous bug-fixes, and his technical support throughout many years have been proven to be reliable and quick. What do you think joric?

The idea of a drop-in replacement of HHKB controller is totally Hasu's original idea. Sure Chinese products are trying to conquer every product wars, even before some of them have even launched. Perhaps we can see how this new product actually performs and then we can learn a thing or two from it?

[Muirium]

2014??? Wow! Can’t you just feel the necrotic damage from this carefully chosen crypt of a deep dead years silent thread? Oddly enough, things have happened since.

Hasu went on to make a wonderful HHKB controller indeed, with several full work days of battery life in my extensive real world use.



Easily my favourite keyboard, thanks to him. Highly recommended.