Adding wireless functionality to keyboards

Input Nirvana · 24 Apr 2011, 19:44

Webwit created a crazy Rube Goldberg wireless mod for one of his Datahands...webwit, I want to know if you've changed/modified that setup in any way? Could you post the setup here? I didn't find it, but that doesn't mean it's not floating around here...

webwit · 24 Apr 2011, 21:15

The old system was a big ass battery used to power golf carts and hobby projects and such, connected to a car lighter, connected to a car lighter 12v to 220v converter, connected to a 220v to 5v power adapter that came with and connects to the Belkin Wireless USB hub, to which I connect my USB Datahand.

Slightly more efficient now. Battery connects to car lighter connects to 12v to 5v converter, connects to Q-Wave Wireless USB connector, and I plug the DataHand in there. All that stuff I put under my chair.

The Belkin had some trouble with crashing drivers after a while (memory leak?), the Q-wave works perfectly and uses less power.

Still a silly setup, it drains the battery in two days. My Logitech M570 wireless trackball has been running for months on a single AA battery.

Input Nirvana · 24 Apr 2011, 21:44

Where does all that extra power disappear to???

I have a possible link/contact with someone converting an Alphagrip to wireless, I will try to get the info and pass it along.

I would like to make my Datahand, Alphagrip, and split Kinesis Contoured all wireless.

webwit · 24 Apr 2011, 21:55

My guess is the power disappears into keeping the wireless connection alive, and it doesn't idle in that regard. The thing was never designed for battery efficiency. It's not a lot of power it uses (just a couple of W), but if you hook a small light bulb to a battery it will also drain the battery fairly quickly.

runeazn · 25 Apr 2011, 00:37

are you rich>?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Q-Waves-Data-Kit-Ma ... 3f073f11f3
that q wave shit is 70 euro..

i would never spend that much for wireless

Input Nirvana · 25 Apr 2011, 00:45

Cost is relative to what you are trying to accomplish. Besides, these items are not the answer for what we are trying to achieve, just a temporary solution until we come up with a more elegant solution.

runeazn · 25 Apr 2011, 01:06

thats what i mean, i would spend 100 euro to make something much more efficient, and that you'll be able to mass produce

for tha community!

Input Nirvana · 25 Apr 2011, 01:12

I'll put your name at the top of the list for one wireless unit at !00 when we get it made correctly

sixty · 04 May 2011, 15:21

How is the latency with the Qwave? How much WPM do you reach on your DataHand anyway?

webwit · 04 May 2011, 16:04

I never noticed latency with both of my wireless USB constructions. Of course, I'm not streaming media and only crossing a small distance.

I thought the best way to test it was with the built-in mouse. I have a backup DataHand, with old PS/2 and serial connectors. Serial for the mouse.

I compared the wireless DataHand mouse to the serial connected DataHand mouse and the speed and smoothness of the pointer was the same, and I could not detect any latency. As mentioned earlier, I did have a problem with the Belkin wireless USB, at some point it would start choking up and some input would appear in burst of letters. I don't think that was about the actual wireless connection but about faulty software, because it also started slowing the system down, ate more and more memory, and finally crashed. This usually started after a couple of days. No driver updates.

webwit · 04 May 2011, 16:07

I'm currently at 90wpm.