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Embedding a USB HUB in teensy converted keyboard?
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 01:26
by urbancamo
Is it possible to embed a USB hub in a vintage converted usb keyboard using soarers converter? I'm presuming there is enough space to accommodate the solution, and that soarers converter plugs into the hub which then provides additional ports and a link to the computer.
Anyone crazy enough to have tried this?
Cheers, Mark
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 01:30
by Muirium
Possible? Yes. Tried it? No. Not yet.
Bear in mind Soarer's converter draws/requests 100 mA. Nothing out of the ordinary for a keyboard, and low enough to work on an iPad, but hubs can always be cranky about power depending on what you plug in.
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 01:32
by urbancamo
Quick google suggests ripping the guts out of a cheap hub and repurposing seems to be the way to go.
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 01:34
by scottc
It's definitely doable with the space in some keyboards. A problem is that unpowered USB hubs are typically no good for anything other than simple keyboards and mice, and some keyboards are too much for hubs. I can't reliably use my blue cube converter in an unpowered hub, for example. It sometimes knocks out other devices, or just doesn't work. This wasn't a €2 eBay hub either, it was some "name brand" thing.
What would be extra cool would be to include an entire Raspberry Pi (or similar small computer) as well as the hub, and have it as a sort of C64-esque computer!
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 09:59
by HzFaq
The original Miniguru had a built in USB hub, if one can fit in a 60% I can't see why it couldn't be made to fit in a bigger board.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=4917.0
Posted: 01 Aug 2014, 11:08
by xwhatsit
Muirium wrote: Possible? Yes. Tried it? No. Not yet.
Bear in mind Soarer's converter draws/requests 100 mA. Nothing out of the ordinary for a keyboard, and low enough to work on an iPad, but hubs can always be cranky about power depending on what you plug in.
I think that's just what his converter requests, I don't see how it'd use anywhere near that (unless the keyboard on the other end of it was sucking down a fair bit of juice; Internet Lore has it that the early Model Ms are very hungry and freak out modern mobos' PS/2 ports). He could probably do an updated firmware with that set to a different number if you make loud noises
