Convert Any USB Keyboard To Bluetooth
More reason is that I have ideas for using some of these little wireless keyboard/touchpad combos that are coming from the HK side of eBay. You know, the "iPazzPorts" with the touchpad on one side and a rounded edge below. I'm thinking of a laptop, satchel-style (i.e. a case with a shoulder strap), with a keyboard, mouse, and possibly a monitor mounted on the wrist. (Don't worry, I'm passionately against smartphone/tablet-style on-screen keyboards. Ugh!)
However, I refuse to obstruct the airwaves around me with signals that have to travel a distance shorter than me one m! (I'm 5'3″ - or 1.6m for those of you outside of the US.) There's just no good reason to use that kind of link over that kind of distance, and some very good /not/ reasons to do it this way.
For example...I don't know /much/ about BT, but I guess it uses the 'channel' paradigm, like WiFi does, mainly because /everything/ wireless seems to work it's like that. Well…imagine any Starbucks with one person in every chair. Each person has a smartphone or tablet and only one BT device (headset, keyboard, etc.) that they want to use with their device. Any given BT device has a range of at least 330ft (thanks, Wiki)…do the math, and no matter how you slice it, some of those people won't be able to use their stuff.
Now, of course, that's a bit of a stretch - no Starbucks will be so full of so many people with so much technology at once - at least, not under any /likely/ circumstance. But the point is still very much valid - just like "too many cooks spoil the broth", too many signals spoil the air around them - and with the kind of range that BT has I think it's unfortunately easy to reach the saturation point…
Therefore, wanting to convert a wireless keyboard (for example) to a wired USB…
Worth noting - gee, why not just pop an Arduino Nano or a Teensy or whatever in there? First, the touchpad mouse. Second, the viability of the /keyboard/ part working this way depends entirely on how the unit is constructed. If it's a membrane keyboard like standard PC keyboards are, of course you'll have to wire your own connectors or destroy the board to make breakouts, but it's doable. But if it's a single PCB with built-in switch contacts and a set of metal domes (or worse, rubber/rubber domes, like on your TV remote) - well, as they say there where my parents grew up (upstate New Jersey) - fagheddaboutit.< /p>
One thought I have, would it be possible to cut the antenna traces on both the keyboard and the receiver and use coaxial cable (the little thing, like WiFi antenna cables, I already entered) to connect the two directly, and make it work…?