ThinkOutside make a USB keyboard that takes two AAA batteries. I am going to try it with my new 770. Kicking myself: 6 months ago I bought their IR keyboard to use with my iPaq.

I can't work out why anyone would want to buy a BT keyboard. Bluetooth drinks your power - all so, what, you can use the keyboard 10 feet from the screen?

I might find if there's a hack that lets me use my IR keyboard with the 770, maybe if I can get an IR receiver that plugs into the computer. Either way, I will report back on how it goes! If anyone else has tried this, could they please post?

ThinkOutside say on their website that their stowaway USB keyboard is plug-and-play, no batteries required. What makes you think it runs on batteries?

That's the keyboard I have. It doesn't need batteries but I can't get it to work on the 770 (using my USB power box). Each keypress auto-repeats. Other USB keyboards work on the 770 and the Stowaway works on other PCs so it is a little odd.

I mean the Stowaway USB keyboard that Bretta mentions there sorry.

Having decided to go on the usb keyboards side rather
than on the bluetooth side !

I have found two interesting keyboards:
- small keysonic keyboard (sorry it is a french link)
http://www.docmicro.com/pieces/descr...?numpiece=4981

- "soft and gelly" keyboard (normal size)
http://www.materiel.net/details.php3...&affcode=mprix

I know that there are many other options... these one are ok for me
and seem to be available with the AZERTY layout which I would preffer.

Other remarks
(these could belong to the usb power injector thread)

I like the usb power injector with the 7805 chip, but is a keyboard
very "sensitiv" would not it be possible to give him something between
let's say 4V to 6.5V ... instead of the very precise 5V ?
in that case we could simply directly plug a 4.5V battery more
directly or use 3*1.5V batteries or 4*1.5v ?

Instead of building a nice "interface" (usb male + usb female)
are there options where it is possible to hack directly inside the
keyboard "case" directly on the wires...

Or other option cut the long wires and insert the "injector" directly
and the wires ... and obtain a smaller, lighter, cheaper design.
(but probably more ugly and risky and less reusable !)


TNX
B.

How did you got around with the problem that hitting enter brings up the virtual keyboard?

btw:
I will try to compile xmodmap for the 770 to change the keyboard layout.

I have found that installing the Bluetooth keyboard stuff fixes nearly all of the issues with USB keyboard.

It is my understanding that it includes xmodmap.

Reference my article on the USB Keyboard dock I built.

http://linuxslate.com/N770DockingStation.html

With the keyboard I used for the above, I still have a minor keybounce, or key repeat problem, but it is 100% useable.

When my 770 is in the dock, and the dock is on, the on-screen keyboard does not pop up when you tap in a text field, and the enter key works as it should.

When I turn off the dock (i.e. disconnect the USB keyboard), the 770 works as normal.

All I did to get it to work like this is to install the Bluetooth keyboard package.