wireless keyboard hack, is this possible?

Talk about your favorite PC games, Steam and building awesome custom rigs!

Moderator:Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Macabre
Posts:20
Joined:Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:25 pm
wireless keyboard hack, is this possible?

Post by Macabre » Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:27 pm

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but it seems more appropriate here than the dreamcast forum.

I'm building a special unit for my dreamcast with a pile of adapters & whatnot. Including in this is a wireless receiver for a wireless keyboard.

I was able to get this IR keyboard + mouse combo to work very nicely on my system. I'm not too impressed with IR technology for this specific project, and also the mouse is pointless for use (the buttons are mapped on the other side of the keyboard). I'm currently looking for a new-ageish wireless keyboard that I can use, without a mouse attached to it ($ & time being what is slowing me down here).

What I really want to do is use the pictured official dreamcast keyboard.

What I would like to know is - is it possible to remove the wireless transmitter part of whatever keyboard I find to use, and work that into the official keyboard? I know it will then require a power supply, and probably take up a bit of space. But using 90% of official hardware on this would be beyond impressive!

If I can take this current wireless keyboard apart and distinguish that the mouse and keyboard transmit two different signals, I might decide to keep the IR transmitter from this, or at least use it to experiment with...asuming that anyone here can vouch for this idea being a possibility?

Thanks in advance for any help!
Image
PSO Dreamcast BBA ftw @ Dreamcast-Talk.com
~ Macabre! Redria HUcast
~ Lust Purplenum RAcaseal
~ NiGHTs Pinkal FOnewearl
~ Goth Doll Whitill HUnewearl
~Sega Trade List!~

User avatar
bicostp
Moderator
Posts:10491
Joined:Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Steam ID:bicostp
Location:Spamalot
Contact:

Re: wireless keyboard hack, is this possible?

Post by bicostp » Fri Dec 31, 2010 6:05 pm

Keyboards are essentially a matrix of carbon pad switches which put a resistance load on pairs of pins on an encoder chip. Each letter connects a different pair. Provided you have the time and patience to reverse engineer both keyboard encoders, yes you can more than likely swap the two.

Post Reply