Author Topic: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?  (Read 45066 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline bjeanes

  • Posts: 2
QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #100 on: Mon, 12 September 2011, 13:47:23 »
Has anybody considered using one of the Vinculum II based devices?

There's a few complete programmable boards as well as chips that can be used in combination with other hardware. I bought the Vinco about 7 months ago to make a Colemak-QWERTY converter dongle but got sidetracked with moving overseas and never completed it.

It's great to see a lot of other people motivated and interested to see the same product come to life.

Is there any reason something like the Vinco has been ruled out as an option? It's a bit steeper in price, but it has USB Host and Device capabilities, including HID support built into the on-board OS.

Offline Soarer

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 1918
  • Location: UK
QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #101 on: Sat, 17 September 2011, 08:27:23 »
Quote from: bjeanes;415004
Has anybody considered using one of the Vinculum II based devices?

Didn't know about them!

They look ideal, and the price is far more reasonable than I was expecting for something with those features.

Offline bjeanes

  • Posts: 2
QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #102 on: Tue, 27 September 2011, 14:41:14 »
Quote from: Soarer;417620
Didn't know about them!

They look ideal, and the price is far more reasonable than I was expecting for something with those features.

 
Yeah they are pretty great. Anyone here in Chicago and want to work together on getting this thing working? I have one of these boards but too little experience even with things like an Arduino to really know how to get going... I have mostly just been reading through their C API docs.

- Bo

Offline lenakira

  • Posts: 27
QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #103 on: Wed, 28 December 2011, 17:56:24 »
-Removed-

Offline mas128

  • Posts: 1
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #104 on: Thu, 04 April 2013, 18:50:17 »
Has anyone found a working solution to this yet?
(A QIDO for Colemak input: USB key to change keyboard layout to Colemak, and then back to Qwerty).

Thanks a lot for any help!


Offline Input Nirvana

  • Master of the Calculated Risk
  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 2316
  • Location: Somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area/Best Coast
  • If I tell ya, I'll hafta kill ya
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #106 on: Sat, 06 April 2013, 01:22:44 »
Seems like there has been some progress on several fronts, but it's been somewhat off the radar.
Kinesis Advantage cut into 2 halves | RollerMouse Free 2 | Apple Magic Trackpad | Colemak
Evil Screaming Flying Door Monkeys From Hell                     Proudly GeekWhacking since 2009
Things change, things stay the same                                        Thanks much, Smallfry  
I AM THE REAPER . . . BECAUSE I KILL IT
~retired from forum activities 2015~

Offline mivanov

  • Posts: 27
  • something something
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #107 on: Sun, 29 November 2015, 18:54:32 »
Hey guys, I know this thread is old, but seeing there is no progress and no widespread known solution...

What about using a Banana PI? It has a 2 USB ports(host mode) and one OTG port(guest mode). Shouldn't that make what we want doable?

The other idea is the following - can't we bridge two arduinos? One will be guest, the other one host.

As for the other criticism - shouldn't all the special functions still work?(if they don't depend on a driver.. which by the way I think is true for most keyboards, since they are using the keyboard firmware instead - ex. those layout changing buttons or the shortcuts/media/etc.). Plus what if they don't work, we can code even more awesome stuff  since we can remap as we like and introduce macros too just like in the Soarer's converter :)

Offline hasu

  • Posts: 3471
  • Location: Tokyo, Japan
  • @tmk
    • tmk keyboard firmware project
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #108 on: Sun, 29 November 2015, 19:34:25 »
Got notification and pleased with skimming this old thread and my posts from my early days on this forum :D

My result on this topic is TMK USB-USB keyboard converter and it works for this purpose, I believe.
It is comprised of ATMega32u4 microcontroller and MAX3421 USB host chip, and compatible to combination of Arduino Leonardo and Circuit@Home USB Host shield. It is not most cost-effective solution but still reasonable and availability of components is not bad. In paritcular Arduino library for the Host shield was great gift for my project.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69169.0

Offline mivanov

  • Posts: 27
  • something something
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #109 on: Mon, 30 November 2015, 09:28:06 »
Yep, I've also read about that. Atmega 32u4 are cheap, like 3-5 $, but the usb host shield costs like 30-40 $ which is unreal. I could get a whole arm soc with like 1 gb ram for that. Might as well get a Banana Pi, that way I could get bluetooth as well, if I need mobility(having the option of using both bluetooth and a cable is a fine thing since you don't always have the space or position to use cables). Another added benefit to using it will be the possibility for a web based api plus a web panel. Adding a small screen might be a fine idea as well.

But I guess I'd rather go cheap for now, so if someone finds cheap MAX3421 chips, please share.


Offline hasu

  • Posts: 3471
  • Location: Tokyo, Japan
  • @tmk
    • tmk keyboard firmware project
Re: QWERTY to Colemak via hardware. USB key or built in hardware/firmware?
« Reply #110 on: Mon, 30 November 2015, 22:57:18 »
Yeah, you can invest your time and money on Banana Pi or whatever you like. I like to see you start your project and share it with the communtiy.

As for the chip find it on Aliexpress.