You didn't read that wrong. I'm trying to convert a
small Bluetooth keyboard to Micro USB and I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge on the subject. If this isn't the place to ask about this, just let me know.
I know it's less practical and far more time consuming than other options, but I just want to use a small physical keyboard with any device that isn't Bluetooth capable. If this were intended for one device I'd use an adapter and move on, but I need to use it for a variety of devices on demand and most of them don't have any BT capability.
That being said, just how dumb is what I'm trying to do? I'm not too knowledgeable with any of this yet but I've taken a look at some PCBs for the more modern BT keyboards and it looks like the signals from the key presses travel directly to the microcontroller and then out to the PCB trace antenna with seemingly no way for me to interject. Some
older BT keyboards possess a BCM2042 HID module that can be desoldered and completely removed, possibly allowing for another MCU to be soldered into its place. Would it be a good decision to go this route instead of trying to tinker with the more streamlined, modern solutions? I'm thinking of throwing an Arduino in there to decipher the key presses and then send them along to the device as a USB device. Is this the way to go or do you know of some other way I can accomplish this?
If you want a closer look at the older keyboard I mentioned, there is a
blog post here where someone strips the module out of the board. You can get a good look at the PCB and see exactly where I'd wire up an Arduino.
