According to PFU's official site, the power offered by USB hubs are 100mA. I would guess the same thing applies regardless if you have the Pro2 or the Pro2 Type-S or if you have the Lite2 variant. PFU has also mentioned some of the limitations with the USB hub onboard the HHKB series (that have USB hubs): http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/notice.html
I would say from my personal point of view is that it is not the keyboard itself that requires lots of power but possibly because of the limitations in the controller allows maximum drawing of 200mA total apart from the keyboard itself. Which again is 100mA max per port and there's only two sockets.
Thanks for the links, it's good to have actual numbers from the manufacturer. I've had difficulty connecting my keyboard to some older MacBooks for example, and as soon as it's connected to a powered hub, they see the keyboard every time.
I had the same problem with my desktop PC - everything was running off a bus-powered extension/hub, and I had to connect a power brick to it for the keyboard to work reliably. (with nothing plugged into the keyboard's ports)
So I would not be surprised if mobile devices have trouble with this keyboard.
With such low power limits on the ports, I've had difficulty finding much that can actually use them. The only thing I have which has worked, has been an SD card reader.
I am not particularly sure with the case on older Macbooks, but given the fact that the modern keyboards are vastly USB based, one should try to avoid having too many USB dangling on some unpowered hub. The standard USB port specification allows a maximum drawing of 0.9A and unpowered hubs generally do not regulate nor would most likely fairly split the amount of power per USB devices connected to that hub. Things like 2.5" external hard drives and high powered wireless USB dongles often have those dual USB heads on one end as to ensure that they would be getting more "priority" over other USB devices when plugged into some unpowered hub.
Whenever I decide to expand the amount of USB ports than my machines can afford to have, I would basically go through the route of getting powered USB hubs. That way there could almost be no chance of some USB starved device is getting the short end of the stick. The option is by no means any cheaper and less cables but to me it prevents the need to worry about power shortages.
On my linux machine my HHKB Pro JP Type-S (note this is the one with JIS layout meaning extra keys but no extra USB ports) lsusb -vv reports the keyboard to only draw a maximum current of only 100mA. I sort of say that would be typical of what normally a keyboard would be:
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 04fe:000d PFU, Ltd
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 8
idVendor 0x04fe PFU, Ltd
idProduct 0x000d
bcdDevice 1.00
iManufacturer 1 PFU Limited
iProduct 2 HHKB Professional JP
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 34
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xa0
(Bus Powered)
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 100mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 3 Human Interface Device
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Boot Interface Subclass
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Keyboard
iInterface 0
HID Device Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 33
bcdHID 1.11
bCountryCode 15 Japan (Katakana)
bNumDescriptors 1
bDescriptorType 34 Report
wDescriptorLength 65
Report Descriptors:
** UNAVAILABLE **
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0008 1x 8 bytes
bInterval 10
Device Status: 0x0000
(Bus Powered)
As for the volume up, volume down, eject, mute keys. On linux here I can see that with HHKB under windows mode it sends out the same key codes: 38, 39, 40, 41. These are a, s d, f respectively. Even with Fn key pressed they send out the exact same key codes. I recalled on PFU's official page that those media keys only work on Mac. So I unplugged my HHKB and flipped the first DIP to on (it was previously off, factory default as with every other DIP switches). When I plugged my HHKB back in and ran the same tool again. This time holding down the Fn key produced different key codes: 122, 123, 121, 198. These were again a, s, d, f but with the Fn key held down and with the first DIP switch turned on.
I wish I knew how those translated to Windows keycodes. I tried running AutoHotKey and it reports Fn+F as "F20" which makes sense if you look at an old Apple keyboard which had F1-F16 and then Vol_Dn/Up/Mute/Eject.
Fn+A/S/D are not reporting anything to AHK though. I had hoped it would be F17/18/19.
I tried remapping F17/18/19 via Sharp Keys anyway (0x0068/69/6A) but they don't seem to work.
It's a Pro 2 Type-S that I have, but that shouldn't make a difference.
Yeah I read how a few other people were reporting the media keys on Macs as numbers beyond F12.
Though it is strange how autohotkeys can only see one key out of the four and how sharpkeys I guess doesn't tell you the keycodes for the other three or rather the other three simply won't emit key codes.
I suppose the only best way to check is to make sure that DIP switch 1 is the only switch that is left on and the other four or so DIP switches are set off. If you have already done that then it sort of stumps me, especially if the same DIP settings the media keys work fine on a Mac but not in windows.
This basically tells me two things:
- Media keys and power key only works when HHKB is in Mac mode.
- Media keys and power key also requires Fn key to be depressed. Though I am sure most of you would be aware of that already.
I ran the command "xev" under linux to get the key codes. I guess if one were to be in windows they still need to in the very least enable HHKB in Mac mode to be able to make use of the extra keys that were once reserved for Macs. Actually there is a mentioning on the PFU site: http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/hhkb_support/faq_pro.html
Yes, I do run the keyboard in Mac Mode. I forget the specific reason why, I think the right meta key was not functioning as a Windows key?
The problem is that none of the utilities I have tried using to remap the keys detect the Vol_Dn/Up/Mute as a keypress. (Fn+A/S/D)
I've found that the Eject (Fn+F) works, and so does */-+ (Fn+j/m/h/n) so in the meantime, I have j/m for "Next/Prev" and h/n for "Media" (launches the player) and "Stop".
I'd really like to get Fn+A/S/D working though.
More or less I stick by with what I said above. If say Mac or linux can detect those keys fine (especially linux because I know they allow verbosity) then maybe something else within windows is reserving those keycodes or ignoring it for some reason. It certainly tells me that if Mac/linux works fine with the reporting that the keyboard controller is doing its job in telling the computer the key codes but somewhere within the computer, the computer refuses to accept those signals.
The only other way I suppose is to use TMK firmware (and Teensy/TMK board would be required) by Hasu and remap the key code to something else so that hopefully windows and/or Mac should be comfortable with. It'll be a long shot but I guess that might be an option if nothing else is available.
Thank You! Yes I made one for you! the ten key is browns w/ red o-rings. The HHKB is stock 45g w 3/16" medium dental bands.
Ive got photos here too: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51403.0
Show Image
Just look at those colourful dental bands on those sliders! it looks remarkably different from the typical monochrome sort of scheme. Too bad one is not able to see it otherwise because it is all on the insides. :))
I also checked your forum link and I noticed how you use EK Mechlube2. That would be the first time that I have ever seen EK Mechlube ever used on HHKB. Prior to my HHKB purchase I was contemplating on whether or not should I buy EK Mechlube, even if I were, did I need to buy EK Mechlube or EK Mechlube2 or both for my HHKB? The question sort of stumped me for awhile. Now having got my keyboard I am unsure if EK Mechlube is needed at all seeing as how my spacebar is one of those small (puny as others would like to describe it) ones.
