[NTLK] newt keyboard USB adapter

[joe kallo]

Okay so my dream of using the keyboard via a simple adapter on the Nexus 7
is dead in the water unless I write a serial to USB driver for android (not
on my list of fun projects). I do know that android is able to use a
standard USB keyboard if you plug one in, so making the arundino converter
for android would not involve smashing anything.

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 10:28 AM, Andrei Chichak <newton at chichak.ca> wrote:

>
> On 2012-September-13, at 8:43 AM, joe kallo wrote:
>
> > So the serial to USB conversion is something that requires software to
> > accomplish?
>
> Okay, I lied, you need "firmware", which is like software but burnt into
> processor chips.
>
> > i.e. if I take a newton keyboard, plug it into a keyspan
> > adapter and then into a computer, it won't work without some software on
> > the machine?
>
> The keyspan adapters take the serial data and present it to the host as a
> serial communications endpoint. Windows no longer has native support for
> serial ports, so a driver has to be loaded to support the conversion from
> USB serial endpoints and convince windows to create the COM devices.
>
> If you were to connect it all up and plug it into a PC, it would present
> as a serial port, then software could be written to take the serial data
> and force feed it into the windows event queue.
>
>  iPads don't understand USB serial, so that wouldn't work. Apple probably
> won't tell you what you need to know to get at the USB stack to add a new
> device type. At the higher level, Apple would have to tell you how to
> inject your data into their keyboard event queue as well.
>
> iPads have a serial port in the 30 pin connector, but Apple won't tell you
> about the protocol or sell you the protocol conversion chips unless you
> sign an NDA and have legal vet your project. They loved the idea of our
> iPod vacuum tube amp, but threatened us if we smashed their universal docks
> so we could use their IR receivers.
>
> Andrei
>
>
>
>
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-- 
joseph kallo
quietglow at gmail.com
www.quietglow.com