[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfIiLE0BhE8]
The guys at Nerdkits have put together this tutorial on connecting a PS/2 keyboard to a microcontroller. Though this tutorial is written for one of the kits they sell, you should be able to apply this to pretty much any microcontroller. It is also a lesson in using interrupts instead of polling. They have several pre built examples ready to download as well as source code for the basic setup.
[via HackedGadgets]
When [Jespersaur] purchased a Luxeed LED keyboard, he was disappointed to find that the drivers were not open source and didn’t support all the features he wanted. His solution? Hack the drivers that come with it, and implement his own. In his article, he gives a basic rundown of beginning reverse engineering by multiple methods and a brief introduction to libusb. For the Linux drivers, check out [Kurt Stephens]’s site, where he supplies a link to the source code, instructions on building it, and a tutorial on sending commands to the keyboard.
[Maarten] told us about a C64 USB keyboard that was modified to be used as a standard input device. An interesting aspect of the project is the use of V-USB (formerly known as AVR-USB). V-USB is a software only approach to slow speed USB HID. In essence this is a two fold mod, The C64 keyboard is patched to a PC, and an off the shelf AVR is software-hacked to bit bang the USB communications. The author notes an initial problem with multiple key presses that was later corrected in the application. For the other side of the spectrum, we had covered the C64 twittering client, and a commodore 64 laptop.
[vimeo = 4990390]
Remote-Exploit.org is releasing Keykeriki, a wireless keyboard sniffer. The project is both open source hardware and software. you can download the files on their site. Right now you can’t get a pre made board, but they plan on releasing one soon. The system can be upgraded with “backpacks” or add on modules. One of these is going to be an LCD that displays the keystrokes of the keyboard you are sniffing. Another is supposed to serve as an interface to your iPhone. Right now it has the ability to decode Microsoft wireless keyboards, but the Logitech pieces should be added soon.
[Zach] sent us a link to his keyboard pants. Frankly, we were astonished, not only by his craftsmanship, but by the fact that we were working on a pair ourselves. Admittedly his are much better looking and ours will probably never be finished. The inspiration for both his and ours, was this sloppy version. [Zach’s] pair have been cut in half, and he never really found a convenient way to reconnect the two halves, so only the left works. Watch this video to see him playing some Tetris in his awesome shorts.
Using an IR keyboard is now possible with a non jailbroken iPhone. The folks at perceptive development have developed a custom interface that connects through the headphone jack. They had already developed the serial modem, so this was just another step at connecting peripherals. With some smart and small packaging, this could be a nice attachment to keep around. You can see a video of it in action after the break.
The people at iFixit have shown that they’re still on top of their game by tearing down the new Kindle 2 eBook reader. The main processor is a 532MHz ARM-11 from Freescale. Interestly, there isn’t any significant circuitry behind the large keyboard; it seems its existence is just to hide the battery.
Related: previous teardowns on Hack a Day
[via Make]
