Laptop keyboard to USB

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Razyre

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Hi there.

I have a Dell Studio XPS 1640 keyboard I wish to convert to USB and was wondering if I could achieve it with the Teensy.
It's a strange project, yes, but I was wondering if it was feasible, and if not, is there an alternative to help me get there?

So the keyboard has what I'm assuming is a 30 pin FPC connector. I have an adapter on the way which breaks that out.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/lcd-ext-breakout-of-05mm-fpc-p-200.html

I planned to systematically probe the pins with a multimeter and find when the pins short and map the matrix (providing this would work...)

Past here I'm not really sure how I'd use the Teensy to achieve what I want... I essentially need the keyboard to work like a normal keyboard would at a hardware level, so it works in BIOS etc.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Ross
 
I don't know about your specific keyboard, but there are many keyboard conversion projects using Teensy's on the net. There's even software to help map the keyboard matrix. On the Teensy end of things, there's a Keyboard object that can be used to send key events over USB. I used it for my Morse code input gadget. Works great!
 
I don't know about your specific keyboard, but there are many keyboard conversion projects using Teensy's on the net. There's even software to help map the keyboard matrix. On the Teensy end of things, there's a Keyboard object that can be used to send key events over USB. I used it for my Morse code input gadget. Works great!

Great!

Are there any links you could throw at me so I can get started researching?

I had a quick look for something to help map the matrix but didn't turn up much.

I'm a complete noob at this haha
 
Bump
Anybody else have any advice for me?

Here are links to two forums I use, If you do a search in their forums for Teensy, you will find lots of useful information of people integrating Teensys into custom keyboards:

http://geekhack.org/ - Keyboard Enthusiasts
http://deskthority.net/ - Talk, knowledge and expertise regarding mechanical keyboards and other computer input devices.

There's even software to help map the keyboard matrix
This would be useful, do you have a link?

When using laptop keyboards, the main issue is dealing with the FPC connectors.
You could use something like this (to help breakout the FPC connectiions):
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1492
&
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1773

I am assuming that your are using the Dell Studio XPS 1640 keyboard, because it is backlit?
I have a Dell Inspiron 15Z 5523 project (that I have not started yet), that appears to use 28 pins of the 30 connector (I am unsure of the pitch/spacing), plus a separate 4 pin for the backlit part.


:) Carlos
 
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Here are links to two forums I use, If you do a search in their forums for Teensy, you will find lots of useful information of people integrating Teensys into custom keyboards:

http://geekhack.org/ - Keyboard Enthusiasts
http://deskthority.net/ - Talk, knowledge and expertise regarding mechanical keyboards and other computer input devices.

This would be useful, do you have a link?

When using laptop keyboards, the main issue is dealing with the FPC connectors.
You could use something like this (to help breakout the FPC connectiions):
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1492
&
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1773

I am assuming that your are using the Dell Studio XPS 1640 keyboard, because it is backlit?
I have a Dell Inspiron 15Z 5523 project (that I have not started yet), that appears to use 28 pins of the 30 connector (I am unsure of the pitch/spacing), plus a separate 4 pin for the backlit part.


:) Carlos

Ah, brilliant, another Dell keyboard user!

Yup, and it doesn't have holes between the keys which is great.

Yeah, I have a 30-pin FPC too with an extra 4 pins for the backlight. 2 of those look like they're not connected.

If you look at the link in my first post, I found something that may just do it for me. I am currently awaiting the arrival of the breakout. The ones on Adafruit are kinda difficult to make use of.

Do you have a Teensy/plan to use one?

Hopefully we can help eachother through the process with this :D

The Keypad library is meant for connecting a row-column matrix of keys.

http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Keypad.html

Most keyboards are actually wired this way internally. Whether you're accessing the raw wiring or some other interface isn't clear to me. But you asked for a link to the software, so there it is.

Great, thanks for the link ^^
 
Any progress made so far?

Ah, brilliant, another Dell keyboard user!

Yup, and it doesn't have holes between the keys which is great.

Yeah, I have a 30-pin FPC too with an extra 4 pins for the backlight. 2 of those look like they're not connected.

If you look at the link in my first post, I found something that may just do it for me. I am currently awaiting the arrival of the breakout. The ones on Adafruit are kinda difficult to make use of.

Do you have a Teensy/plan to use one?

Hopefully we can help eachother through the process with this :D


Great, thanks for the link ^^


Hey Rayzre,

I also have a Dell Studio XPS 1640(45 actually) and I'm planning on doing something very similar to what you want to do. I wanted to know if you have made any progress so far and wouldn't mind sharing. Also did the breakout board you ordered work for you? The one from adafruit seems a bit easier, but I wouldn't be oppose to using yours if it worked well and was able to fit inside the laptop's body.

Thanks in advance.
levyian.
 
Hey Rayzre,

I also have a Dell Studio XPS 1640(45 actually) and I'm planning on doing something very similar to what you want to do. I wanted to know if you have made any progress so far and wouldn't mind sharing. Also did the breakout board you ordered work for you? The one from adafruit seems a bit easier, but I wouldn't be oppose to using yours if it worked well and was able to fit inside the laptop's body.

Thanks in advance.
levyian.

Well all these months on I have a fully working keyboard :p

I used the Arduino Teensy and modified the Keyboard/pad (can't remember which at the moment) library and used a seeed FPC breakout which can be found here:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LCD-EXT-breakout-of-05mm-FPC-p-200.html

The pin pitch is actually wrong for this breakout but it was exactly double that of this breakout so you end up with two pins on the breakout for each pin on the FPC, which worked out great. I actually soldered these outputs to a veroboard and then sent the various lines I needed into the teensy which was also mounted to it.

Now unfortunately it sounds like you were trying to fit the keyboard /inside/ a laptop, which I very much doubt is possible with these components. The setup is very tall and it requires a USB from the Teensy to the computer. My setup is external from a laptop.
 
Well all these months on I have a fully working keyboard :p

I used the Arduino Teensy and modified the Keyboard/pad (can't remember which at the moment) library and used a seeed FPC breakout which can be found here:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/LCD-EXT-breakout-of-05mm-FPC-p-200.html

The pin pitch is actually wrong for this breakout but it was exactly double that of this breakout so you end up with two pins on the breakout for each pin on the FPC, which worked out great. I actually soldered these outputs to a veroboard and then sent the various lines I needed into the teensy which was also mounted to it.

Now unfortunately it sounds like you were trying to fit the keyboard /inside/ a laptop, which I very much doubt is possible with these components. The setup is very tall and it requires a USB from the Teensy to the computer. My setup is external from a laptop.

Thank you for the quick reply.

I recently removed the cd drive and replace it with a hard drive caddy to add an SSD storage. There is some space available underneath the caddy, so what I was thinking is that I could strip down everything to it's bare essentials (including the USB port on the arduino) and run the USB from the arduino directly to the UBS card inside the laptop. Still working on the final measurements, but hopefully this would reduce the issue with size (and I would still have two USB ports available). My main concern would be heat.

I'm ordering the breakout board you used and I'm curious to know, since the pinout from the fpc to the breakout was 1 to 2 did you end up using both pins? Also so you mind sharing you modified libary?

Thanks,
levyian.
 
It has been a while since I've worked on it so I will have to dig the library out.

If I remember correctly I used one pin either to the left or right from the two, since this board breaks out into 60 points, I used 30.

It is definitely the 30 pin keyboard right? Don't want you to order it and then find out it isn't the right keyboard.

The reason I went with this is because it saves fiddly soldering.
 
Yeah it's the 30 pin cable. 2 of the pins doesn't seem to do anything though.

Is there any lag issue when entering keys?
 
Yeah I had the same.

As far as I can tell it is perfect. Worked flawlessley under Windows and the BIOS. Issues in Ubuntu though where it would stop working and I'd have to unplug and plug it back in. Will have to investigate that at some point.
 
Ok, sounds good. Thanks for looking into the library. Let me know if you're able to find it. Much appreciated.
 
Hey Razyre,

Season greetings.

Any luck with finding the library? If not, would you happen to have the pin layout for the keyboard on you? I could start from that end and build my way up. I have my original keyboard (now taken apart) and the replacement working with. I tried finding the pin-out using the multimeter and not only is it slow (as expected) but I'm getting two different behaviors from the keyboards. If you do have the pin-outs to yours I could try to replicate the test on mine and take it from there.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hey levyian,

I am looking to make something similar to what you have described. Did you have any luck with this project?
 
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