piKey clarifications

Fanjita posted this news

A few clarifications about piKey:

Right now, an IR keyboard is probably your best option. USB keyboard support will likely never be possible.
The list of supported IR keyboards is limited by Monsti's IR library (which is used by piKey). Although in theory it could support everything listed in the pspirkeyb.ini file, in reality only the following keyboards have so far been tested fully so far:
Nova ETS - works fine, but may have problems with keyrelease events.
Targus Universal Wireless (I think this one is the best option so far - a nicely repositionable IR transmitter, and a properly implemented IR protocol. See original piKey article for links to it on Amazon).
These ones are known not to work properly yet:
Belkin IR - needs an updated keymap.
Palm Universal Wireless - has issues with the current keymap.
IRWave IR620K PS/2 to IR adapter - needs a new keymap.
No directly-connected serial keyboard is yet supported, the serial connection is for terminal-style connections at the moment. It is probably doable if we have access to serial keyboard hardware.

Supporting new keyboard hardware is expensive and time-consuming. If you want support for a keyboard that is not yet fully supported, you may need to either write the driver for it yourself (or fix up the version in libpspirkeyb, if present), or donate funds so that we can buy the hardware and do it for you. It's definitely not finished yet, but should work well enough for you if you have one of the supported keyboards. .

COOL. im gonna get an ir key board

So Am I. I'll buy an IR Keyboard just for this! ^__^

this is going to be awesome once some more ground has been covered. great work guys

This sounds awesome too bad the Pocketop keyboard is not supported.

I don't feel like spending money on another IR keyboard, but I think I might have to...

Getting support for the Pocketop on this will probably never happen.

Incidentally, if you have a keyboard that is not supported, and are willing to lend me your hardware for a while, I might be able to add support. No guarantees, but it's a better option than just assuming it will never happen... ;)

I am leaving for Florida tomorrow, so perhaps we can make arrangements in two weeks.

I also have some code here that got the Pocketop keyboard to work on the PSP. I added support for it into a Text Editor a while ago, however the code doesn't support extra characters (like up, down, left right, etc). I don't know how feasible it would be to include such as an option when one selects their keyboard as a Pocketop, but you may find it useful.

I am not original author however, so my knowledge of it is limited.

I attached the code so you can take a look at it, maybe incorporate it somehow. Otherwise I'll see about sending you my keyboard in 2 weeks.