Sleep-Deprived Silly Idea DuJour: WebTV keyboard for Linux?

[elfs]

Here's a weird question: I have IRDA working on my laptop. Is there any reason at all I couldn't buy a WebTV keyboard from Re-Pc for $5 and use it instead, to keep the on-deck keyboard from all the wear and tear? I understand that's how Charlie Stross does it with his, but he uses a bluetooth keyboard.

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[mouser.livejournal.com]

If you could find the drivers.

I thought the WebV was radio (not WiFi) not IRDA, though.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The older versions were IR, as is the "Microsoft WebTV Corporate Solution," a model intended for video conferencing.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that it may not work on the right frequency - you'd have to hack it with a soldering iron, or some low-level driver changes. (I'm put in a mind of the hack that allowed Palm Pilots to act as T.V. remotes "back in the day" - there was something about Palm being convinced you couldn't do it because they were on the wrong frequency, but the add-on IR board was low-level programmable and someone made a hack for it. Don't remember any details - it's been quite a while.

The OnCommand ones that we have (I work in a hotel) don't seem to trip anything with my laptop, but they're marked as being specific to our hotel (believe that if you will.)

IR Hacking

[(Anonymous)]

There was a article recently about someone who hacked hotel IR stuff with his laptop, he was able to control the TV, the Minibar, etc. So the frequencies must be in the same band.

Re: IR Hacking

[mouser.livejournal.com]

TV is no big deal - my iPaq comes with a universal remote program.

Minibar is surprising. They must have a customizable IR scanner/transmitter software program.

As for the Keyboard, I'd just use a standard one you can buy at Fries - they plug into the PS/2 ports and don't require programming.

Re: IR Hacking

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I'd just use a standard one you can buy at Fries - they plug into the PS/2 ports and don't require programming.

But... but... but... That's no fun!

Re: IR Hacking

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Right. Linux geek. I forgot you'd rather play with the engine than drive the car...

Overengineering the problem

[danlyke.livejournal.com]

I believe that the two most popular signaling frequencies used with IR are 38 and 40KHz. If you've got a PS/2 input on the laptop it'd be dang close to trivial to hook up a little Atmel or similar microcontroller to take IR in and spit out PS/2 TTL levels, the speeds involved are such that you could pretty much read the input signals on a sillyscope with little additional filtering. But for $5, it sure seems like it'd be worth trying to see if it just all works.

Re: Overengineering the problem

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to invade, but I've been wondering if it's possible to do something similar with a PDA - specifically a Sony Clie TJ-25 w/ OS5 - by rigging it to take signals from a WebTV keyboard. Three out of the four thrift stores I went to tonight had a webTV keyboard (or similar) for ~$3, so they're cheap. Since normal PDA keyboards use IR, would it be possible to use a WebTV as a cheap alternative?