Updating a PDA Keyboard with Bluetooth
I’m old enough to remember the pre-smartphone heyday of the PDA. It was a great era with a large diversity of devices. I was a Palm fan and still have a drawer full of old handhelds that I’m reluctant to ever get rid of. Of course, like any technology, the PDA movement came armed with a lot of peripherals and accessories, with a common add-on for your device being a folding keyboard. Often these came with either some kind of physical connector or used IR to hook up to your PDA. These devices weren’t cheap so lots of the older folding keyboards are of excellent quality. This Bluetooth module enables you to convert numerous older folding keyboards to be compatible with your modern smartphone.
The currently supported folding keyboard models are the HP or Compaq G750, the Dell G7L0 and the Treo G740 with different module options for each. For all these folding keyboards the installation is similar in that you replace the old docking connector in the keyboard with the new module. Once fitted the keyboard will function as a Bluetooth or a wired USB-C keyboard and can be used wirelessly with any host that supports BLE/Bluetooth 4.0 and later.
The module contains a small battery which can be recharged via the USB connector with charge and power LEDs providing feedback. The project creator offers a neat customisation service for the firmware. If you have a non US keyboard variant or want to otherwise customise the keyboard mapping it just takes a message or two after placing your order.
It’s great to see projects like this on Tindie. It’s so important to try and reduce the amount of e-waste hitting landfill and often, with a little effort to modernise older technology, you’ll end up with a great device that’s also a good conversation starter!