I’m sufficiently old to recollect the pre-smartphone heyday of the PDA. It was an incredible period with a big variety of units. I used to be a Palm fan and nonetheless have a drawer filled with previous handhelds that I’m reluctant to ever eliminate. In fact, like all expertise, the PDA motion got here armed with a number of peripherals and equipment, with a typical add-on in your gadget being a folding keyboard. Usually these got here with both some sort of bodily connector or used IR to hook as much as your PDA. These units weren’t low-cost so numerous the older folding keyboards are of fantastic high quality. This Bluetooth module allows you to convert quite a few older folding keyboards to be appropriate together with your trendy smartphone.
The at present supported folding keyboard fashions are the HP or Compaq G750, the Dell G7L0 and the Treo G740 with completely different module choices for every. For all these folding keyboards the set up is comparable in that you just exchange the previous docking connector within the keyboard with the brand new module. As soon as fitted the keyboard will operate as a Bluetooth or a wired USB-C keyboard and can be utilized wirelessly with any host that helps BLE/Bluetooth 4.0 and later.
The module accommodates a small battery which might be recharged through the USB connector with cost and energy LEDs offering suggestions. The undertaking creator presents a neat customisation service for the firmware. In case you have a non US keyboard variant or need to in any other case customise the keyboard mapping it simply takes a message or two after putting your order.
It’s nice to see initiatives like this on Tindie. It’s so essential to attempt to cut back the quantity of e-waste hitting landfill and infrequently, with a bit effort to modernise older expertise, you’ll find yourself with an incredible gadget that’s additionally dialog starter!
