pico w Bluetooth USB adapter

If anyone has a pico w and a bluetooth keyboard would they like to try the uf2 file in bt_usb_kbd.zip.

It should allow you to connect your bluetooth keyboard to RISC OS via the pico w.

I’ve included instructions in the readme file.

Unfortunately my iconbar site is down so I’ve had to use github – so you can’t get the zip file with netsurf. I’ve included the versions of Hearsay and !SerialDev that I am using.

It’s very alpha at the moment I just want to know if other people’s keyboards work or if it’s just mine.

It should work on a pi and armx6

Edit. Thanks Chris I’ve amended the link.

I am interested. I’m going to order a Pico,
but I can’t download your zip file with Netsurf?

With the Pico-w are there any accessories needed?
Thanks

If you use this url then it works downloading with NetSurf.

https://github.com/colin-repos/Tests/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

@Chris,
Thanks for correcting the link, I was able to download the file.

The readme file is just what I wanted to know, thanks Colin
I will place my order this evening.

With the Pico-w are there any accessories needed?

Only a micro usb cable – you must have loads of them.

Hi Colin, seems to be functioning here.
Using it for this.
Just powered up first setup to hand.
RPi 3B RO 5.28 RISC OS Developments Ltd 2018 19 Oct 20
Keyboard is Trust from B&M £15 item No. 24655
No BREAK key yet though.
FYI, FFS use a comms USB lead, not a powerbank lead! So much more responsive! #i’m_a_blithering_idiot!
I have more permutations I can try when I have time.

FFS use a comms USB lead, not a powerbank lead!

FFS indeed. I have half a mind to attack all of my cheap-arse half-wired ones with a lighter and can of WD40.

10 Plug in USB cable
20 Observe eff all happening
30 Find a different USB cable
40 Go to 10

Grrrr! 🤬🤬🤬

Years ago, at work, we bought a load of personal media players to provide constant voice to our recorders. They had to be kept powered, so we bought an equal number of USB power-only cables. ’cos if you plugged them into a USB port with a data cable, they ceased to output voice, and were storage devices.

Just saying that there are legitimate uses for USB power-only cables.

Great, good to see that it is working.

No BREAK key yet though

Hmm. It should work. The break key works on my keyboard and the HID key numbers are passed directly to USB without modification – luckily the bluetooth hid system is the same as USB. At least I think it works it’s so long since I used it. Break appears to be the same as escape and shift break resets. The break key code is the same to USB whether modifier keys are used or not. The modifiers (ctrl shift etc) do not make it a different key code.

I’m sidetracked at the moment, I bought a mouse to add mouse support and it’s Bluetooth LE which doesn’t work with bluetooth classic the program uses so I’m looking into adding BLE support.

One side effect of doing this is I’ve found new and exciting ways to crash riscos :-)

Sorry for any confusion. I meant there is no obvious [BREAK] key on the keyboard

:-) I use a remote control power socket.

I use a remote control power socket.

Probably like the ones that LIDL are touting currently. They think they are for Xmas light on/off – but what do they know? :)

:-) I use a remote control power socket.

I got some, one specifically for the TV (Sony Bravia) which gets confused over it’s streaming after a while and needs a power cycle to fix.

Pi PSU on an individually switched multiway-strip on desk.

They sell them at B&M, where you got the keyboard, for 15 quid. That would make the break key the same price as the keyboard.

@John

I don’t think I’d survive the day if I had to get down on the floor every time I reset.

Is this ‘Pico w’ a USB / Bluetooth adapter?

Whilst having nothing but admiration for your work here, Colin, I still feel that you may be adding for a second time something that’s already there.

There are all those unused cores and the built-in wireless stuff already in the Pi. Could these not be used to implement stuff like this without the extra Pico board? Is it just that this is “easier” and a step on the way towards that, or am I even more ignorant and stupid than I imagined I was?

If the latter, I’ll plead guilty!

They sell them at B&M, where you got the keyboard, for 15 quid. That would make the break key the same price as the keyboard.

I’m afraid the LIDL offering is £17.99 for a set of four remote sockets and a controller.
I suppose you could use some of the other sockets for things like not-so-smart TVs and Xmas lights, like “normal”¹ people.

¹ What gives the people not like us the right to claim the norm?

I don’t think I’d survive the day if I had to get down on the floor every time I reset.

Same goes for leaning over the TV and locating the PSU connector, and the counting to 5 before shoving it back in. All meanwhile putting a delay in one’s viewing schedule where live and streaming are mixed!

@Colin
The software I’ve written turns the pico w into a USB Bluetooth keyboard adapter. I’m trying to extend it to mice and bluetooth LE.

@John

Before writing this I knew nothing of bluetooth. The pico has libraries for bluetooth and examples you can see working, step through in the debugger and cannibalise to get what you want. It’s all a steep learning curve but you see success relatively quickly. RISC OS has nothing. The whole stack has to be implemented/ported then device class modules (keyboard, audio etc) need to be written to make bluetooth usable – too much work even if I knew how to do it.

This way I can have bluetooth keyboard on any RISCOS machine that supports usb.

Before writing this I knew nothing of bluetooth.

So this is separate because it’s using a different processor/microcontroller for which someone has already written a control library in low-level code for the wireless bit, which may (probably?) or may not (!) be similar to or identical with that in the RPi, and it is that exercise, programming a microcontroller connected by USB which makes it radically different from, say, running a Linux-based program separately on an unused core in the Pi processor interfacing with the existing wireless equipment. Though I suppose the interface between the two separate processes could still be via the USB bus.

Sorry that’s such a long sentence. So am I closer to understanding the differences now?

And is a Pico emulator running on a separate Pi core a putative theoretical missing-link? Not suggesting it as a practical adaptation, just trying to get my head around it!

It’s just a logitech keyboard dongle for bluetooth keyboards.

• Error *

The pico w is the Bluetooth USB adapter.

There are no other parts involved only the pico w.

You:

1) get the software I’ve written – the important one is the bt_usb_kbd/uf2 file.
2) plug the pico w into a riscos machine with the button on the pico held down.
3) A Fat32 disc drive appears for the pico open it and drop bt_usb_kbd/uf2 into the filer window just like you are saving a file.
4) Riscos will freeze for a short while (3/4 secs) while the pico is programmed.
5) The disc drive will disappear when the programming is successful
6) Run Hearsay – supplied – select the pico from the menu and select pair device from the new menu
7) Put your keyboard in discovery mode and when your device name appears select the number

And thats it it should be working. The pairing is remembered so next time it is switched on it should automatically connect.

As I said it is in an alpha state at the moment I just wanted to know that I was on the right track and worth
continuing with.