Infrared keyboards, drivers & interfaces
Infrared keyboards, drivers & interfaces
That is not the real driver: it is a scam which installs a "PC maintenance" app called
TweakBit "on sale today for only $99.95 !"
https://tweakbit.com/
Then there is another scam product which offers to
remove TweakBit, called "Advanced System Repair" (which I'm sure will up-sell you on something, if it is isnt just plain old spyware.) Such is the wonderful world of Windows, LOL.
https://www.fixmypcfree.com/blog/how-to-remove-tweakbit/
The OEM driver for my
SK-7100 does not work under Windows 7 or later. But the only thing it ever really did was map the programmable function keys to custom events in Windows - everything else was done in hardware (which was detected by Windows as a standard PS/2 keyboard & serial mouse.) I used a serial to PS/2 mouse adapter if there was no serial port, and it worked fine.
The SK-7100 has 6 programmable keys (which do nothing right now for lack of a driver) and 6 standard media transport keys (volume & playback controls) which already work without a driver because they use standard key codes. I would like to find some key mapping utility apps that work under Windows 10 / Linux / BSD, but its not a big deal - the keyboard is still usable as-is.
Speaking of drivers, there is a legit driver archive which claims to be largest driver database in the world.
https://drp.su/en
The problem is that their app wants to find drivers for you instead of letting you search the repository - but at least they have the decency to make the whole repo (21 GB) available to those who need it. If you download all or part of it, you will find the drivers in zip files by category. None of the many driver installer scams on the internet would ever do something like that.
https://drp.su/en/info/driverpack-network
It requires a two way communication. At least for the newer keyboards I've worked with.
Communication is one-way. There are no photosensors on the keyboard--just IR LEDs.
I agree... there is no 2-way communication on these things. You can see the IR traffic down-converted to visible wavelengths through a digital camera. (Which is also a good way to confirm that the device is actually sending something.)
I saw that one long ago. Apparently, a special adapter to receive the keyboard signals is also required--and that's a mystery.
I wonder if the OEM driver for that IBM keyboard would have worked with the built-in IR receivers that many desktop PC's used to have before Bluetooth became a standard for short range communications. Under Windows, those things even supported file transfer capability, and Windows Update might still install a driver for those modules if you could find one & hook it up. (Some recent Intel NUC systems still have a built-in IR receiver.)
Also, here is a USB interface that might be easier to construct.
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-USB-IR-receiver
Here is an assembled IR receiver that employs the Windows USB HID standard. You can probably find others.
http://www.electronic-sources.com/USB-Receivers-30375200/
"Human Interface Devices (HID) is a device class definition to replace PS/2-style connectors with a generic USB driver to support HID devices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers, etc."
Recent updates to HID over USB also include:
Support for USB 1.1, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.
A HID over USB driver is available on all client SKUs of Windows and is included in WinPE.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/hid/
It would be interesting to test these Silitek keyboards with a HID USB IR receiver to see what happens. Since Linux already supports HID devices, that might increase the options for people who dont want to build an interface.
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x194.html
There are also BSD drivers for HID devices, for example:
https://github.com/wulf7/utouch
HID over I2C support in FreeBSD
https://reviews.freebsd.org/D16698
A simple library for communicating with USB & Bluetooth HID devices on Linux, Mac and Windows.
https://github.com/libusb/hidapi
While digging through my archives I also came across this:
If anyone is missing documentation for some old hardware, I have a full site rip of the defunct "Total Hardware" online archive with jumper settings, BIOS settings, board layout diagrams & connector IDs for 18,655 pre-Y2K computers & peripherals. It's all in HTML format which could be put right back online and made accessible to the public without modifications. (565 MB)
Contents:
Motherboards
Hard Disk / Floppy Controllers
Multi I/O adapters
Memory cards
Graphics cards
Sound/Multimedia
Optical drives
Tape drives
Modems, Telephone/ISDN
Network Cards & devices
Hard disks