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Dongles to Fake Presence of a Keyboard?

Posted by Cliff on from the you-can-even-build-one-from-spare-parts dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I have a Compaq IPAQ desktop system (legacy free) that will not boot headless. (Yes I did try to tell the BIOS to not generate a no keyboard error, but there is no such setting for the BIOS of this system.) Since I would like to use it such and don't wish to waste a keyboard just to keep it from complaining, I'd like to come up with a small dongle that would fake the system into thinking that there is a keyboard attached. This is the same basic thing that KVM's do, so the circuit shouldn't be that difficult to find. Has anyone heard of such a thing? Can anyone provide or point to somewhere where I can find the basic circuit for this?" How hard would it be to take the connector part from a old non-working keyboard and wiring something like this up?

5 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Not terribly helpful, but ... by iMMersE · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't imagine such a dongle could be cheaper than picking up a really cheap and nasty keyboard. Here in the UK, you can regularly get keyboards for 2GBP at computer fairs.

    You'll also have the added advantage of having a keyboard attached to machine, just in case.

    --
    codegolf.com - smaller *is* better.
    1. Re:Not terribly helpful, but ... by mjpaci · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Isn't his machine 'legacy free'? That means no serial (RS-232), no PS/2. He is looking for a USB solution.

      --Mike

  2. Might not be so easy by The+Flying+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The keyboard has a small microcontroller and the protocol the keyboard uses with the PC is quite tricky and usually the check to see if a keyboard is plugged in (PS/2 and AT) includes protocol checks
    so you might aswell solder the chip free from a keyboard and stick it with a plug in a housing. BTW, if you are asking this correctly the system is NOT legacy-free, legacy-free would mean no PS/2 plugs.

  3. Too simple by Bob+Cat+-+NYMPHS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Open old KB. Cut away everything except the controller chip and the traces between it and where the cable enters.

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    The latest Slashdot meme.
  4. I had a similar problem once by Vilim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I had a similar problem when I was given a computer, although it had to have a mouse also. Nevermind the fact that I was putting OpenBSD on the machine to be a dedicated web/mail server and didn't have any plans to install anything that needed a mouse

    What I ended up doing was just getting a cheap mouse, coiling it up around itself, and throwing it behind the tower

    --
    History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill