Quote:
Originally Posted by hawhill
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I guess the keyboard will just ignore all the stuff the kindle sends to its serial port, but that is probably not for granted, though.
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The
serial keyboards that I have (5 different models) do not even have the RxD pin connected. They are "send-only".
Regarding a link for a kindle 3 serial connector, look here (with photos):
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99177
Because the connector is made from such a simple circuit board, I would not bother etching it. I would isolate the traces by cutting and peeling thin strips of copper from between the traces, with a sharp hobby knife (such as an
X-Acto knife).
Regarding "not so hard but not so easy", the most difficult part is locating the documentation you need so that you can
"RTFM", and there is FAR more RTFM than there is "rocket science". You must read, read, and read some more. I own over 10,000 physical books (mostly technical in many disciplines, including history, medicine, and law, plus some science fiction -- but mostly computer and electronics books) [an awful lot of dead trees], and I have read most of them. And reading is just the start. You really need "hands on" experience to truly learn this stuff in a way that makes it accessible longer than needed to just pass a test and then forget it. You must experiment and MAKE stuff (lots of stuff), and you must not give up, but keep at it until you succeed. That pretty much sums up the whole learning experience. You can do it if you want to. People can do far more than they believe, if they just get started and keep at it and finish what they start.
Regarding using a "USB host device", you can use a USB hub to connect multiple USB devices into a single USB host port. The device drivers need to know how to traverse the USB hub chain. The
USB spec says that USB device drivers should scan up to 127 levels deep (how many hubs can be daisy-chained between host and device), but I have rarely seen software that looks more than two levels deep before deciding that its device is not attached.
The main reason I can see for daisy-chaining hubs is to get more distance. Each USB cable cannot be more than 16 feet long (about 5 meters). In theory, you could put up to 127 hubs between the host and device, each 16 feet apart from one another, giving a total distance greater than 1 kilometer (however, the spec also says the total distance should not be greater than 80 feet, due to timing constraints). Of course, these days it may be more appropriate to use
USB-over-IP to extend USB over a long network cable (or even across the internet).
For people who hate soldering, you can use conductive paint instead. That works especially well for attaching small wires to
kapton flex cables and flex circuit boards (such as the one used in the kindles to connect to the eInk display). Attempting to solder to that would probably damage it. The cheapest easily available conductive paint I know of is sold at auto parts stores for repairing
rear window defroster/defoggers. You can even make simple circuit boards with conductive paint.
Everybody has to decide how to invest their own time. In my case my deep knowledge of many technical things has come at the expense of ignoring world events, sports, daily news, clocks and calendars, and other mundane things such as paying bills even when there is plenty of money. Although most information is free, it takes considerable time and effort to cram it all into your head, and comes at the expense of sacrificing time for other things. The first thing most hackers SHOULD sacrifice is their
TV watching. Use that time to
MAKE stuff! At least that is MY opinion on this subject. To each his own, as they say.
P.S. Please excuse my typing errors and occasional factual mistakes. My typing accuracy AND my knowledge recall accuracy are both degrading with age.
I am an old-timer, at least by internet standards.
P.P.S. Here is a nifty little hack somebody could do to add sound output to the Kindle 4 (no speakers or headphone jack) without opening the case:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=29