Bluetooth page turning for Kobo eReaders

[Renate]

If it does have an EPROM you can program it with a 3.3V I²C interface.
But you have to read the memory, then figure out what to do, then write it.
You may buy the exact thing tomorrow and they got rid of the EPROM and just use masked ROM.
That's how I got a dozen clickers that were useless!

It has to have an IC that looks like this:
It's from an Anker BT Qwerty keyboard.
I didn't change it much, just changed the BT name from something like KM1234 to "English" to differentiate it from my Russian keyboard.

[WaveEquation]

@Renate thanks for indulging me. I opened the device (images below.) I don't know if there's an EPROM. Not even sure if whatever is inside is flashable. It does look neat.

Also figured out what the device is really doing.

Normal mode: the directional buttons act as a swipe. I know Kobo supports swipes, so wondering if it's possible to map the swipe actions to page turns using kobo-btpt.

Configure mode: the directional buttons slowly moves the pointer. Once the position is set, the camera button works like a click. This behavior is not that useful for my purpose but good for mobile apps and such.

https://i.postimg.cc/kDPVB7qC/Screen...7-32-34-PM.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/XqCGjrMx/Screen...7-32-44-PM.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/XJhB6wPp/Screen...7-32-52-PM.jpg

[WaveEquation]

Posting direct images:

[Renate]

No, that device is programmable (not masked) and doesn't use an EPROM.

It's a nicely built and that it's rechargeable with USB Type C is nice.

So, here's the thing. It uses 1 wire programming ("ICE", in-circuit emulator).
I've got an ATMEL ICE here that can do SWD (single wire debug).
You might be able to play around and read the memory out or they might have locked it.
You need a separate, higher voltage power supply at Vpp to program it, but that comes later.
They sandblast the chip so that you can't see what it is.

So it's a mixed bag. The entire code is there but you may not be able to read it.
With an EPROM you can't read the main code (from the masked ROM) but you can R/W the options in the EPROM.

[WaveEquation]

Thanks again, but honestly I think this is beyond my knowledge. I'm saving this post and all those keywords if I ever decide to get down the rabbit hole in the future. It cost me $5 and works on my phone, so someday it might come handy.

[silvern0va]

Originally Posted by TenKOhms

I have a D01 Pro as well. I got mine working with this configuration:

nextPage EV_KEY KEY_NEXTSONG 0
prevPage EV_KEY KEY_PREVIOUSSONG 0

With that config file, ensure your ring is also in "Kindle Mode". If it isn't pressing both up and down buttons simultaneously will put it in that mode.

I can't believe it was as simple as changing a 1 to a 0. This works perfectly. Welp. Thank you! Now I don't have to use the mini controller I guess!

[DrBrrl]

Hi friends, here with a potentially very silly question...

Got my Bluetooth page turner working! Yay! I went with a 8BitDo Zero 2.

There are SO MANY BUTTONS on it and i was thinking i would like to use some of those buttons for fancy things like changing the brightness incrementally, changing the font size maybe (probably not), perhaps viewing the progress in a book, turning off the e-reader, etc.

I have looked EVERYWHERE i could think of to find "ReadingView method" codes that might do any of those things and was unsuccessful. Can... Can someone point me to the right place? Does that place exist?

Thanks everyone!

[Renate]

I have no idea what a Kobo has for configuration of input devices. I think that you can't map different devices differently? So if you modify your config to take a "normal" key and made it do something "weird" then that mod will affect a QWERTY keyboard also if you use one.

I know that this is not a solution for most folks, but a better solution is to mod the Bluetooth device. That way it will work with any unmodified Kobo or even your laptop.

I've been thinking of picking up one of these (in yellow). Has anyone opened one of these and taken a photo? That way we can see if/how easy it would be to mod.

[DrBrrl]

Originally Posted by Renate

I have no idea what a Kobo has for configuration of input devices. I think that you can't map different devices differently? So if you modify your config to take a "normal" key and made it do something "weird" then that mod will affect a QWERTY keyboard also if you use one.

Hmmm, i thought that each inividual bluetooth device got its own configuration file in .btpt, so you can map each key to do whatever you want, for each device, supposedly?

Originally Posted by Renate

I know that this is not a solution for most folks, but a better solution is to mod the Bluetooth device. That way it will work with any unmodified Kobo or even your laptop.

I've been thinking of picking up one of these (in yellow). Has anyone opened one of these and taken a photo? That way we can see if/how easy it would be to mod.

Mine's yellow because yellow is the best damn colour ever Huzzah.
I can have a look at opening it up for you, just so you can see! I got a "faulty" one and after trying to work out how to fix it for a few hours, gave up and decided to just use the "incorrect" Linux event codes in my configuration file. (It works fine, i am just annoyed that the buttons were mapped wrong )

So i mapped the controller and got the event codes and created my config file and it looks like this:

prevPage EV_ABS ABS_Y 65535
nextPage EV_ABS ABS_Y 0
prevPage EV_ABS ABS_X 0
nextPage EV_ABS ABS_X 65535
prevPage EV_KEY BTN_SOUTH 0
nextPage EV_KEY BTN_NORTH 0
prevPage EV_KEY BTN_C 0
nextPage EV_KEY BTN_EAST 0

Which is fine and it all works and whatever. There are just so many nice buttons and i was hoping to use them for something else - specifically, i was hoping to use the X axis arrow keys to incrementally change brightness, and then mess around with it again if anything else that was cool to do occured to me.

So my question is: How did we find out about "nextPage" and other ReadingView method codes? Are there more codes like this that control things when in reading view, like brightness, font size, etc? For example, in the Bluetooth Page Turner documentation, "nextChapter" is also mentioned. Where are these codes found? I'd love to see what other ReadingView method codes exist to play with them.

[Renate]

I know more about how Android maps buttons.
Linux doesn't map keys like Android does with .kl files.
Your config files is specifically for your reading application for handling system standard key events.

I don't believe that you can map inside your Linux the "wrong" key events to Brightness Up.
OTOH, with the 8bitdo modified Brightness Up should work correctly.

[DrBrrl]

Okay, read through all the posts and found three that relate to what i am trying to do.

lumping-sugar66 here is talking about getting more functions working, which is what i would like.

Originally Posted by lumping-sugar66

I'm thinking of making a fork of the repository to help @twowell, and I think we can add a few functions to this addon (which I use heavily).

8bitdo's are great but there are only 4 functions that I was able to get working. next and previous chapter, and next and previous pages. The use case I was looking into is to adjust the distance between the reader and myself so I would need to implement things like:

Increase, Decrease font size
Increase Decrease line height
Bookmark, Unbookmark, Go to next/prev Bookmark
Turn the screen 90, 180, 270 degrees
generic NickelMenu commands/Shell scripts
Dark Mode/Light mode
Background light (no sure how stable this is)

lumping-sugar66 also stated that this plugin only supports 4 actions currently:

Originally Posted by lumping-sugar66

* More buttons, but this plugin only supports 4 actions. next page, prev page, next chapter, prev chapter.

Thena has managed to map more than just nextPage, prevPage,
nextChapter, and prevChapter using the 8BitDo app and the micro (i have the zero 2 and it doesn't work with the app).

Originally Posted by Thena

A number of users on the Kobo subreddit have reported the 8bitdo micro work through mapping on the map in k mode without any config on the kobo. Using the app, I mapped it to page forward and back, homepage, and sleep. I'd be interested to know what other keyboard functions could map to the navigation screen or between chapters or even editing font settings. Other than that, I am liking the small size and the fact I don't need to use the clip on margins.

The actions are explained to the Kobo via the config files for each bluetooth device that you set up and the files are written as below (based on the documentation for this kobo addon):

METHOD TYPE CODE VALUE

Where, and i quote, "METHOD is the name of the ReadingView method to invoke. prevPage and nextPage turn the pages. prevChapter and nextChapter are also valid choices, but I'm not sure if any other methods make sense here."

With the config file, you are able to make any button do anything you want, so long as you know what the METHOD code is, and so long as that code exists. I appreciate your input Renate! I just think this is a problem that might be solvable from within the config file code (possibly), and not a "modify bluetooth device" situation.

My questions are:
1. Where did these "ReadingView method" codes come from? How did tsowell who originally posted this find them out?
2. Are there only these four codes? It seems unlikely, as there are more actions possible when in "ReadingView", and Thena provided us with an example of the bluetooth device going back to the home page and putting the device to sleep (though not through the config file, perhaps, but through the 8BitDo app).
3. How would one go about finding codes for things that are possible to do in ReadingView? Like e.g. when you slide your finger up and down the left side of the screen, that changes the backlight brightness. It's possible to toggle night mode on and off. It's possible to change font size. Do these events have codes attached to them?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by DrBrrl

Do these events have codes attached to them?

The easiest would be the standard way. Extract the reading executable and look for strings then try them. That's much simpler than a full disassembly. You already know a few of these names, the others should probably be found in the vicinity.

[DrBrrl]

Originally Posted by Renate

You already know a few of these names, the others should probably be found in the vicinity.

I only know these names from trawling through this forum and from the original documentation, as i explained in my post just above yours.

Originally Posted by Renate

The easiest would be the standard way. Extract the reading executable and look for strings then try them.

This sounds like a somewhat promising way to find the names i don't know. Do you know how to extract the reading executable from the Kobo? Is that actually something that can be done?

And if you don't know, that's fine! Perhaps someone else does. That's why i keep trying to explain my questions again and again.

So once more, in case anyone with Kobo experience knows the answers:
1. Where do the "ReadingView method" codes come from? How did tsowell who originally posted this find them out?
2. Are there only these four codes? It seems unlikely, as there are more actions possible when in "ReadingView", and Thena provided us with an example of the bluetooth device going back to the home page and putting the device to sleep.
3. How would one go about finding codes for things that are possible to do in ReadingView? Like e.g. when you slide your finger up and down the left side of the screen, that changes the backlight brightness. It's possible to toggle night mode on and off. It's possible to change font size. Do these events have codes attached to them?

[Renate]

Try hooking up a BT keyboard or USB OTG keyboard and trying all the F1-12 keys to see if they do anything. Don't forget Shift, Ctrl and Alt.

[sios00]

Is there a solution to using this remote? What event codes should I use, or what config to use?

I have a similar device as @@shamalox, but mine is the JX-05Pro version, which comes with a clip to clip to the Kobo screen. Link: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/10050...yAdapt=glo2nld

I have installed https://github.com/tylpk1216/kobo-libra2-uhid-module , but I am stuck trying to find out what are the event codes to use. My Ubuntu VM on VMware on my Windows 11 PC is unable to detect this device and doesn't show up on /dev/input, but I know the remote works because it can scroll on my Android phone on Instagram.

Evtest on the Kobo also doesn't seem to be able to detect the device on /dev/input.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Renate

Sorry, I got confused when I tried to unzip on top of a attrib +r file.

This thing thinks it's a digitizer. That's wacky.

05 0c    Usage page (Consumer)
09 01    Usage (Consumer control)
a1 01    Collection (Application)

85 03    Report id (3)

15 00    Logical minimum (0)
25 01    Logical maximum (1)
75 01    Report size (1)
95 0b    Report count (11)
09 ea    Usage (Volume decrement)
09 e9    Usage (Volume increment)
09 30    Usage (Power)
0a ae 01 Usage (AL Keyboard layout)
0a 23 02 Usage (AC Home)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

95 01    Report count (1)
75 0d    Report size (13)
81 03    Input (Constant, Variable)

c0       End collection

05 0d    Usage page (Digitizer)
09 01    Usage (Digitizer)
a1 01    Collection (Application)

85 02    Report id (2)

09 20    Usage (Stylus)
a1 02    Collection (Logical)

09 42    Usage (Tip switch)
15 00    Logical minimum (0)
25 01    Logical maximum (1)
75 01    Report size (1)
95 01    Report count (1)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

09 32    Usage (In range)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

95 06    Report count (6)
81 03    Input (Constant, Variable)

75 08    Report size (8)
09 51    Usage (Contact identifier)
95 01    Report count (1)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

05 01    Usage page (Desktop)
26 ff 0f Logical maximum (4095)
75 10    Report size (16)
55 0e    Unit exponent (-2)
65 33    Unit (in³)
09 30    Usage (X)
35 00    Physical minimum (0)
46 b5 04 Physical maximum (1205)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

46 8a 03 Physical maximum (906)
09 31    Usage (Y)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

c0       End collection

05 0d    Usage page (Digitizer)
09 54    Usage (Contact count)
95 01    Report count (1)
75 08    Report size (8)
81 02    Input (Variable, Absolute)

85 08    Report id (8)

09 55    Usage (Contact count maximum)
25 05    Logical maximum (5)
b1 02    Feature (Variable, Absolute)

c0       End collection

Edit: Cleaned up parsing of units.