HIGH TECH LOW LIFE \\ USB KEYBOARD TO BLUETOOTH WIRELESS CONVERSION

// PROTOTYPING - R&D // // REFINEMENT // // COMPLETION //

// 001.Original concept // // 003.Wireless + wired (soft) // // 005. Wireless + Wired (soft + relay) // // 007. Wireless + Wired (BT firmware) //
to
to keyboard to
keyboard PCB keyboard
to
PCB PCB keyboard
From PWR PCB
From PC / PWR From
Use internal switch PWR
PC / PWR PC / PWR
LED switch to Use internal switch From

E
relocation PC / PWR
toggle wireless LED switch to relocation
SPLICE toggle wireless
on/off. 9/64th or
SPLICE on/off.
double-tap on 3.5-4mm hole 9/64th or
double-tap off double-tap on 3.5-4mm hole
6x6x8mm sw double-tap off

R
6x6x8mm sw

-neg -neg LED sw

-neg
sw
sw PWR
switch to keyboard
sw
sw
LED sw
-neg sw
sw PWR
to keyboard relocation to keyboard switch
B- charge circuit B+
Panasonic relocation

U
to keyboard
B- charge circuit B+ sw B- charge circuit B+
sw 9/64th or sw AGQ2004H B- charge circuit B+
Signal Relay sw 9/64th or
3.5-4mm hole bluetooth
bluetooth bluetooth +
4.5VDC 2A DPDT 3.5-4mm hole
bluetooth

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6x6x8mm sw
-
10.6mm

x 7.2mm
5v relay
USB < off | on >
6x6x8mm sw

L
USB no data from usb! port USB 5.2mm
port port USB
only + and -

+pos battery +pos +pos

port

battery battery
battery +pos

I
a )
nd
i

A
( k
3. wireless + wired via LED ‘soft’ switch
Wireless only - no wired option for data tx/rx 5. Wireless + wired via LED switch + relay 7. Wireless + wired using BT module firmware hotkey

F
Did not work consistently due to 50ma limitation of the LED circuit Fixes the flip flop glitch with a relay and separation of white data wire Toggle wired / wireless via hotkey
Will only charge via USB port!
Cannot use BT and charge using computer port (flip flop glitch) Will work with both wired/wireless options and both have the ability to charge When wired the BT module acts as a bridge, no ‘direct’ connection
with a normal data cable. Cannot update keyboard firmware (bridge), Only 6KRO
Not all charge circuits are created equal! I also had a big brain moment where I realized I could do away with needing two separate
switch (power and turning the BT module off) by hijacking the onboard LED flashlight toggle
I found this out through trial and error, testing different ones to see how they performed I figured out the issue through trial and error and it had to do with the cable
to be the switch that turns the BT module on and off, then all you would need for full Running through all of these combinations I finally read the manual in-depth
having the data lines present from the PC.
functionality is just the small single pushbutton switch. - always RTFM first.
Some will always be on when a load is applied and you cannot turn them off,
This is not ideal for the ‘soft power button’ setup. If you use one of these One way to get around this is to only charge when wired (no charging + wireless) or
This was initially a success because it worked as expected on the first board I made, but I realized that the BT module already comes with a wired / wireless toggle internally
boards, you will need a way to interrupt power to the battery (or the wireless module) to use a power only cable (white wire cut), but annoying because then you need two cables
the second board I made using this method was turning the BT module on and off randomly. via the firmware and is activated by a hotkey on the keyboard. Through my testing
to ‘turn off’ the keyboard to save power. One for charging, one for wired connection. Another option is to make a data/power cable
This would cause the computer to flip flop between connecting wired and wirelessly over I have found that it somehow just ‘knows’ whether it’s plugged in to a PC or not
by installing an inline toggle on the white wire, then you have a configurable cable.
and over in a loop. and changes accordingly, I suppose if you wanted the scenario where you wanted to
Most will not allow you to turn off the device when charging, however I did find one board plug it into a PC for charging but use the wireless you could toggle the switch
that did, which could be nice for charging faster by disabling the output so all the input I thought why not carry this toggle inside the case, that way you don’t have to carry
I figured out the problem was again due to not all charge circuits being created equal, manually via the hotkey.
charge is fed to the battery without any drain (I’ve heard this is also better for the batteries) around two different cables, or a ‘special’ cable that has a toggle switch integrated.
even the same exact model of charge circuit PCB must have some variance in amperage output
Although all the boards I have tested do allow ‘pass through’ charging meaning you can apply for this LED circuit as the rated output is 50 milliamps. The amerage requirements for the There are some caveats to wiring this this way though. One is that it’s not a
a load and charge at the same time. Some boards however may not, which could get annoying if you I was able to do this with the help of a very tiny relay which is DPDT, one side is
BT module is also 50ma, so I suspect that since it’s right on the cusp some will fluctuate. native direct USB connection, the BT module acts as a bridge. This will be fine
cannot use your keyboard while you are charging. used to perform the BT power toggle, and now the other could be used to intersect
for most users, but if your keyboard has firmware you can update, you cannot use
one of the data lines. Turns out the white wire was the one causing the flip flops.
This may work for you but it’s not reliable in my testing, so next I figured out this method as the PID of the board will not be recognized because it’s running
// 002.Wireless + wired (slide) // a way to solve for that problem. through the bridge. Another downside is that using the bridge limits the key
// 006. Wireless + Wired (slide switch) // rollover to 6 key (6KRO) so if your keyboard does output NKRO via USB this will
to
keyboard
PCB
limit it. A lot of keyboards will only do 6KRO so this isn’t really a limitation
2PDT
From PWR
// 004.Wireless + wired (relay) // Slide Switch and most users do not need NKRO so it’s a moot point, but it’s worth mentioning.
PC / PWR Position 1; gives power to BT module and directs white wire from BT to keyboard
switch Position 2; removes power to BT module and directs white wire from USB port to keyboard to
relocation to keyboard
SPLICE
9/64th or
keyboard
PCB
PCB
This method is the way I would recommend most people wire up their keyboards,
it’s much simpler and less components are used.
From PWR
3.5-4mm hole From PWR PC / PWR
switch
PC / PWR
Use internal switch
6x6x8mm sw relocation
LED switch to relocation

-neg sw SPLICE
toggle wireless
on/off. 9/64th or
9/64th or
3.5-4mm hole
to keyboard
sw double-tap on
double-tap off
3.5-4mm hole // 008. Wireless + Wired (dual relay) //
6x6x8mm sw
B- charge circuit B+ Wireless 6x6x8mm sw
sw

bluetooth
cutoff
switch -neg LED sw
-neg sw
LED sw to
keyboard
for when sw PCB
to keyboard
using to keyboard From
a wired Panasonic B- charge circuit B+ PWR
USB B- charge circuit B+ PC / PWR
AGQ2004H sw Use internal switch
port connection sw
Signal Relay LED switch to relocation

battery +pos bluetooth

5v relay
4.5VDC 2A DPDT
10.6mm
bluetooth toggle wireless
on/off. 9/64th or
7.2mm double-tap on 3.5-4mm hole
USB double-tap off
USB 5.2mm port
port 6x6x8mm sw

battery +pos battery +pos -neg LED sw

sw
to keyboard
Panasonic
B- charge circuit B+
sw AGQ2004H
Signal Relay
4.5VDC 2A DPDT

-
+

-
+
bluetooth
2. wireless + wired via slide switch

< off | on >

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10.6mm
7.2mm
USB 5.2mm
port

Will charge via USB + direct wired 6. Wireless + wired via slide switch (no relays) +pos
Cannot use BT and charge using computer port (flip flop glitch) 4. wireless + wired via LED switch + relay battery

Same as schematic 5, only swaps the relay for a slide switch

Fixes the LED soft switch inconsistency problem,
Next I wanted to figure out a way to have the option of going wired as well as wireless. Still cannot use BT and charge using computer port (flip flop glitch)
If you didn’t want to use relays you could add another slide switch to perform the
There might be some scenarios where the computer you were interfacing didn’t have a BT card same function. These relays are very reliable but you can’t get much more reliable
or there might be times where you just didn’t want to use wireless at all. 8. V3 Wireless + wired via LED switch + two relays
Workarounds are to carry two cables - one charge cable only, one data and charge than a mechanical switch.
If you wanted to charge from the PC while also using BT, you’d need to use the V3’s need TWO relays - you need to break both green and white wires
I thought it would be easy just to splice the data lines (green and white) going into charge cable only - this gets around the flip flop glitch I’m still on the search for a 3P3T slider switch that is very small, this would green and white wires MUST be soldered on the switch side of the module
the keyboard, so I would need a way to turn off the BT module by wiring a slide switch allow you to perform all of the functions from one switch, even the on/off of clip the USB wires first before removing the USB ports on the module
to cut power to the entire BT module. This did work as expected, however I realized that there the entire charge circuit, so you could also use any charge circuit - even one
was an issue in a scenario where you still wanted to use BT but also use the PC to charge without the ability to power off (soft off) while a load is attached. All of THE LED SWITCH CIRCUIT CANNOT POWER TWO RELAYS + AN LED
the keyboard. I realize this is an edge-case scenario but I also wanted to see the 3P3T sliders I have found are huge and won’t fit, or if they are small enough
if I could figure out a solution. they only come in toggle style, not lower profile sliders. Restores ‘direct’ connection, ability to update keyboard firmware, native NKRO

I thought I was done, but it turns out that when trying the 006 schematic method did not work
on a WASD V3 (CODE V3). Due to the hardware changes to get it to work you need to intersect
both the white and green data lines. Previously the V2 keyboards only needed to intersect the
white data line. Depending on the keyboard you’re using you may be able to get away with only
toggling the white data line off, but if you run into issues most likely you will need to
toggle both wires.

This is the setup you want if you want all the features + native wired connection, all from
the single pushbutton switch. My later revisions included leaving the flashlight LED and
drilling a hole as a tiny port as another visual indicator that ‘wired’ mode was initiated.
I also drilled two smaller holes underneath the BT module for visual indication of BT
operation, plus more LEDs and blinking lights looks cooler.