Github link: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry

Here's a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb8_ld9gOQ

I've been using it for almost two years now, and I'm not going back.

It's based on a spare Blackberry Q10 keyboard and a custom Arduino-compatible board that reads the keyboard matrix and outputs it as USB HID to the phone. From the viewpoint of the phone, it's just a regular USB keyboard, so no special software is needed.

But I do use a custom virtual keyboard to have just two rows of symbols that are not natively on the keyboard, as I didn't want to add another layer of rarely used symbols that I'd have to memorize.

(On the image you can see Ubuntu with XFCE4 running on it. I chose Ubuntu because it's what was easiest to get running in a chroot jail on the phone. I'm using VNC to display the GUI. I even managed to get FEX (x86/x64 emulator) and Wine running, so it runs x86/x64 Linux and Windows apps.)

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[–] ExLisper@linux.community 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Marry me!

But seriously, I love hardware keyboards and this looks like a very interesting project. It's a pretty big compromise compared with BB phones (you pretty much have to remove the keyboard to put the phone in your pocket or charge it, right?) but I would totally use one if I could get something like this for my phone. Why no one is simply making keyboard cases? Phone case with a bluetooth keyboard doesn't look like a very expensive/complicate project.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Marry me!

Thanks for the offer, but you are too late for that ;)

It’s a pretty big compromise compared with BB phones (you pretty much have to remove the keyboard to put the phone in your pocket or charge it, right?)

I don't remove the keyboard when I put it in my pocket. But for charging it needs to be removed, since I didn't add pass-through charging to the whole thing. Pass through charging is really complicated and I already spent a lot of time on this.

but I would totally use one if I could get something like this for my phone.

If you got some CAD skills, you can just adjust the case for any phone you like. It should even work with an iPhone, you just need to use a Lightning-to-USB-OTG solder connector instead of the USB-C-to-OTG solder connector I am using.

But yeah, that's a concept issue here. The case needs to be adjusted for every specific phone. So if anyone was do do this commercially, they'd probably have to pick 2-3 different devices to support and that's it.

Why no one is simply making keyboard cases? Phone case with a bluetooth keyboard doesn’t look like a very expensive/complicate project.

There are a few issues. The device-specificity is one, but another one is that Blackberry still had some patents on phone keyboards and they just sold them to a patent troll company. Might not be a big issue for a large company, but experimental accessories are usually made by small companies who are happy to output just a few tens of thousands of units max. And for a little company like that, paying off a patent troll is too expensive to make it worthwhile.

Also, small keyboards are surprisingly hard (read expensive) to make on a small scale. I got lucky that there are still enough BBQ10 spare keyboards around, but the total supply isn't exactly huge and I wouldn't bet a company on that kind of supply.

So if you want one, make yourself one before the BBQ10 spare keyboards are gone.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I actually still have some BB phones in a box (I'm not sure if my old Q10 is there but definitely a BB Key). What I lack are CAD skills. But I will take a look. Maybe it's easier than I think.

Also, I remember the issue with BB patents and I think the problem was that this company used exact copy of BB keyboards. Like the keys were exactly the same shape. If someone would just make a small BT keyboard it would probably avoid patent issues. You do have small BT keyboards for tablets after all. Just making it even smaller shouldn't be a patent violation.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

My thing is only compatible with the Q10 keyboard. The others have different connectors.

I made a script that generates a case for you, if you want to go the easy route. That case just isn't exactly great compared to the hand-designed one. It works though, and all you need to input is the measurements of your phone.

Also, I remember the issue with BB patents and I think the problem was that this company used exact copy of BB keyboards. Like the keys were exactly the same shape. If someone would just make a small BT keyboard it would probably avoid patent issues. You do have small BT keyboards for tablets after all. Just making it even smaller shouldn’t be a patent violation.

Their patents are all specifically for keyboards on phones. So selling a Blackberry keyboard as an external keyboard is fine, attaching it to a phone is covered by the patents.

When Ryan Seacrest tried to make a very similar product (Typo keyboard for the iPhone), he was sued over these three patents:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7629964B2/en (expired by now), which is generally about keyboards on phones
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD685775S1/en, a design patent which patents a device that broadly looks like a blackberry phone (with a keyboard in portrait orientation), expires in 2027
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8162552B2/en, which patents phone keyboards with ramped keys, expires in 2031

So right now it's possible to make a phone with a keyboard, as long as it doesn't kinda roughly look like a Blackberry and as long as it doesn't use Blackberry's improved, shaped keycaps.

All these patents specifically refer to phones/"handheld communication devices".