Support for larger screen and/or external keyboard

Development
1

I’ve been lurking on this project for a bit and just purchased the first three batch of ttgo devices and an android phone. If this works well, my mesh will have up to 10. Here we go!

I got to thinking of use cases for meshtastic and would like to propose the idea that if this had, at minimum, support for a Bluetooth keyboard and an interface to type messages directly without an associated phone. With that, it could be a fully standalone communication device.

If that is possible, then a nice to have would then be to support a larger display to further support the capability of this to be a stand alone device.

I have not worked with embedded c (outside of a one off Arduino sketch here and there) in at least 20 years, but I’d be down to dust off my kit and help to make this happen.

Cheers!

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I just did some digging … there’s currently no bluetooth hid host library for the esp32. May need to use a ps2 keyboard.

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I’ve implemented the HID “central” (i.e. equivalent to the ESP32 in our device) side code before (for a commercial product). For keyboards it isn’t too bad. So even if someone hasn’t made the HID side library yet for ESP32 it is in the realm of “fairly doable” to make that library someday.

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Looks like espressif has improved their Bluetooth hid support.

These were published just 2-3 months ago.

This would be a good place to start.

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I think that I am going to add this bluetooth keyboard to my Banggood order just to have as it’s only 8 bucks … must be some serious slave labor involved.

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i‘love this keyboard, very small and perfect for the backpack, i‘m using it for my hamradio outdoor activity.

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I was originally very excited to build in support for a keyboard and a larger display (I wrote the original post) but since found that I can go to almost any electronics store and purchase a fully functional, brand new, android phone with lots of ram for about $30. It’s cheaper to buy a dedicated phone for this than to haul around a keyboard and build in a larger screen.

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Hello :slight_smile:
Maybe it could be done using a usb host shield or porting the code to soc esp32-s2 since it supports usb otg
https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32s2/get-started/index.html

But yes, today cell phones are usually very cheap :slight_smile:

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The M5 stack CardKB I2C keyboard looks interesting for $6, I have a couple on the way, I don’t really see the need for a larger screen, but an add on keyboard and software to improve messaging sounds cool.

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To be honest, I would like to have a dedicated communication device with a bigger display and keyboard, but I see your point. It is so difficult to create a nicely looking rugged device with a keyboard. The easier approach is to have a rugged LoRa gateway and just connect a cheap Android phone to it. For less than 100 euro you can get a rugged Android phone (like Blackview BV5500 IP68 Waterproof Mobile Phone Dual SIM Rugged Smartphone MTK6580P 2GB+16GB 5.5" 18:9 Screen 4400mAh Android 8.1|Cellphones| - AliExpress) and it will give you much better interface.

And I found an even better phone - a wearable Pip-Boy Ticwris max s 2.4 inch 640x480 pixels 3g+32g 4g watch phone dual camera face unlock life assistant gps game play smart watch Sale - Banggood.com :smiley:

1000×1079 129 KB

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I don’t think it is a common use case, but some people are interested in communications that are more secure than the usual options, and using anything like a smartphone is considered inherently insecure. Using even a slightly larger screen and usb keyboards starts opening the possibly of a system that isn’t as easy for a third party to monitor through the user terminals (smart phones).

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I may try and make an armachat device, mostly because it looks hard not that I have a real use case. He is trying to get it to work with meshtastic. I did talk a friend out of an old android phone to use for setup and testing, but I would really rather not carry it with me when hiking.

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My CardKB arrived and it was pretty easy to get it working on a D1 Mini

Probably pretty easy to get integrated into a plugin, would need to have a screen for sending messages.

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I had an idea of making entirely new pcb design with e-ink display and tactile qwerty keyboard.

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That would be ideal maybe using a nrf52840 cpu, tp4056 charging unit with a small solar cell on the back of the device.
Would be nice to take advantage of the GPS and add basic mapping on the unit as well.

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FYI. TP4056 can not be used in pass through. Meaning it can only charge or power the device…not both at the same time.

Makes it not very useful for our application.

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Why not just connect to an i-Pad?? It’s a hugh screen you can just type directly into. None of the cell/carrier stuff to give you away (provided you’re not building out Meshtastic with GPS options).