Meshtastic

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!

1 Like
#2

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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#3

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.

2 Likes
#4

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.

3 Likes
#5

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.