OK, I searched for: "U8150 Bluetooth keyboard" (without the quotes) and came up with a LOT of results, mostly not relevant to what I'm looking for. If this is the wrong place to post this please advise, but there doesn't seem to be a specific forum for the Huawei Ideos U8150.
Walking around a local shopping centre recently, asking questions at several phone shops, I'm left astonished at how little the staff in general seem to know about the extensibility of android phones.
Like probably thousands of people around Australia I took advantage of a recent Aldi promo and bought an Ideos U8150 for 60 bucks. It's my first SmartPhone and I'm delighted with the features and value for money.
But the big problem is my fat fingers, and I bet I'm not alone there. Surely there must be a LOT of SmartPhone owners who want a better keyboard — an external one that you can actually type on without constantly hitting the adjacent key. A Bluetooth mini keyboard is the obvious answer.
Not having found any actual recommendations for an external keyboard to use with the Ideos U8150, I purchased and experimented with a couple of them.
First try was with a Kaiser Baas BT-130, a really mini keyboard.
Second attempt was with an Acer Iconia A500/A100. This one is about two thirds normal keyboard size.
Results were pretty much the same with both: It's easy to initiate Bluetooth connectivity, but sending keystrokes to the phone only "sort of" works under certain circumstances.
I'm afraid its a bit long-winded, but I'll detail my experience in case one of you more experienced tech types are able to take it further.
See next post for details.
CONTINUED...
I'll describe for the Kaiser Baas BT-130, but it's pretty much the same for the Acer as well.
Here are the procedures I have followed...
PROCEDURE #1
Starting with both phone and BT-130 keyboard powered OFF (keyboard is fully charged), turn both devices ON. The status bar at the top of the phone screen indicates Bluetooth is enabled.
Press and hold the BT-130 Bluetooth button until the blue light flashes.
In the phone's standard Bluetooth settings I make the device Discoverable, then click "Scan for Devices".
An entry in the phone's menu is displayed for "BlueTooth Wireless Keyboard", with a prompt to "Pair with This Device".
On clicking "Pair with This Device" I get a dialog that reads:
"Bluetooth pairing request. Type PIN to pair with Bluetooth wireless keyboard. (Try 0000 or 1234)".
Huh??? PIN???
After entering 0000 or 1234 or anything else, the entry for Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard reads "pairing..." for a while, then a dialog appears which reads "Attention. Pairing rejected by Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard."
Suspecting that this might be something to do with the absence of support for HID keyboards, I installed the BlueInput app from Teksoftco, then proceeded with...
PROCEDURE #2
This time, instead of going into the phone's standard Bluetooth settings as described above, I run the BlueInput app.
I select BlueInput's Scan button, and an entry appears for:
- Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard
- DC:2C:26:AF:EE:73
- Discovered
The blue light is still flashing on the BT-130, but when I press on the "Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard" item on the phone (just described above), the keyboard's blue light goes out (as it should for successful connection), and the message appears on the phone "Connected to Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard".
Then another message appears "Hint: before using BlueInput go to Android settings, Language & Keyboard, and make sure that ONLY BlueInput is checked". Also, now in place of Discovered the word Connected appears.
So I obediently go to Android settings --> Language & Keyboard, and yes, BlueInput is the only item checked.
PROOF OF CONNECTIVITY
As further proof there actually is connectivity between the two devices at this stage, pressing any key on the BT-130 keyboard results in an audible feedback click on the phone, but no letters/numbers from the keystrokes appear in any text input field of any phone app. However...
The BlueInput app provides a test screen for testing keyboard input, and I could, with restrictions, type into BlueInput's test screen from the keyboard.
The restrictions are that any keys other than the unshifted-alpha/numerics, spacebar and un-shifted punctuation produce a dollar sign ($) on the phone screen. Even pressing ESC, Tab, Caps, Shift, Enter, Backspace and any function key on the BT-130 keyboard produced a dollar sign on the BlueInput test screen.
But that's only in the BlueInput test screen. With any other text input field no characters appear at all, although the phone does always emit the audible keypress click-sound (because I have that feature enabled).
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So I returned the Kaiser Baas BT-130 keyboard and brought home the Acer Iconia TAB A500/A100 series.
Not much to say, other than "See above". Pretty much exactly the same procedures and results as for the Kaiser Baas keyboard, so I returned it also.
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I earlier had tried Kaiser Baas support but they were unable to help. Later on I received an update from the Technical Support Manager at Kaiser Baas, who stated as follows:
"...the phone/tablet must have hardware HID support, not software based. I have a Samsung Galaxy tab here purchased from HK. Our keyboards will connect but I cannot type with it. I found from Samsung, that the Galaxy tab sold in HK does not support HID devices, hence why it doesn't work. I would say that the Huawei phone has the same issue."
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So there it is. Unless you guys have a suggestion, I can't see it is even worthwhile trying more keyboards, because it looks like I'm going to keep running into the HID support problem.
Hey why bother connecting a keyboard to 8150 for its small screen (320x240)? I wouldn't doubt if ppl like to connect keyboards with large screen devices, but for this one (I own this machine too), I'd prefer using "remote web desktop" which includes wifi keyboard feature.
Louis
Thanks for bringing Web Desktop to my attention -- I'm sure I'll be able to make use of it somewhere along the line.
However, it's not a solution to my desire for an external keyboard. A mini keyboard is very easy to fit in a briefcase, overnight bag or backpack, and can make the phone much more functional and usable when on the move. For some tasks these SmartPhones can replace a computer, but rapid text input is a problem.
I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking on my PC all the time for input, but in my experience voice input on SmartPhones is cool and useful, but not up to the level of Dragon.
Really need a keyboard connection.
How about micro USB keyboards, you don't need bluetooth pairing then.
louisli said:
How about micro USB keyboards, you don't need bluetooth pairing then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...but you need a custom rom that support that.
USB host Keyboard in Dronix, watch this !
I wanted a bt keyboard too, but maybe I'll wait for this
When using any of the GB roms on my AT&T Note, when I go to connect to my iTech Bluetooth keyboard (it uses HIS and SPP Bluetooth protocols) it sees the keyboard, then I get a popup on my phone displaying a random 4 digit pin that I punch into the keyboard and hit enter. It then connects.
The issues (and this is on every ICS Rom/Leak), my Note sees the keyboard and tries to pair, but just sits there. I found that if I hit enter on the keyboard, the popup window will flash with the password, but the issue is, since I hit enter, it is too late and the password entered (nothing) was wrong. Then I try again, the 4 digit password it changed.
So does anyone know how to see (maybe with ADB) what the 4 digit password is without being able to see the popup, or another way to make the popup show?
Thanks for any help
BTY here is a video of the keyboard working and connected on GB
For some reason, the browser back button doesn't work on some websites. I have tried every browser available, and they all have the same problem. It works fine on this website, but other sites it just sits there when I hit the back button.
Some websites have a java applet loaded that blocks the back button working. Try double clicking it (double tapping) it, so the applet doesn't have time to execute before the browser actually goes back.
Some websites detect a mobile device and forward you to their mobile site. Pressing back brings you to the page that initially forwarded you so you immediately get forwarded to the mobile site again. Long pressing back will bring up your history so you can use that to get back past the forwarding page.
This should be considered a browser bug as hitting back on an http 302 should skip all locations replying with the 302.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
ClevaTreva said:
Some websites have a java applet loaded that blocks the back button working. Try double clicking it (double tapping) it, so the applet doesn't have time to execute before the browser actually goes back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've double clicked real fast and it ends up bringing me back to my homepage.
Model: Samsung SCH-I500.
Phone powers up, I can hear beeps from incoming messages, this tells me its functioning but the display does not work. Totally black screen. I do not believe it registers touch anymore either.
When the display worked, and I connected the USB, it would prompt to enable "USB" access or something like that. However, with the screen being blacked out and I'm assuming non-responsive to touch, is there anyway to bypass this step to retrieve my photos via USB?
When I connect, it does appear on my laptop as "Removable Disk F:" but when I click it it says "Please insert Removable Disk F"
The four symbols at the bottom of the phone do light up and appear to register when i touch them.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hey xda--
Here's the story: my friend's phone has a broken screen, as in, the screen works, but touch doesn't. So I can see everything fine, but I can't tap on anything.
The ultimate goal is to get a screenshot of a certain thread of SMS messages. It's the only thing she cares about at the moment. I was thinking ADB would be perfect since I can just simulate screen taps, but my PC isn't authorized on her phone for ADB. USB Debugging is enabled, and her phone is actually rooted. But it was rooted by her brother and he lives in a different country.
We can get into her recovery (clockworkmod), but obviously there's no way from there to view SMS messages. Is there any way to simulate screen presses aside from using ADB? Or, is there any way at all to authorize ADB without being able to tap the screen? I can see the prompt come up to authorize my PC, but I just can't tap "Accept".