Keyboard dock

[karnka]

I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.

I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.

I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.

Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media

Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(

I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?

 

[teomor]

Yes, the keyboard dock hotkeys don't work, all except the back key. But even more annoying it is that the software keyboard shows up and it shouldn't.

 

[kallt_kaffe]

I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.

I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.

I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.

Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media

Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(

I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?

I do not have a genuine Samsung keyboard (yet) but you should be able to map home, menu and the media buttons with my app: http://www.apedroid.com/android-applications/external-keyboard-helper

You can also specify up to 16 apps and create shortcuts for them. For example you could start the browser with Alt+B and Gmail with Alt+G if you want to.

 

[karnka]

Yep

I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.

Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?

 

[kallt_kaffe]

Yep

I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.

Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?

Yes I think so unless it is a HC rom based on a stock ROM.

I'll fix some of it in the CM9 port once I recieve my BT keyboad case and have something to test with. If you just want to get rid of the on-screen keyboard you can use my free app that does that and nothing more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperfree

If you want full control you need my paid app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper
Free demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperdemo

 

[karnka]

Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.

I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.

I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)

Any thoughts about those?

On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?

 

[kallt_kaffe]

Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.

I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.

I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything

The problem with keycodes is that some are handled erlier in the input queue before I can process it in my app. App switcher and Home is two examples. I managed to do a workaround for Home but I have not yet found a way to bring up the app appswitcher programatically.

"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)

Same reason here. Android propably picks up and processes these before the app get a chance and therefor the scancode is never passed on. However, when I get my BT keyboard dock I can investigate this more.

I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)

This is due to the nature of the workaround. I just launch the launcher which gives almost the same effect as when the system processes the Home keycode (apart for the difference you noticed)

Any thoughts about those?

On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?

The versions are identical apart from the space button and some strings (demo vs pro, buy vs rate) so you can test out everything before buying.

You really should try the application shortcuts. Choose apps for A0 to AF and enter A0 to AF instead of characters when doing a custom layout. You could put the Email app on Alt+E and Gmail on Alt+G etc... Setting it up could be bit more userfriendly but once you figure it out it is not that hard to do.

 

[karnka]

Have got the pro version now and the overall effect is not much worse than the keyboard was under honeycomb so thanks very much.

Have setup a few short cuts (chrome and Gmail) and mapped them to some of the otherwise non-working function keys so that's great too.