[Q] MS Surface Cover Connector Pinout

[Greg00135]

I know this is probably more for Microsoft Surface Developer Section but seeing how I am still pretty new I don't have enough post to be able to post in that area.

I am mainly curious if anyone knows the pin outs for the Touch/Type Cover connector on the bottom of the tablet and if it uses standard USB or if it is some kind of special propitiatory type connection that would say connect the keyboard membrane to the keyboard controller that may be in the tablet? If it is just a standard USB connection I am thinking about cannibalizing a touch cover to see if I can create a home Grown Dock so to speak for the tablet that would have a USB hub for keyboard and mouse and a USB to Ethernet adapter that works with the tablet. The USB hub will draw power from a modified Power Cord for the tablet IF I can figure out that electrical later on to where it wont fry my tablet or other accessories but first I need to figure out the first part.

TLDR Does anyone know if the touch/type cover user a standard USB protocol and if so what is the pin layout for the connector on the tablet. If anyone can help that would be appreciated.

 

[ubergeekseven]

I just received a surface and they through in 2 type covers. said, "keep it" on a sticky note. I am now working on figuring out what the connectors are. I dont see the point of having 6 connectors, so I think that some may be ground or false. I will open up one of the keyboards to see what ships they are connecting to. i would think it has to be usb. I know that the 6th pin, that is 6th from the left pin, is 1.8v when grounded. I am guessing that the voltage goes up once the surface detects the attached keyboard. I will write back, let me know if you have figured anything else out. seems like we are hte only people on the internet who even care at this point. and microsoft is literally giving away surface computers.

I know this is probably more for Microsoft Surface Developer Section but seeing how I am still pretty new I don't have enough post to be able to post in that area.

I am mainly curious if anyone knows the pin outs for the Touch/Type Cover connector on the bottom of the tablet and if it uses standard USB or if it is some kind of special propitiatory type connection that would say connect the keyboard membrane to the keyboard controller that may be in the tablet? If it is just a standard USB connection I am thinking about cannibalizing a touch cover to see if I can create a home Grown Dock so to speak for the tablet that would have a USB hub for keyboard and mouse and a USB to Ethernet adapter that works with the tablet. The USB hub will draw power from a modified Power Cord for the tablet IF I can figure out that electrical later on to where it wont fry my tablet or other accessories but first I need to figure out the first part.

TLDR Does anyone know if the touch/type cover user a standard USB protocol and if so what is the pin layout for the connector on the tablet. If anyone can help that would be appreciated.

 

[tfBullet]

any progress?

i already build a power wire, with a 5,5mm plug to connect it to my Intocircuit PC26000 for more juice on the go, and for a second charger.
you can see the pinouts of the power plug in the attatched pic.

let me know if you got any results for the cover connector so far - if its USB, i will implement my UMTS stick into a cover

Cheers!

 

[tfBullet]

just got pictures of the cover connector, see attatchment.

in fact all the 6 pins are connected. USB 2.0 would take 4 of them.
my guess is that one of them could be a switch, to turn the device & keyboard on and off.

 

[Jadware]

any progress

Curious if anyone has made any progress on decoding the pinout, figuring out if it's usb or not?

 

[tfBullet]

i didn't do any further research - but it guess it's usb, or at least kind of... as it shows up as USB device in the device manager...

 

[crampedson]

just got pictures of the cover connector, see attatchment.

in fact all the 6 pins are connected. USB 2.0 would take 4 of them.
my guess is that one of them could be a switch, to turn the device & keyboard on and off.

Judging by the connector and the fact that the covers are USB-based and can be used reversed, the pinout makes perfect sense. The likely possibility for the pinout is as follows:
Power Cover connector (Using pin labels in picture)
1/10 = Power cover +ve
2/9 = Power cover Ground

Touch/Type connector (Using pin labels in picture)
3 = +ve
4 = Ground
5/6 = Data +ve or -ve (reversible internally)
7/8 = Attachment direction detect

Pins on Touch/Type cover itself (Pinout from left [1] to right [6])
1/6 = +ve
2/5 = Ground
3/4 = Data +ve or -ve (reversible internally)

As to if the USB data pairs are swapped on the SP or the Cover, we cannot know without more information. Depending on the voltage supplied or the presence of unauthorised hardware detection (e.g. the ID chip in Apple earphones, I doubt it), custom USB devices should be fairly trivial (electrically).

 

[geronphillips]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone made any further progress on this? If not, I'm considering experimenting myself with a spare touch cover and a raspberry pi

 

[tfBullet]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone made any further progress on this? If not, I'm considering experimenting myself with a spare touch cover and a raspberry pi

Nope, im sorry, i didn't make further progress on this, exept what i already posted.. it is a USB connection, you can easily verify that yourself by looking at the Touch/type-cover in the device-manager...
I guess you can easily connect other USB devices if you build yourself an adapter..
but there could also be some kind of verification, if so then its most likely software based, if you hit a barrier, try reverseing the type-cover driver, you might find something there...

One additional info: the big outer nipples can be used to charge the device.



Peace

 

[civic5zigen]

If I were to leverage the bottom grooves for charging, can you tell me which pin is which? +/-

Nope, im sorry, i didn't make further progress on this, exept what i already posted.. it is a USB connection, you can easily verify that yourself by looking at the Touch/type-cover in the device-manager...
I guess you can easily connect other USB devices if you build yourself an adapter..
but there could also be some kind of verification, if so then its most likely software based, if you hit a barrier, try reverseing the type-cover driver, you might find something there...

One additional info: the big outer nipples can be used to charge the device.



Peace

 

[civic5zigen]

Hi tfBullet,

When you say "the big outer nipples can be used to charge the devices" are you referring to these...

Power Cover connector (Using pin labels in picture)
1/10 = Power cover +ve
2/9 = Power cover Ground

 

[sathpra]

Any new discovery?

Any new discovery?

 

[tld8102]

will the power output still be live, if the data signals are not shorted? e.g: IOS devices

 

[nlp7s]

Can we just connect the keyboard via usb to a windows pc?

 

[slurpy1]

I don't think this is true USB, as there is no 5 volts anywhere on the connector, only 3.3 volts.. It may be USB, but needing to be level-shifted before you can use it. It may be potentially a way to get another USB port on the damn thing. Why did they think one USB port is enough? I have been trying to boot it from flash drive, but need keyboard as well, but the USB will not boot with a hub connected. Grrrrr.

 

[ronald_loulan]

I don't think this is true USB, as there is no 5 volts anywhere on the connector, only 3.3 volts.. It may be USB, but needing to be level-shifted before you can use it. It may be potentially a way to get another USB port on the damn thing. Why did they think one USB port is enough? I have been trying to boot it from flash drive, but need keyboard as well, but the USB will not boot with a hub connected. Grrrrr.

Why not booting on a flash drive and use the usb for keyboard???

 

[neakmenter]

There's someone here who's made some progress...

edwardsh.in/keyboard%20cover/2015/08/13/applying-logic-to-the-surface-touch-cover

 

[Ferrybigger]

i want to connect the keyboard itself to other devices

Hey guys
Good thread going on , i would like to see if any one of you ever thought about to use keyboard itself not the port , for some reasons I would like to use the keyboard on other devices (i mean kinda convert the pins to a USB port and use it on other pcs or what i really desire about is using it on Xbox) i want to see if any of you have any ideas or information about this , i mean is this even possible ? I've read the whole replies and most of them were about the port on surface and yeah its really cool , but i want to see if its possible to do , cause if its possible then it would be a lot easier than the port on the surface

Thanks

 

[tfBullet]

Hey guys

Good thread going on , i would like to see if any one of you ever thought about to use keyboard itself not the port , for some reasons I would like to use the keyboard on other devices (i mean kinda convert the pins to a USB port and use it on other pcs or what i really desire about is using it on Xbox) i want to see if any of you have any ideas or information about this , i mean is this even possible ? I've read the whole replies and most of them were about the port on surface and yeah its really cool , but i want to see if its possible to do , cause if its possible then it would be a lot easier than the port on the surface



Thanks

Well, take a look at the link Neakmenter posted, the guy there analyzed the communication, turns out it's no standard USB, it's proprietary.. Which means, there is no easy way of using this keyboard anywhere else than the surface... You would need some kind of microcontroller which connects to the keyboard, interprets it's signals, and relays them as Standart HID signals to a USB port..
The connector alone is a problem as well, you'd need to 3D print a connector or something like that, it's just not worth the effort i guess [emoji2371]

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