External keyboard for Android tablet?

[tanna]

Greetings everyone.

I just ordered mine from androidostablet.com. I hope to use my tablet for reading pdfs and composing e-mails/text files. I am not a big fan of on-screen/touchscreen keyboards and would benefit greatly by having an external keyboard. My Google searches for external keyboards for Android tablets have proved futile so far, and I am hoping someone here has useful information.

Cheers.

 

[probbiethe1]

this may help you USB Host mode on Motorola Droid if you get it working with a tablet please let me know

 

[joshua.lyon]

Greetings everyone.

I just ordered mine from androidostablet.com. I hope to use my tablet for reading pdfs and composing e-mails/text files. I am not a big fan of on-screen/touchscreen keyboards and would benefit greatly by having an external keyboard. My Google searches for external keyboards for Android tablets have proved futile so far, and I am hoping someone here has useful information.

Cheers.

You should be able to plug in a regular USB keyboard to the tablet (using the included MicroUSB-to-USB adapter). You can even plug in a USB mouse if you are so inclined to do so.

 

[chaimpeck]

Greetings everyone.

I just ordered mine from androidostablet.com. I hope to use my tablet for reading pdfs and composing e-mails/text files. I am not a big fan of on-screen/touchscreen keyboards and would benefit greatly by having an external keyboard. My Google searches for external keyboards for Android tablets have proved futile so far, and I am hoping someone here has useful information.

Cheers.

How is it? I am thinking of getting one. The most important factor (aside from general usability) is the being able to attach an external keyboard. Did you have any trouble with that or anything else with this table?

 

[OffWorld]

I got one for $25 that works great, and already has the mini-USB plug on it. Integrated into a faux leather case.

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...my-android-tablet-into-netbook.html#post15642

 

[pbrauer]

This also depends a lot on the ROM, the Keyboard and the tablet. On the Gtab, some of these work out of box and some don't. I have also had some interesting experiences where only about 90% of the keys work as expected, otherwise you get some interesting behaviors (the E key opening Email, things like that). Also on the VEGAn ROM, you can use both a keyboard and external mouse, whereas with TnT lite only a keyboard. You may need to try a couple of different configurations, but you SHOULD be able to find an acceptable solution.

 

[cmrs2k]

This also depends a lot on the ROM, the Keyboard and the tablet. On the Gtab, some of these work out of box and some don't. I have also had some interesting experiences where only about 90% of the keys work as expected, otherwise you get some interesting behaviors (the E key opening Email, things like that). Also on the VEGAn ROM, you can use both a keyboard and external mouse, whereas with TnT lite only a keyboard. You may need to try a couple of different configurations, but you SHOULD be able to find an acceptable solution.

Have you by chance had any luck getting past the hotkeys with TNT? I have a wireless little keyboard/touchpad device I would love to use, but not sure I want to abandon TNT just for that...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[rksii]

I have an APad that I got from PickEgg and I have tried several different USB keyboards and they all seem to work. Some of the keys don't always do what you expect and some actually put the pad into a funky state but, in general, they work. I seem to have better luck with keyboards that were designed to work with Mac computers.

 

[forza_]

Normally, plugging in a USB-keyboard should work, you shouldn't look for specific external Android keyboards. I for one haven't experienced any problems with that. For composing e-mails and text files it really is a necessity. Works a lot faster.

 

[fweiss09]

Normally, plugging in a USB-keyboard should work, you shouldn't look for specific external Android keyboards. I for one haven't experienced any problems with that. For composing e-mails and text files it really is a necessity. Works a lot faster.

How did you get the usb-keyboard to work? I just bought the acer a5000 tablet and already have a microsoft usb wireless keyboard/mouse used for my pc and tried to use this with the tablet and it isn't working. Two of the function keys work but nothing else will. What may fix this if any usb keyboard should work?

 

[beastman]

Newer Macs are based on linux, as is android, so that might explain why you havebettrr luck

Sent from my GTablet using Android Tablet Forum

 

[OffWorld]

Mac OSX is based on BSD UNIX, not Linux.

 

[dxdevelopers]

Is there any conclusion here guys? I am a coder and desperately need to find a hack or physical keyboard that will run with 2.3 or greater. Is any machine known by forum mkembers that is guaranteed to accept an external USB or Bluetooth keyboard?

 

[OffWorld]

I have a Haipad M701-R and the three USB keyboards I've plugged in have all worked, both under the 2.1 and the 2.3.1 firmwares.

The tablet has to have "USB Host" capabilities for starters. Some tablets have it from the start, some have seen this functionality added with just a firmware update, others have had to physically hack their tablet and solder things to get it, still others are S.O.L.

The keyboards often have wonky character mapping because Android is a phone OS it expects to have things like a phone dial pad or texting keyboard with some buttons dedicated to smartphone functions. Fixing those to your liking is usually just a matter of editing the keylayout files (these are the same files that also set the hardware buttons on a device). I wrote a post about changing the layouts a while back, and while I was specifically talking about my tablet those are general Android files so similar hacks should work on other devices as well.

I don't know about BT keyboards since my tablet is the older version without BT capability.

 

[PeteDee]

How did you get the usb-keyboard to work? I just bought the acer a5000 tablet and already have a microsoft usb wireless keyboard/mouse used for my pc and tried to use this with the tablet and it isn't working. Two of the function keys work but nothing else will. What may fix this if any usb keyboard should work?

Thats because the USB does not support the dongle, you however just use a normal USB keyboard or a bluetooth keyboard.

Pete