Thinking of building a device for sending text and probably mouse movement into a computer, but I want it to be wireless and compatible with many computers/PDAs/phones without a specialized dongle, etc. So I thought "Hey, Bluetooth is a standard for input devices and lots of computers/PDAs/phones have it built in!" But how to get the data into the Bluetooth on the other end?
- I could buy a Bluetooth IC and build a PCB for it, but I can't even find a place to buy them in small quantities, or find documentation without being part of a company and signing NDAs, etc.
- I could learn the very popular Arduino with the Bluetooth adapter, but this would cost $149.95, which is not what I had in mind, and I don't know if it can even act as a keyboard/mouse.
- I could buy a cheap USB keyboard and take it apart, figure out how the keys map to the data lines, and just stimulate them appropriately. Mouse is not so easy, though.
The last seems like the best, but do you have any other ideas?
I do not want a generic serial-over-Bluetooth board, unless it can be configured to look like a standard Bluetooth keyboard/mouse at the other end.
Answer
You'll find this is often the case, when you try to build something from off the shelf parts that duplicates an existing product, almost always the parts alone will cost more than the existing product. The reason being that they can mass produce their product, buying parts in bulk cuts down on costs etc.
Look closely at the 'serial-over-Bluetooth boards', some of them do in fact support different profiles. What you are looking for is a module that supports the Bluetooth HID profile (Human Interface Device, aka mouse, keyboard, joystick, wii remote, etc).
Check out this previous question, it lists several bluetooth modules, which you can buy in single quantities for fairly reasonable prices, some or all of them should support HID.
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