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+--- Forum: PinePhone Hardware (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=122)
+--- Thread: Pine phone USB keyboard connection (/showthread.php?tid=17951)
Pine phone USB keyboard connection - CleanEnergyCleanEnvironment - 02-18-2023
According to the pine64 instruction, pine phone should only be connected to its special keyboard, customers should not use generic USB keyboards to connect to the pinephone because it would cause the USB keyboard to charge the phone, that does not make sense, I have a DELL laptop that can only be charged by a USB power supply, I can connect to the USB keyboard or any USB peripherals to the same laptop USB socket whout charging the laptop battery
I would like to see pine phone is more flexible in regard to USB peripheral connections, I thought it should not be hard in hardware design to only allow the USB power supply unit to charge the battery and to filter out other peripherals for battery charge, are there any reason why the pine phone could not do it?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
- jupiter
RE: Pine phone USB keyboard connection - Kevin Kofler - 02-20-2023
I think you misunderstood the instructions. A standard USB keyboard should work fine, as long as either you use the USB A ports on the convergence dock, or a USB C male to USB A female adapter, or a USB C keyboard. (I have done it with the convergence dock, that definitely works.) A standard USB keyboard has no battery or other power source, so it cannot charge your phone (but will on the contrary drain a small amount of power from it, as any other USB peripheral).
There are warnings on how to charge a PinePhone with the special PinePhone keyboard case attached. Those warnings do not apply to the use of external USB keyboards.
The reason there is a special keyboard case is not that a standard USB keyboard does not work, but that it is impractical to carry around all the time or to use in space-constrained places such as public transport. So they designed a keyboard that is very small and directly attached on the phone, like on those keyboard phones (that mostly succumbed to touch) or on PDAs.