Use a keyboard on your PSP with piKey keyboard driver *UPDATE*
UPDATE: Reading your comments, you sure do have a lot of questions about Fanjita and harleyg‘s piKey. Anyhow, going over the noobz site, Fanjita posted some clarifications regarding piKey. First off, he mentioned that right now, an IR keyboard is your best option since USB keyboard support will likely be impossible.
He also divulged that the list of supported IR keyboards is limited by Monsti’s IR library (which is used by piKey). The following keyboards were the only ones that have been fully tested so far:
- Nova ETS – may have issues with keyrelease events
- Targus Universal Wireless – one of the best options so far according to Fanjita
And here are the IR keyboards that are known to not work properly:
- Belkin IR -needs an updated keymap
- Palm Universal Wireless – has issues with current keymap
- IRWave IR620K PS/2 to IR adapter – needs a new keymap
Aside from that, he mentions that for now, no directly connected serial keyboard is supported and at the moment, serial connection is for terminal-style connections. Fanjita also shared that supporting new keyboard hardware is expensive and time-consuming, so if you want support for a not-fully supported keyboard, you either have to write the driver for it or donate funds so that they can buy the hardware and do the hard work for you.
On a final note, Fanjita said that piKey is definitely not yet finished but it should work, provided that you have one of the supported keyboards.
Fanjita (you know, the BBC star) and harleyg (of downgrader fame) have just finished piKey, a sophisticated homebrew application for the Sony PSP: it’s a keyboard driver that lets you use almost any keyboard (or similar input device) as a natural method of input on your PSP.
For the rest, we turn to the documentation included in the ZIP file.
Imagine being able to use your keyboard to control any PSP game or homebrew, and even the PSP’s XMB menu and on-screen keyboard, automatically and without needing any changes to the other software. This is what piKey aims to give you. This is an early release, demonstrating just some of the possibilities. The open, extensible framework allows piKey to be extended with new plugins, to allow support for different types of input hardware, and different input environments on the PSP.
- Use with Dark_Alex custom firmware. piKey runs best as a plugin for Dark_AleX’s custom firmwares.
- Use as a standalone by homebrew. piKey can also be run standalone by homebrew that needs to use keyboard input.
That’s basically it. Now, for the usual PSP homebrew warning. WARNING: piKey comes with an “installer.” The installer will ask you if you wish to copy the pikey prx to flash0 and if you want it to auto run in 1.50 game mode. Writing to flash0 will seriously damage or brick your PSP if you don’t know what you’re doing. BE SURE TO READ THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE user_guide.html LOCATED IN THE docs FOLDER IN THE ZIP FILE if you don’t like bricked PSPs.
More details about piKey after the jump!
Download:piKey keyboard driver for PSP
UPDATE: Reading your comments, you sure do have a lot of questions about Fanjita and harleyg‘s piKey. Anyhow, going over the noobz site, Fanjita posted some clarifications regarding piKey. First off, he mentioned that right now, an IR keyboard is your best option since USB keyboard support will likely be impossible.
He also divulged that the list of supported IR keyboards is limited by Monsti’s IR library (which is used by piKey). The following keyboards were the only ones that have been fully tested so far:
- Nova ETS – may have issues with keyrelease events
- Targus Universal Wireless – one of the best options so far according to Fanjita
And here are the IR keyboards that are known to not work properly:
- Belkin IR -needs an updated keymap
- Palm Universal Wireless – has issues with current keymap
- IRWave IR620K PS/2 to IR adapter – needs a new keymap
Aside from that, he mentions that for now, no directly connected serial keyboard is supported and at the moment, serial connection is for terminal-style connections. Fanjita also shared that supporting new keyboard hardware is expensive and time-consuming, so if you want support for a not-fully supported keyboard, you either have to write the driver for it or donate funds so that they can buy the hardware and do the hard work for you.
On a final note, Fanjita said that piKey is definitely not yet finished but it should work, provided that you have one of the supported keyboards.
Fanjita (you know, the BBC star) and harleyg (of downgrader fame) have just finished piKey, a sophisticated homebrew application for the Sony PSP: it’s a keyboard driver that lets you use almost any keyboard (or similar input device) as a natural method of input on your PSP.
For the rest, we turn to the documentation included in the ZIP file.
Imagine being able to use your keyboard to control any PSP game or homebrew, and even the PSP’s XMB menu and on-screen keyboard, automatically and without needing any changes to the other software. This is what piKey aims to give you. This is an early release, demonstrating just some of the possibilities. The open, extensible framework allows piKey to be extended with new plugins, to allow support for different types of input hardware, and different input environments on the PSP.
- Use with Dark_Alex custom firmware. piKey runs best as a plugin for Dark_AleX’s custom firmwares.
- Use as a standalone by homebrew. piKey can also be run standalone by homebrew that needs to use keyboard input.
That’s basically it. Now, for the usual PSP homebrew warning. WARNING: piKey comes with an “installer.” The installer will ask you if you wish to copy the pikey prx to flash0 and if you want it to auto run in 1.50 game mode. Writing to flash0 will seriously damage or brick your PSP if you don’t know what you’re doing. BE SURE TO READ THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE user_guide.html LOCATED IN THE docs FOLDER IN THE ZIP FILE if you don’t like bricked PSPs.
piKey comes with the following plugins by default:
- Input plugins
- IR – this plugin uses Monsti’s IR keyboard library to support input via many different types of infra-red keyboards.
- SIO – this plugin supports input via Serial I/O cable. SIO cables plug into your PSP’s headphone socket, to provide a serial interface. You can use the SIO plugin to simulate a keyboard via serial terminal, e.g. HyperTerminal on Windows. You can also use the SIO plugin to display debug information from other πKey plugins.
- Output plugins
- CTRL – this plugin simulates presses of the PSP’s buttons, mapping selected keys on the keyboard to different PSP buttons. For instance, the cursor keys simulate presses on the directional pad (D-pad).
- OSK – this plugin detects when the PSP’s built-in On-Screen Keyboard is active, and translates key data from πKey into the necessary button presses to enter that text into the OSK.
The user_guide.html in the docs folder in the ZIP file has configuration, usage, and troubleshooting notes (in English). Thanks to Fanjita and harleyg for this amazing PSP homebrew application.
Download: piKey keyboard driver for PSP
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