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Bluetooth Keyboard Interface Board
ark_ader:
OK I'm talking out loud here, but if it is a pedestal then the control part is mute and we are talking wireless video.
PL1:
I think he's shhoting for something more like this.
HTPC (gray) serves audio/video to screens (blue) in different rooms.
Wireless control panel pedestal (red) can be moved to either room or stored in closet when not in use.
Scott
corndwg01:
Yep PL1 has the right idea. Something like that and/or same idea but with two PCs in the two different rooms with the red pedestal being moved from room to room.
dkersten:
The only things I can think of here would be to use a thin client with wifi in the pedestal and control the HTPC remotely through that, but latency would be a problem. NVidia has made some big strides in remote pc control with games, but making that tech work for an arcade control might be tricky.
That leaves RF. There are plenty of RF keyboards out there for HTPC's, but I have no idea if they could be hacked for this or if they would be able to transmit more than a few simultaneous keystrokes at once. I imagine keystrokes would be relatively easy to emulate, but since most mouse control with RF remotes is done via touchpad and not optical any more, it would probably be pretty hard to emulate that.
Personally if you were more than 10 feet away, I would avoid Bluetooth. Most BT devices are class 2 and the range is usually less than 30 feet in open air, less with walls in place, and at max range the signal is spotty at best. A class 1 device and receiver might do better, but they are harder to find. I found a cheap class 1 BT usb dongle for my PC, but the BT speaker I wanted to run off it is class 2 and even 20 feet away through 3 walls it can't discover it. BT is just so unreliable in most cases, which is why I would look to RF.
ark_ader:
OK I am thinking out loud again here.
I use a similar set up with my tablets. I have Mame and games installed on the tablet and I like to be able to play them on the big screen. Actually I'm typing on a 32" TV via the same method completely wireless. The software I use is Splashtop HD. I can play games like WOW on the tablet and remote control games on the big screen. I think this is a client issue and if you moved to a Android platform, you can have a wireless control pad and still have functionality.
Remember, we are not talking about running Android Mame or anything like that (you could do that to make things more simpler). You are just using the Android device (a cheap MK808 will do) as a controller. Going back to PL1 and his Kades mention a few posts back is more what I was referencing. The android device is the client to whatever device you want to plug in. Another product that works similar is DroidMote. When you have the server software installed on the PCs in question you can swap between them and use the same devices connected to the android client. Wire up your CP via two KADES using Android Firmware and you are golden.
The data is transferred via Wifi and I do not experience any lag. I am currently retrofitting my X arcade with two KADES and the MK808b for this very same purpose.