QJ.net Wrote:The homebrew app which lets you use a keyboard on your PSP is back, fresh from the coding labs of the Noobz Team. Fanjita just rolled piKey v0.2 out on their site, and wee're serving it up for grabs in QJ-landia. For those who are new to this, piKey (also done with harleyg's help) is a keyboard driver that allows you to input data into your PSP by using a keyboard.

It's been said before that an "IR keyboard is your best option since USB keyboard support will likely be impossible." While this release still doesn't have USB support (if ever there will be), here's the full changelog, complete with new features and additions:

    * A new keypress mode, which allows more natural use of the keyboard in action games etc. The default mode is now keypress mode, and the keyboard will switch automatically to text input mode when required.
    * Custom key-to-button assignment - so now you can define WASD buttons for FPS game movement, as well as cursor keys for XMB movement, for instance.
    * Support for mapping keypresses to analog joystick movements.
    * Support for converting keypresses into Danzeff OSK presses - so now you can use your physical keyboard with homebrew that uses the Danzeff virtual keyboard - e.g. AFKIM.
    * Installer now fixed to correctly install to flash0, to support GAME150 homebrew.
    * Palm UW keyboard ought to at least partially work, but I can't test it myself.
    * Optional on-screen status information.
    * Various minor bugfixes.

Specifics of the bugfixes can be found in the readme. Here are some known bugs and other developer notes:

    * Multilingual support isn't great. Especially, the Sony OSK uses different key layouts for different regions, these are not correctly supported yet.
    * The Danzeff plugin occasionally misses keypresses when you type a lot of text at once.
    * When putting the PSP in standby, piKey doesn't usually recover properly when power is restored.
    * It has only been tested on 3.10 OE firmware. It ought to work on other OE firmwares, but I haven't tested it myself.

Wee stress the importance of reading the docs folder included in the bundle. All you need to know and more is found there in the user guide. Make sure you do use it. Since this driver involves having to write and install onto flash, make sure you know what you're doing or you might stand the risk of BRICKING YOUR PSP.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Might actually make the PSP into a sorda laptop replacement!  Could type my notes up soon :) (willl probably need to get some sort of a PSP stand, like a PGP or something)