Fanjita and harleyg have just finished piKey. piKey is a keyboard driver for your PSP. Its aim is to allow you to use just about any keyboard (or similar input device) as a natural method of input on your PSP.

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.

piKey consists of a central framework module, which acts as a coordinator between a collection of plugin modules. Each plugin provides an interface between the framework, and either a source of input (e.g. a physical keyboard) - these are called input plugins - or an input environment on the PSP (such as the on-screen keyboard) - these are called output plugins. piKey will load and activate whatever plugins you currently have installed, so you can easily select which functionality you want to use at any time.

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.

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.


piKey comes with the following plugins by default:

* Input plugins
o IR - this plugin uses Monsti's IR keyboard library to support input via many different types of infra-red keyboards.
o 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 ?Key plugins.
* Output plugins
o 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).
o OSK - this plugin detects when the PSP's built-in On-Screen Keyboard is active, and translates key data from ?Key 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).