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Real Keyboard setting up problem

Former Member

There have been many complaints about keyboards.  I have one too, but it is NOT the keyboard, and it is not the USB voltage.

 

Someone from Element14, I need you.

 

I bought, as a peripheral for my RPi-B, a 89-key mini-keyboard by Gearhead, Model KB1700U, E14/Newark Stock Number 43W5953.

 

First, to assure myself that there is nothing wrong with this keyboard, I plugged it into an USB port on my desktop PC.  Called up Notepad, tested the keys, and it worked fine.  Press the Caps Lock and the little CL pilot light comes on.  hey, allll right.

 

Plug it into my RPi and many keys are not mapped correctly, the ampersand (@) and the quote (") are exchanged, the caps Lock is inoperative, many more keys are incorrectly displayed. Some symbols probably do not exist on a US keyboard, like £.

 

After I stopped crying, I read in the "Raspberry Pi User Guide" (Upton [not Kate] and Halfacree are the authors) that when you start adding USB peripherals to the RPi, there may be a voltage problem that causes an error in the interpretation of the character typed. They recommended an independently powered USB Hub.

 

So I bought a Powered USB Hub.  Made absolutely no difference.  The @ appears on sreen as ", and vice versa.

 

The real problem is that the Configuration Screen offers up a long table of keyboards.  I don't know if this is true, but in a book needing extensive editing, "Getting Started with Raspberry Pi" by Richardson & Wallace, the Configuration Screen asks you to choose from a very long, "robust list of generic keyboards with a UK-Style mapping layout" (paraphrased).  Huh?  I am in the US.  The British £ shows up instead of my $.  "Therein lies the rub!" or @Therein lies the rub!@

 

Will someone from Element14/Newark (or anyone that knows the answer to this) explain to me, how should a US-bought keyboard be set up in the configuration screen.  If it can not, then it should not be sold as a specific peripheral for the Raspberry Pi.  I wrote twice to Gearhead to ask which keyboard in the list would work to map their keyboard and got no response.

 

That is it.  Low voltage is not responsible.

 

Anyone out there know?  I can not be the only US resident to be in this situation.  The solution, if available, should be prominently posted (or included in the keyboard box) if there is one that works.

 

Chuck

Parents
  • in reply to johnbeetem

    John,

     

    Sounds like that may work.  Some time will elapse before I can check it out.

     

    This can not be an unknown prolem to the Raspberry Pi developers.  How about in the next distribution to add a formal solution.  They are excluding a large proportion of potential users, because many newbies will give up.  I am not a newbie, but I am not a nuts & bolts programmer either.  I will try your direction before the next sunrise in North America, and I will report back.

     

    Chuck.

     

    This is not the place, but my computer experience goes back to 1964, Fortran on an IBM 1620 (limited to 16K + an additional 20K "bubble memory", Timex/Sinclair, Apple IIe, and finally a PC, learned basic and visual basic, assembly language, C.  That PC came with 40MB of hard drive, advertised as "You will never need more".

     

    I strongly feel this keyboard problem should have been addressed very early, the Keyboard Configuration Table proves they recognized the problem.

     

    Chuck

  • in reply to Former Member

    I've been fighting keyboard-mappings for a long time, mainly due to the assumption that I was using a keyboard designed for the US of A (welcome to the club Chuck). My other Linux machine (Linux Mint) allows me to set up the correct mapping by inviting me to press enough keys for the software to figure it out (Press #; press $,Press \, etc). Within a few seconds, I have set up a Belgian French keyboard to work in English without needing to know the name of the keymapping. Perhaps Raspbian could use this technique (no perhaps actually, it's FREE SOFTWARE !!!)

  • in reply to mgt6910

    That is great news, too.  What is the name of the software and where can it be downloaded.  it will be awile before I get to that comfort level to explore networking.

     

    Chuck

  • in reply to Former Member

    The important information is missing - what are you running on your RPi?

     

    If it's raspbian, just run raspi-config, select 'keyboard' and enter whatever type of keyboard you want.

     

    Might also be useful to enter 'locale' and choose en_US.UTF-8.

     

    if you're NOT running raspbian, let us know so we can advise.

     

    Keyboards aren't a great issue, most of the world has had to put up with the assumption that we're using a US keyboard for a couple of decades now - ATM I'm using a Greek keyboard (but I don't speak Greek).

  • in reply to Former Member

    Kwac, thanks for responding.

     

    what are you running on your RPi?  Wheezy

     

    If it's raspbian, just run raspi-config, select 'keyboard' and enter whatever type of keyboard you want.  I did but there are about 40 or more choices and country of origin is not listed.

     

    Might also be useful to enter 'locale' and choose en_US.UTF-8.      I did.  had to figure out that the choice is made with the spacebar.

     

    What irks me is that the keyboard was sold with a Raspberry Pi. It was supposed to be compatible. 

     

    Thanks.

Reply
  • in reply to Former Member

    Kwac, thanks for responding.

     

    what are you running on your RPi?  Wheezy

     

    If it's raspbian, just run raspi-config, select 'keyboard' and enter whatever type of keyboard you want.  I did but there are about 40 or more choices and country of origin is not listed.

     

    Might also be useful to enter 'locale' and choose en_US.UTF-8.      I did.  had to figure out that the choice is made with the spacebar.

     

    What irks me is that the keyboard was sold with a Raspberry Pi. It was supposed to be compatible. 

     

    Thanks.

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