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 At the start of this year, I saw the interesting work that was going on with interfacing InfraRed keyboards to the PSP, and decided that it would be good to try to develop a truly generic input driver framework, that could support all sorts of hardware and software.
A few months later, after working on it in dribs and drabs, and πKey ('pi-key') is result of that work. πKey is a keyboard driver, with the aim of allowing 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 πKey aims to give you. This is an early release, demonstrating just some of the possibilities. The open, extensible framework allows πKey to be extended with new plugins, to allow support for different types of input hardware, and different input environments on the PSP. For example, if you prefer the psprint keyboard to the Danzeff keyboard, it should be possible to create plugins that will let you use psprint for all your input, converting it to Danzeff when necessary.
πKey runs best as a plugin for Dark_AleX's custom firmwares, although it can also be run standalone by homebrew that needs to use keyboard input. The easiest way to install it is to use the installer that comes in the release package. Make sure to read the user guide that is included in the docs/ subfolder of the ZIP. πKey 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.
This release was made possible due to kind sponsorship of test hardware by PSP-Generation - the premier French-language PSP news site. Thanks also to harleyg for his help on this project, and monsti for his work on the IR keyboard library used to provide IR support.
If you need to find an IR keyboard to use with your PSP, I recommend the Targus folding keyboard, it seems to work very well. You can pick it up from Amazon pretty cheaply : see here for the UK , and here for the US .
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Download piKey 0.1
also... didn't the Japs make a mini keyboard for the psp, that was like a flip thing? I would like one of them 
