Just wanted to share the excellent wireless keyboard I bought at Columbia Computer Store MegaMall.
I'm an HTPC enthusiast using Media Center Edition 2005 and I've been looking for just the right wireless keyboard for my setup.
I wanted one with the mouse built-in so that I could use the keyboard on my lap from my couch. IR keyboards were out of the question because they were too bothersome to use (you had to point the keyboard sensor at the IR receiver at all times and they didn't work very well in well-lit environments), so it had to use Radio Frequency (RF). The popular Logitech wireless keyboards used RF, but the range was only 6 feet (There's 8 feet between my TV and couch).
Needless to say, I had a hard time finding a keyboard which met all of my requirements.
I was casually browsing through the store, when I stumbled onto this:
BTC 9019URF Wireless Keyboard - Php 2,010.00
- Has built-in thumb-stick which functions as a mouse and as a joystick for games
- Lots of multimedia hotkeys, and scroll buttons
- Dual Channel (255 IDs)
- 27MHz Operational Frequency
- Range is 4.5 meters or 14.76 feet from the receiver
- 2 x AA Batteries (will last approximately 1.5 months at 4 hours per day usage)
- Comes with a USB receiver, 2 x AA batteries, Quick Install Guide, Manual and Driver CD
Here are some more pictures:
Back of the box
Close-up of the thumb-stick
Build quality is quite good. The keyboard has a solid feel to it, being contructed of very dense plastic. There are holes at each end that help the user grip the keyboard. The keys on the keyboard have the normal width as those found on desktop keyboards, but are shallower (but not as shallow as those found on laptop keyboards). The multimedia keys don't look that nice (looks like the buttons on the remote of a cheap DVD player), but they do the work. Pairing the keyboard with the included USB receiver was painless and I had no problems using it with MCE 2005. The manual indicates that the keyboard has several status LEDs on it but I have not found them yet. It says that you need to install the drivers on the CD to activate the status LEDs.
Will give you more feedback on ease of use and reliability as I use the keyboard.
Update:
There are no LEDs on the unit...The LEDs the manual were referring to were onscreen on the Windows system tray. There are indicator icons for displaying the remaining battery life on the keyboard, and for the usual caps lock, num lock and scroll lock. As the manual indicated, you will have to install the software from the CD to enable these features.
The USB receiver has a button on top that is used for pairing the receiver and the keyboard using one of the 255 IDs available. Once paired, this button has a built in LED that acts as an activity indicator, flashing to indicate whenever it is receiving data from the keyboard.
I find the thumb-stick very easy to use. Response time is very nice and tracking is very smooth. The thumb-stick auto-centers when you let go, and does not cause mouse drift. Like a PS2 controller, you can press down on the thumb-stick and it will do a left mouse-click (there is also a dedicated button that does that on the opposite end of the keyboard, along with one that does right-click). To the immediate left of the thumb-stick is a pair of buttons that emulate a scrollwheel. On the right is a button for that emulates a mouse's middle button.
Oh, did I mention that the thumb-stick can also be used as a joystick for games?
Pressing FN-F12 will enable the joystick functionality. It will be detected as a "USB Human Interface Device" in Control Panel | Game Controllers. The 4 mouse buttons and the 2 scroll buttons become 6 joystick buttons. Pressing FN-F11 re-enables the mouse functionality. Of course with the weird layout of the buttons, only buttons 1 and 2 (left and right mouse buttons) will actually be usable for gaming.
The range of the keyboard is also very good. I can use it from the couch without any difficulty, which more than what I can say for my Logitech wireless keyboard. Will try to test the maximum range of the keyboard and whether the signal will go through walls/doors.
Update:
Just tried the keyboard from the next room with the door closed. It still works!
Rene
