Handheld Scientific BT-500 - make any wired keyboard a Bluetooth keyboard

I’ve been using a Handheld Scientific BT-400 for years, to let my wireless devices (iPad, etc) use my wired keyboards. It adapts PS/2 or USB keyboards to Bluetooth with a built-in battery. It’s a little clunky and the LEDs are obnoxiously bright, but still, it’s a unique product and I love it. Still works great. Except, it wasn’t passing through the media keys I layered into my D60Lite.

BT-500
BT-500
I contacted support and confirmed, to my chagrin, the BT-400 has been discontinued, and they’re not incredibly enthused to help troubleshoot obscure issues on obsolete products. Don’t really blame them. Instead, they offered to have me test-drive the new BT-500, to see if my issues persisted.

 

Gone is the PS/2 port, though their compatibility list suggests most (all?) PS/2 to USB adapters should work.

As for USB, it turns out the BT-500 is very particular about what cable it’s connected to. It worked perfectly with a GMMK full-sized keyboard and a Unicomp SpaceSaver M, both of which are hardwired. When I tried to use a USB-A to USB-C cable that came bundled with one of my keyboards, however, it didn’t recognize any input from the board whatsoever (nor did RGB illuminate, on the boards that had it). Tried a different, braided, USB-A to USB-C cable, and everything worked perfectly. (The cable that didn’t work with the BT-500 worked perfectly when connecting the same keyboards to the hub built into a Dell monitor that was connected to my Mac mini.)

Meanwhile, all the keys worked, including the media keys I have mapped to Layer 1.

I’m not sure I agree with the decision to make a smaller device without the battery. Having to plug the BT-500 into a battery pack is a clunky solution, frankly. I’m using it with a FuelRod as one of the smaller options I have (most of my battery packs are big, manly things that can power a laptop through a zombie apocalypse), and it’s ... Fine. But if you’re trying to turn a wired keyboard into a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, without replacing the controller circuitry inside, this is basically the only game in town. Glad it exists, and that it works – even if it is very particular about what it works with!

BT-500 and Unicomp SpaceSaver M
BT-500 and Unicomp SpaceSaver M

BT-500 and Tokyo60
BT-500 and Tokyo60


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