La intrahistoria del hack del nook touch para usar teclado externo

Con lo empecinado que estoy con la idea del ereader conectable a un teclado externo, no es de extrañar que buscara más hilo del que tirar. Acabo de pasarme por el hilo original del gran verygreen, y volviéndolo a leer me he dado cuenta de un detalle final:

THANKS TO:andrewed, who asked me to do this and also provided me with a device. He is on a quest to touchtype on e-paper with a USB physical keyboard, all described here: Project: E-Paper Tablet (typable!)

El proyecto E-Paper Tablet (¡conectable a teclado externo!) es el producto de alguien que tiene una misión como la mía: Andrewed. Lo lanzó de esta guisa:

INTRO:After 3.5 years of vainly asking several manufacturers for an e-paper tablet device that is touch typable with a USB external keyboard, I have decided to make it myself, and would like to gauge interest in such a product.
If you would buy it, please reply below. Include ideas. I'd like collaborators, especially technical ones. I am a designer, not an engineer or programmer.

Y para lograrlo, lanza para la discusión estas posibilidades

STRATEGIES (in order of feasibility. But please say which you think is best and why)1. Hack hardware of existing e-reader. This would be cheapest and fastest and require the fewest orders to make it happen. A friend who seriously hacks gaming computers for a living says he could do it. Could be easier, cheaper, faster... and strangely satisfying. He just wants to know how much demand there really is. (100 units minimum)a) Please say which device you think is best for this purpose and why.b) Hacker who turned Nook into extra monitor (ihavenotlife on youtube), told me the Nook's USB port can probably be a host if it had additional hardware code. Anybody know for sure? Anybody able to write such code?
2. Hire Crystalfontz to resurrect its discontinued CFA-910. Update and streamline this beautiful development board for consumer use.
3. New, Open Source hardware design. Engineers, programmers, hackers WELCOME.
4. ____________ (fill in the blank)
LASTLY:Spread the word. If you would rather not register your interest here, use contact form on andrewdurham.com. 

Si tenéis tiempo, la discusión es interesante. Lamentablemente se llega rápido al offtopic primero y al concurso de penes después, con lo que sólo mi encebollamiento con el e-writer me hizo seguir hasta llegar al post nº 56

Good news. 
I found two professional programmers (verygreen and ros87 at xda-developers.com) to work on the project using the Nook Simple Touch (NST). We have had several friendly exchanges over the past five days. These guys are simply awesome. 
The idea is to activate the USB Host mode with a kernel patch and get the power to work somehow. One guy already did this with the Nook Color. The other guy has worked a lot on USB Host mode on the NST. I should have more news by the end of next week.
If we succeed, then I would design IKEA-style, ultra-clear instructions for the hack, which assume zero programming knowledge, so even non-hackers (like me) can do it. Further, to provide a simple service whereby you could ship a NST to a friendly technician to have the hack installed for you at a reasonable cost. Presumably, all this would lead to badder, slicker e-paper tablets in the future. One step at a time, starting with the cheap, quick, and dirty.
This week, I am buying a NST for the Nook Color guy to work with, cost $100. I already donated $20 total to them and would like to continue with that. Anyone who would like to help out can paypal me atinfo@andrewdurham.com
Thanks for your ongoing interest and support.
Andrew

Y aquí vino lo más grande

At my request, verygreen, with support from ros87, has done in 48 hours for $10 and a $109 donated device what tens of companies could/would not do in four years with all their resources (like the $500,000 one company told me it would cost).There are still some bugs, and the instructions are over my head at this point. But the basics are there now for people who know how to use them. Once the bugs are worked out, I plan to simplify the instructions for everyone's use. Maybe even offer microSD cards with everything pre-installed.
Here we go.
@Kumabjorn:This is definitely focused on the NST. But I just found out from another source, Sven Killig, that Sony PRS-T1 has USB host, though don't know the many details involved. Wouldn't hold my breath on Kindle, a plain Linux device with all negative reports about USB host.
As you can see, the project is open source  More to come.
@EkarosSupport for portable keyboards: I agree and I'm sure it will happen. Based on what I just read, there are some workarounds for USB's initial nkro limitations (6 characters + 4 modifiers) that allow up to 24 keys to be pressed simultaneously. Don't know what happens on the NST, but as long as I can type, great.

De repente todo se acelera. Yo llevo un tiempo mandándole emails a bookeen para que tengan estos avancces en consideración, y estoy convencido de que uno de los pequeños fabricantes ganaría una gran visibilidad si hiciera una oferta comercial al respecto. Pero de momento ha sido un particular con visión, y un par de hackers con habilidad, los que están ofreciendo lo que nadie ha ofrecido en 5 años.