It depends on the dongle. I know Logitech ones are definitely bidirectional since you can configure the dongle to support multiple devices and reconfigure them. In some (not all) keyboards it is indeed receive only, the keyboard has a RF transmitter and the other end is just, as you said, a receiver. I can configure my logitech keyboard wirelessly on my computer.
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Many of the wireless devices I've had the dongle was really just a Bluetooth adaptor, but the Logitech ones seems to vary.
I managed to find this article on Logitech's site which lists all the devices except the 27Mhz ones as "bi-directional" so I'd guess that the name "receiver" may be deceptive in this case and that these are actually transceivers that both send and receive signals.
This can really go either way and it's up to the manufacturer. Also depends a lot on how the device is designed.
The Logitech remapping of buttons is generally done on software side, that is, the mouse sends the same button no matter what and it's the software that interprets it when it reaches the computer to send a different input to the software. Sounds like your keyboard is doing it in hardware, that is, when you change keymaps the keyboard actually sends a different signal to the computer rather than having a piece of software intercept the signal and send a different one to the operating system.
If I were to guess, I'd say the manufacturer of your keyboard probably put a programmable controller, but the wireless function is a basic off-the-shelf wireless keyboard chip and dongle that they purchase off the shelf from a supplier rather than design themselves. The USB cable lets them reprogram the keyboards controller, but the off-the-shelf wireless keyboard chip and dongle don't have a reverse channel to send programming to the keyboard. For a situation like that I would question why they don't use Bluetooth instead of a proprietary wireless system as that would give them an easy programming channel.
Logitech mice have on-board memory so I can remap the buttons wirelessly and they will send whatever I map if a PC doesn't have G-HUB installed.
For example: I remapped the "middle click" as "right click" and save it in one of the profiles on the mouse, if I plug the dongle into someone's computer which doesn't have G-HUB, the "middle click" will send "right click" as programmed.
Edit: And I know for sure it's not the dongle that was programmed because the buttons still behave exactly like how I mapped them even in Bluetooth mode.
Interesting. is that Unifying? I didn't know Unifying was a two way tech...
no, it's just the dongle that came with the mouse, the keyboard's dongle also came with it. They were designed to be used wirelessly with the dongles.
I'm sure that none of the are just Bluetooth receivers because the signal is received instantly when the devices are in standby mode, unlike the wireless numpad I have which took like 2-3 seconds to reconnect after I pressed a key and I have to press it again for it to register.
And this is the first time I've heard of an off-the-self USB chip and dongle for keyboards, no manufacturer does that, they just make a separate wireless version of a wired keyboard. I'm pretty sure no wired keyboard that was designed so that the average user can solder a chip on later, even custom keyboards don't do that.
And I don't like using Bluetooth for my peripherals because of the delay it has when the device goes into standby mode, you have to wait for it to reconnect in order to use the device and it's really annoying. I personally find 2.4ghz dongles way more reliable and avoid Bluetooth altogether unless I have no choice but to use it.
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