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Nokinside

I bought 8BitDo Micro to use in one device I was making. Using Python evdev package it's straight forward to read it.

- button press not always reliable if you use light touch.

- reliable range is < 2m. Works some time for 3 m.

- shuts down automatically after no input in something like 5-10 minutes. (unfortunate for my use)

Does anyone know tiny Bluetooth device with 1-2 buttons. Preferably pen shaped that you can hold in your fist.

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One of those "presentation" mouses would hopefully do? They're a mouse but you hold them in your hand and wave them around to move the pointer, like a Wiimote but they pre-date the Wii. The mouse pointer part sucks in my experience but they do have two buttons and are comfortable to hold. Considering you're writing your own input parser you can ignore mouse events.

There are also "smart pens" these days with Bluetooth but I've never tried one.

Good idea. Those finger ring mouse/presentation clickers seem perfect.

> They're a mouse but you hold them in your hand and wave them around to move the pointer, like a Wiimote

This part got me really excited...

> The mouse pointer part sucks in my experience

...but then this killed it.

So, follow-up question: is there anything like this which works well as a mouse pointer too? I love the experience of using the Wii Remote as a mouse, and I'd love a device like that which is made for PC and works without a fuss (or a sensor bar).

TL;DR - Look into Gyration mice. Story below:

Many moons ago, I helped an older couple who unfortunately got vastly oversold on a Windows XP Media Center Edition computer from Gateway, when all they needed was a simple computer. The computer had a real nice Hauppauge capture card to act as a DVR, a neat amplifier looking PC case, and all sorts of bells and whistles. For a pointer device, Gateway included a Gyration mouse, which operated on 2.4 GHz RF, and worked surprisingly well. It used a trigger to activate gyroscopic mouse movement.

Turns out Gyration is still in business! https://www.adesso.com/product/gyration-air-mouse-go-plus/

You could make your own with an ESP32 wired to two buttons, then you can customize it exactly as you need it. It shouldn't be too difficult (famous last words, I know) if you use one of the BT HID libraries like https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/....

He'd have to make a package, make the connections solid, etc etc. A fun project but a project onto its own self.

A more boilerplate solution would be to use something like ZMK (or a similar "keyboard") OS. ZMK uses Zephyr RTOS and is quite feature-rich. A macropad should not be very difficult to make. Reddit's r/ergomechkeyboards may be a good starting point.

Does Zephyr support ESP32's? I didn't see it listed on their page. I did see an Arduino variant though.

I use an Elecom Relacon, a trackball in the form factor that you grip like half of a gamepad, or maybe a Wiimote, but it's Bluetooth with no gyro. LMB and RMB are the shoulder bumper buttons, scroll wheel is near the ball flanked by forward/backward buttons. Typically about $50 on Amazon, runs on two AAA batteries.

Camera shutter gadgets for mobile phones. Not exactly pen shaped, but pretty small, BT/BLE and usually between 1 and 4 buttons that simulate keypresses on a BT keyboard.

switch joycon?

https://github.com/fyhuang/enjoy2

Have a link to github? Would be fun to try with mine.

Just copy paste fro evdev tutorial.

https://python-evdev.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html

search for amazon "bluetooth media button" and you'll find some good options

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