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cnlohr
espusb
C2016–2024
cnlohr / espusb

espusb

Software-only ESP8266 USB Device

Hardware & Embedded
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
3Distinct people
6Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.5KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Software-only ESP8266 USB Device

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year6 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-08-20 12:38:43 UTC to 2024-08-20 06:24:45 UTC.

0122016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20162017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

6 sources
peterburkimsher·Aug 20, 2024
Anrdoid and iOS don't support USB HID natively. The iPod does with Rockbox, but I'm probably the only person still carrying one around. The best solution I've found for pocket-sized USB HID is an EspUSB Tiny: https://github.com/cnlohr/espusb It's an ESP8285 acting as a USB keyboard, with the keystrokes coming over WiFi from a nearby phone.
In HID Remapper
peterburkimsher·Sep 2, 2021
The EspUSB is small! It fits inside a USB port and can act as a USB keyboard & mouse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM There's an even smaller design on the github that I had custom-manufactured at PCBWay before. Please email espusb@gmail if you want to know more. https://github.com/cnlohr/espusb/tree/master/hardware/usb_82... Charles Lohr made the amazing design. I built a little on top, and made a slight modification to the firmware to allow text entry in all languages by sending Unicode codepoints. So now I can type Chinese (or Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Thai...) on my phone's keyboard, and have the EspUSB type it into my laptop. Very convenient when the characters aren't printed on the keys. Pity I never figured out how to do the regulatory compliance for the EspUSB, so couldn't follow through on actually getting it
Read the rest
onto a web store (e.g. Tindie, AliExpress, eBay, TradeMe). I looked into it, but the lack of EM shielding is quite difficult to justify, and adding such shielding would make it too big.
In Tomu – An ARM microprocessor which fits in your USB port
peterburkimsher·Jul 12, 2021
Can anybody update the EspUSB design with the ESP32 chip? https://github.com/cnlohr/espusb It's an even smaller board that fits inside a USB port. It's good for making a Raspberry Pi pocket-sized. I use it as a WiFi keyboard for typing Chinese. It's much easier to use handwriting recognition on my phone for characters that I don't know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM To get the EspUSB built, I had to download the KiCAD designs, generate Gerber files, guess the BOM, email back and forth with PCBWay, pay 70 EUR for 3 units, and have a stable address for them to ship to. And I still had to solder on serial wires, boot into Ubuntu, build and flash the firmware myself. The whole process took a couple of years. I'm starting that process (guessing the BOM) for the HDMI-PI now, but discovered that I also need to design an adaptor fro
Read the rest
m MIPI-iPhone LCD connector so it will probably be another year or two before I finally get it built. After the long process of having custom hardware built, I thought I'd write about it and maybe get some more built and sell them online. But I was scared away by FCC regulations: I could be sued for $100,000 or more if I sell a WiFi device that isn't certified, and it costs $10,000 to get the certification. So I gave up on trying to make it easier. Hardware is hard.
In TinyPICO – tiny fully-featured ESP32 board
peterburkimsher·Oct 23, 2019
Technical engineer looking for a businessman. The EspUSB is a WiFi-controlled keyboard and mouse. A small dongle fits completely inside a USB port, and creates a WiFi network that you can connect to from your phone. It shares a web page, where you can drag the cursor around, or type in text, and have it appear directly on the computer. A video of it in action is on YouTube. [1] The original open-source design is by [cnlohr], and is available on Github [2]. It was around from 2016, and I waited patiently for someone to manufacture it so I could buy it on eBay/Tindie/AliExpress/etc. Nobody built it. Finally I studied the design files, figured out the BOM from the schematics, guessed a load of manufacturing parameters, and got PCBWay to build me 3 prototypes. They work! I've since updated the firmware to let me type in Chinese, Korean, Japan
Read the rest
ese, Russian, Arabic, Thai, etc - not only English and German. This is particularly important for foreigners in such countries, where it's easier to type on a virtual keyboard on a phone, instead of putting stickers all over a laptop keyboard. Now I'd like to order more EspUSB devices, so that other people can get them too. 8 people have expressed an interest so far, and one of them wanted 10 units. I can afford to buy 100 units at $25 each from the factory, if I'm confident that I'll have either the money or the devices at the end. I do not want to make a profit on it; if you do, you can keep the money. If you're willing to handle the business side (FCC/CE certification issues, tax, import duties, etc) and assure me that I won't be sued, then I can get you the devices. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM [2] https://github.com/cnlohr/espusb/wiki/Getting-Started-Guide
In Ask HN: Who's Looking for a Co-Founder?

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