Improving wireless keyboard usability:

English Hardware
1

Hi, I own a HP wireless keyboard.
Model Number: RK713A
IC: 7090-ARK13A
Edit: 1/25/24 7:34 A.M. The keyboard is powered with AAA Panasonic Eneloop batteries using the Panasonic BQ-CC17 charger.

It was working absolutely horrible i.e. for weeks, keystrokes would not take to be entered once a key was pressed or 2 entries would show up after being pressed and so on and so on.

I set a CR2032 battery face down on the top of the dongle and now it’s working like a normal keyboard; (no missed entries when a key is pressed).

My question for you is to why this is helping the keyboard work so much better? What other alternatives could I use to make the keyboard work better, (instead of using the CR2032 battery set on top of the dongle)?

-Regards

2

@panorain interference perhaps, battery maybe acting as an antenna or reflecting the signal…

3

The keyboard in question is working so nicely now I am extremely surprised by this actually.

4

Aluminum foil is lighter than that battery. Maybe can be at the dongle or attach it to your keyboard. :wink:

5

Can I ask you about where maybe to attach the aluminum foil to the keyboard? Would you recommend to tightly wrap the dongle with a layer of foil? Would I have to take the backing off keyboard to discover where the wireless chip is in keyboard or something like that? :cold_face:

6

Does the charger has anything to do with this apart from charging (off-line) the batteries.

You could try normal AAA batteries, they have a slightly higher voltage, maybe that helps.

This systems uses the 2.4 GHz band which means 12.5 cm wave length and that means that moving things only a few centimeter can have a large effect.

1 Like
7

Thank you for this information. Using aluminum foil around the dongle did not help at all. I was not aware moving the keyboard would cause connection problems. There is a blue reset button on the back of this particular wireless keyboard. I can hold the button in for about 20 seconds and the dongle will light up blue. After about 6 seconds the light on the dongle will go out. Maybe during that period (of the dongle lighted blue) is the time to place the keyboard in the desired location? Would you happen to know anymore about this? Thank you for the advice about physical keyboard movement. This keyboard is set on a sliding shelf on the computer desk.

-Regards

8

Only placing the keyboard on a “good” location while stating up will not help if the actual location where it is used is bad.

I think this keyboard has separate “USB RF Receiver” that is plugged in you computer. If so you could try getting a USB cable and moving that dongle closer to your keyboard.