ok this is side project i am working on,ive scavenged a 4in quarty keyboard from an old e-reader that bit the dust,im wondering if it would be possible to turn it into a regular usb keyboard,i have a usb keyboard,i can map the traces back on the old usb keyboard and the 4 in quarty,but my question is could i remap the keys on the quarty to go with the usb without adding bulky hardware?i wanting to make it a portable wrist keyboard with wireless if possible.it you need pictures of my components tell me
The current Arduinos do not do native USB, they only do serial over USB. The Leonardo (when it becomes available) should be better.
Your keyboard is almost certainly wired as a matrix. See http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/KeypadTutorial for guidance on how to interface Arduino to a matrix keyboard. Of course, your querty keyboard will have more rows and columns than the numeric keypad in that tutorial.
The Arduino Uno and Mega 2560 do support native USB so they can be used to create a standard USB keyboard. You have to replace the firmware on the atmega8u2 to switch it to keyboard mode (or mouse, joystick, or midi, etc).
Take a look here: Playground Interfacing with Hardware # USB
The details, source, and 8u2 firmware images are available from my blog: Arduino Hacking
Darran.