
Why Does Windows Think My Keyboard Is a Toaster? (2014) - zo1
http://superuser.com/questions/792607/why-does-windows-think-that-my-wireless-keyboard-is-a-toaster
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m0atz
A toaster keyboard would be awesome if, like me, you have butter fingers.

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cperciva
Alas, USB can't carry enough power to toast bread.

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function_seven
Not with that attitude‡. A normal toaster uses about 1,000W, and a normal USB
port is capable of 2.5W, which is 400 times less than the need.

First we make it a one-slice toaster, which cuts the requirement to 500W. We
then apply advanced design and engineering principles to make the toaster more
efficient. This may include an enclosure that better traps heat (but allows
moisture to be drawn away from the bread). Or more carful placement of the
heat elements to ensure that no heat is being wasted out the slot. Parabolic
reflectors behind the heating elements can focus more heat energy directly to
the bread slice. Lasers may even be involved.

All of these tweaks will drops the requirement to, say, 250W.

Still a ways to go, we decide to accept a longer toasting time in exchange for
lower power requirements. Instead of heating elements covering both surfaces
of the bread slice, we decide to have a single element on a track, moved by a
stepper motor. This will toast the bread in sections instead of all at once.
Think of the difference between a traditional camera and a flatbed scanner.
This allows us to use a fraction of the power. Call it 50W. The toasting time
will increase to 12 minutes, but if people like crock pots, then they'll love
this.

Add 10% for the rest of the device and we'll need 55W.

So now we're at about 20x our ability. But wait! USB3 is common enough, that
we can require it. USB3 can supply 4.5W, making our gap now 12x. There isn't
any more power savings I can think of, so now we'll cheat by placing an
onboard battery in the toaster/keyboard. The battery only needs to output 55W,
so a single 20A lithium-ion cell will work. If we're estimating a 12-minute
toast time, that's 11 watt-hours. An 18650 battery cell can provide roughly 11
watt-hours.

For only $129.99, you can have a keyboard with all the convenience of your
kitchen. (Cherry switches are extra.)

‡ Yes, you're still right, it can't carry the _power_ to toast bread. But the
energy is there :)

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DvdGiessen
Seems yesterdays April Fools joke from Razer wasn't that far fetched after
all. Coincidence, but still.

[http://www.razerzone.com/breadwinner](http://www.razerzone.com/breadwinner)

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salicideblock
Because it's full of breadcrumbs ?

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mhd
I think I had more crumbs in my old Mac keyboard than in my current toaster.

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labster
Toasting in an epic bread.

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enraged_camel
This has some sort of meta-ironic value now that the "Internet of Things" is a
thing: Is my keyboard being recognized as a toaster, or is my toaster being
recognized as a keyboard??

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ethana
How to mod any toaster to control pc games in 3 easy steps. [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI7tWd7B3iI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI7tWd7B3iI)

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Johnny_Brahms
It took me way to long to get that it was a joke.

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protomyth
So, the joke is the software developer for the driver copied the example
driver code a little too literally? I guess seeing a toaster icon is as good a
way as any of having a flag to tell you to watch out with this driver.

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stevetrewick
Probably not the code, though it's true that everyone starts with the toaster
sample, there's not enough functionality in it to make it an easy walk to a
HID filter driver, which is what's probably installed for your average white
box USB keyboard. Plus there's (IIRC, it's been a couple of years) a specific
sample for that in the WDK. Most likely they _did_ copy/paste the device
metadata from that sample.

So, keyboard OEM's contract devs whip up a HID filter driver, but they c/p the
sample metadata and forget to change the DeviceIcon entry. Now we could
imagine their testing process involved little more than jacking it in and
rattling the keys, but if they were developing or testing on anything previous
to Win 7 (I think) then if they'd checked they'd have seen a generic icon
based on device class.

But still, the code they wrote is running in the ring zero, so yeah, we'd
prefer them to systematically carefull.

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JorgeGT
I heard Fabrikam makes good toasters! Among thousands of other random
things...

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colejohnson66
Fun fact: Wikipedia has a list of all Microsoft acquisitions since Fabrikam:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_Microsoft_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_Microsoft_companies)

~~~
stevetrewick
All these years and 'Northwind Traders' still gives me the fear!

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muterad_murilax
Does anyone know if they have redesigned the icon in Windows 10?

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schwarrrtz
The real question is whether said keyboard is HTCPCP compliant.

[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2324.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2324.txt)

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dang
Also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8136279](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8136279).

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fit2rule
I'm seriously thinking this should be a real thing. I mean, what could be
better right now, while typing away at the next big thing, than to have some
toast. Clearly unicorn. Right?

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godzillabrennus
It's not a keyboard, it's actually a transformer.

