Pairing iPad Bluetooth Keyboard on HP Touchpad

KeyWords: connect, connecting, connection, ipad, tablet, touchpad, hp, 32gb, pairing, bluetooth, keyboard, pairing, howto, cheap, price, apple, dell, microsoft, work, specific, tip

During the HP Touchpad firesale, I was one of the lucky people to pick up a 32GB HP Touchpad for $149. For the price you really cannot beat it, especially since the estimated cost of just the Touchpad hardware is $300. Now that I have my Touchpad, I really am not into paying an insane price for an HP specific case / keyboard. So I ventured over to Amazon.com to see what other items were being sold for the iPad 1 (since the iPad 1 has comparable dimensions). I came across a case / bluetooth keyboard set that was $38 shipped and it finally came!

Getting the Keyboard to Work
The real point of this blog is to help others pair a Bluetooth Keyboard (of any time whether it be from Dell, Microsoft or Apple) to the HP Touchpad. The process threw me off guard because most Bluetooth keyboards pairs ask you to type a key on the keyboard itself instead of asking for a pair key. This threw me through a loop. I searched all I could to figure out how I could get the keyboard to pair, fearing that I would have to bog down and return this nice case and buy an HP specific setup, until I decided to try something that I did not even think would work and to my surprise it worked.

The Process
Edit: Thanks to anonymous comment, it was found that a 1 numerical code is all you need.

The process is simple. When you pair the Bluetooth Keyboard to the touchpad it will ask for a passkey, enter any 1 numerical code (I just used 1). After you do that, and the icons are spinning and it says, "Pairing" enter the same passcode used on the Bluetooth keyboard Edit: and then press the enter key on the keyboard (thanks to anonymous for correcting that). Voila, you now have your Apple, Microsoft or Dell type Bluetooth keyboard working with the HP Touchpad. Now you can use your Touchpad for other items much easier!

Yay, it worked!
I was so excited to get this working, and relieved that I did not have to go through an RMA process and spend more money for an HP Specific Bluetooth keyboard. Hopefully you find this entry useful and easy to follow. If you have any other tips, please let me know.

EDIT: For those wondering about how the HP Touchpad fits into this iPad case, the fit is nearly perfect. Nothing is blocked all buttons and ports are available and the screen fits everything. It is a little tight at first, but either or it works great!

Posted by frost on Sep 5th, 2011 15:58 - Subscribe Comments (19)

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Posted by anonymous on September 05th, 2011

I had to type the code on my apple keyboard followed by the enter key to get it to work for me.

Posted by frost on September 05th, 2011

Thanks, updated the entry to reflect it.

Posted by anonymous on September 06th, 2011

You only need 1 number entered before pressing Done - then press the same character on your BlueTooth keyboard and then press Enter on the BT keyboard. Don't need 8, just at least one (letter or number).

Posted by frost on September 06th, 2011

@ anonymous on September 06th, 2011
Thanks for testing that and providing the information. I will update the entry

Posted by anonymous on September 06th, 2011

I bought a Brookstone leather portfolio with BT keyboard for an IPAD2.
Your process worked great and I appreciate you help with this problem. Now I have one portfolio to carry that contains the keyboard.

Posted by anonymous on September 06th, 2011

Sorry, but I posted the entry as anonymous and I have to change it... you have to use numbers, letters will not work, but as few as one (number) will do it. Sorry for the error.

Posted by frost on September 06th, 2011

@ anonymous on September 06th, 2011

I updated the comment for you and my blog entry. Thanks.

Posted by anonymous on September 16th, 2011

Freaking awesome dude. You don't know how much that helped me

Posted by anonymous on September 19th, 2011

Worked for me on my new 32g HP Touchpad and no name bluetooth keyboard folio! Thank you so much!

Posted by anonymous on September 20th, 2011

thanks so much for this post. I feel dumb not figuring out myself, luckily I googled and found this post and it helped so much. I tried pairing with my sony vaio first and it worked but i had to make windows make it's own pairing code. When you do that you don't get full device functionality, only use of the keyboard. I was trying to use the windows generated pairing code and it still didn't work. Really had trouble figuring this one out, but this post helped so much. It now works with my Touchpad and/or my sony vaio and with full functionality. I also tried to pair with my android 2.2 phone but no luck. Says the devices can't communicate with each other for some reason. Gonna have to google around some more tomorrow to figure that one out.

Posted by anonymous on September 22nd, 2011

THANX! A Million! I ENTERED THE NUMBER ONE on my HP Touchpad, and as it said "pairing", I entered the number one on my Anycom keyboard, pressed enter on the Anycom, and PRESTO! IT WORKED!

Posted by anonymous on September 29th, 2011

How was the fit? Were any buttons or the camera blocked? What about the speakers?

Thanks

Posted by frost on September 29th, 2011

The fit is almost perfect. It is a bit tight, but none of the buttons, speakers, camera, or ports are blocked.

Posted by anonymous on October 09th, 2011

thanks, i was looking for this stupid passkey for hours...

Posted by anonymous on October 12th, 2011

thanks for the post... A word of note, though... You should use something longer because the passkey exists not only for pairing, but for security. This post helped me and I used a longer five digit numerical password with this method.

Posted by anonymous on November 04th, 2011

what exactly is the brand and cat number of iPad case/bluetooth keyboard set that you bought for $38.00?

Posted by frost on November 04th, 2011

@anonymous on November 04th, 2011

From what I can see there is no brand clicking on the picture in the post should take you to the actual item. However, the price does to have seemed to increase to $44.00

Posted by anonymous on November 29th, 2011

I have 3.0.4 webos and I can't input passkey on TP because it write that I must input some key generated by TP(dialog with next and cancel) on bt keyboard. Help please

Posted by anonymous on June 20th, 2012

Everyone is saying to type the passcode on the touchpad screen then the keyboar. Our problem is that we cant type the passcode on the touchpad screen at all, there isnt a way to pull up the keyboard on tje screen. Help!! What are we doong wronf??

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