Here is an update.
Using the emulated DPad presses through shell (via Serial Manager) is slow.
It's slow in general regardless of how you approach it. Doing input keyeven KEYCODE_XXXX is slow.
As it opens a shell session, sends the command, then closes the session, every single time you press a button. Not good.
I uploaded the controller with a different key profile. instead of sending Serial commands, I set the keys to send USB Key. This allows it to act like a USB controller or USB keyboard.
I did plugin the controller through an OTG cable to my Nexus 7 2013 tablet.
First thing you will notice is that pressing the keys on the iDrive will make it type those characters that you have set. So now I needed a way to remap them.
From that post on how to
turn the TomTom remote into an Android remote I remembered I can put custom keylayouts, and so I did.
I duplicated the generic.kl file found in /system/usr/keylayout and named it Vendor_ffff_Product_0011.kl
Here is a step by step on how to do that:
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/to...rd-rooted.html
But the problem is the keylayout is not picked up. No matter how many times I restarted my tablet and disconnecting and reconnecting the controller.
So, my next step was External Keyboard Helper Pro from the play store.
It worked great. The response is so instant is amazing. BUT, and it's a big but
you lose the soft keyboard because you have to set External Keyboard Helper Pro as your keyboard.
So when I'm on a text field and need to enter something, I don't get any keyboard to show up. Ahhhh... this is frustrating.
Also, if I go the route of wired, that means I will have to get one of these 7inch LCD screen
and add an Android box/stick with hdmi cable, and then run a flat hdmi to it.
Ugghhh......