In case this saves somebody a bit of time: My laptop's built-in Bluetooth is a bit flakey on Linux, so I wondered if I could turn this keyboard into more of a dongle-type wireless keyboard (think Logitech Unifying).
Turns out, you can. There are Bluetooth dongles supporting "HID proxy" mode which basically means they'll connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse and expose it to the host OS as a USB keyboard/mouse.
I have not tried this yet (waiting for my VB87M), but it appears that a Laird BT820 dongle will work in HID proxy mode for BLE devices. You can also switch it over to HCI mode under Windows 8 or Linux (don't know about Mac, didn't check) to hand off control to the OS if you like.
justmoonWould love to hear if that adapter works out for you. I need something like that so I can put the USB dongle on a KVM without re-pairing constantly.
mangixSo I've received the keyboard and the BT820 dongle. It was quite a process to turn the dongle into HID proxy mode. You have to register on the lairdtech.com website, download a zip file with some assorted stuff, find a copy of CSR BlueSuite (normally only available for OEMs, but can be found by googling) and flash some firmware patches. End result is that now I have a dongle which immediately pairs with the Varmilo once it has power and appears as a USB Composite Device (including a keyboard) on every OS I've tried. (Windows 10 & Ubuntu 15.10)
I couldn't use the keyboard in BIOS yet - not sure why. It might be that my BIOS doesn't understand a composite device. Media keys also don't work yet. Right now I feel confident that with some more tweaking I could resolve both issues.
justmoonDo you have to type any password in the Varmilo to pair it when using bluetooth?
The reason for my question is that I have a Filco Majestouch Convertible and it requires a password, so I don't know if the HID proxy model would work with it. I read that it's only valid for devices that don't require authentification.
Regards
Turns out, you can. There are Bluetooth dongles supporting "HID proxy" mode which basically means they'll connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse and expose it to the host OS as a USB keyboard/mouse.
I have not tried this yet (waiting for my VB87M), but it appears that a Laird BT820 dongle will work in HID proxy mode for BLE devices. You can also switch it over to HCI mode under Windows 8 or Linux (don't know about Mac, didn't check) to hand off control to the OS if you like.