Can the 2nd MCU on the UNO R3 be used for keyboard emulation?

Question

Following on from What's the 2nd ICSP header for in Arduino Uno R3? I was wondering how this could be hacked to our advantage.

For example, could that firmware be rewritten to have the UNO recognised as a mouse/keyboard input? Could this be done after the boot loader process and leave the uploading process in tact?

Given the limited IO, it seems it's functions might be limited. Plus I have no idea how much code is space is available.

• Madivad: As an extra to this question, feel free to add other ideas this could be used for whilst (in as far as possible), leaving the arduino environment in tact. That is, what else could be hacked into it to increase it's functionality?
• TheDoctor: It's flash is too small to hold multiple hacks, but the LUFA website (linked in my question) has a lot of different hacks that are compatible with the 16u2
• Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams: Too small? 16kB is a lot of flash. I'm surprised they didn't stick with the 8U2 as in the original (although there may be availability issues involved).
• Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams: I just checked Digi-Key and the price difference between the 8U2 and 16U2 is about 0ドル.01. At that price it's a no-brainer, even if you don't need the extra flash.
• Madivad: This question is spawned from a project I saw on hackaday last year, and a friend and I have been discussing it on and off ever since. I just found this (only two weeks old): hackaday.com/2014/03/16/…

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible. using LUFA, you can burn new firmware to the Serial converter. The only problem is that you need to re-burn the USB-Serial converter to upload another program.

Info: http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php

Specific page: http://mitchtech.net/arduino-usb-hid-keyboard/

• Madivad: Is there more information on the firmware that exists in the 2nd mcu? I haven't been able to find anything on it. I'm sure that someone somewhere has hacked it specifically. Personally, I'd love to see the code. Emphasis (for me) would to largely leave the environment in tact to allow for future reflashing. Which I don't think would be too hard to incorporate after there is nothing from the IDE after reset.
• TheDoctor: @Madivad it is a simple assembly file that converts USB signals to serial. You need to use bare AvrDude to flash it.
• Madivad: from one of those links I found: arduino.cc/en/Hacking/DFUProgramming8U2 I searched for this kind of info, obviously wrong search terms :) Thanks for your links Doc.

Answer 2

The second MCU is similar to that used in the Leonardo, but is smaller and less capable (ATmega16U2 vs. ATmega32U4). It is certainly possible to reprogram it to do what you like, but its limits means that you can have fewer USB "devices" at the same time.

I have not looked at the existing firmware, but it should certainly be possible to add your own custom code into it such that both the normal serial connection to the main MCU as well as your additional code can coexist.