Database Users

USB Host Capabilites

I read that engadget was able to get USB hosting working on the universal, however it appears that this is not possible (reading the threads here). I just wanted to confirm that using a 'usb dongle' to connect other devices to the universal does not work - as I thought that wm5 did support this. Is it just a question of drivers or is the hardward not capable?

Just to remind that topic...
I'm really interested is it possible to connect a portable harddrive to my MDA Pro?

i dun think so its true. If anybody proves this to be true, then please let us know.

noname_nick: have you found the engadget article?
V

@Vijay555,
It was a Q&A article they posted when they had just received the Universal. Should be there in their archives i guess.
Cheers.

I just checked with an sd card reader and a 40gig usb hdd....it didn't detect either :-(
don't think the universal supports usb hosting :-(
hope its just a software handicap and not a hardware one!
San

universaldoc said:
@Vijay555,
It was a Q&A article they posted when they had just received the Universal. Should be there in their archives i guess.
Cheers.
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Click to collapse
yeah I even posted in that engadget article asking to reconfirm their findings and thry did reply saying it could be used as a usb host as they had it dine themseves (it was one of the factors that made me get the universal) alas the dumbfuc*ers removed the ABILITY for usb host or maybe engadget was Forced to say yes(as in LIED) under pressure from htc etc??
just my 2 cents !

If I'm not mistaken, the hardware in the Universal supports USB Host. But it is not implemented in the software running on the Universal... It's like having a sound-card in your computer, but with no drivers to use it. Maybe there will be a patch or update for WM5 which supports USB Host.

Suspect that you need a USB host cable to have any chance of testing USB host functionality, this cable tells the PDA that it now needs to work in host mode.
The Sharp Zaurus has a similar arrangement where a single USB port can work in host or slave mode, which is switched using the relevant cable, link to such a cable http://www.streamlinecpus.com/store/product.php?productid=100&cat=0&page=1&featured
Suggest you search Zaurus forum (www.oesf.org) for more information.
Mike

does anyone has this cable and test it already?
It seems it will fit the mini USB port for the Universal?

Don't think it's native on the Universal - if it was, it ain't now. In the meantime, Softick Card Export II PC version 2.10 works great as USB Host services to the Storage Card!

Yes, I use the same thing on my Uni. I like it very much as i do not need a SD card reader anymore. But I still dream to be able to hook up my external slim HDD to my Uni.

Yes, I use the same thing on my Uni. I like it very much as i do not need a SD card reader anymore. But I still dream to be able to hook up my external slim HDD to my Uni.

vijay555 said:
noname_nick: have you found the engadget article?
V
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Click to collapse
Here is the article http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/02/...l-questions-weve-got-htc-universal/1#comments

I found driver for Toshiba E740 USB mass storage driver ( for PPC 2002) but maybe is a best way to find solution for Universal - it's look that only soft for this funcionality is missing :?: Deje PocketPC Page

usb host.....
USB standard provide 5 volt DC.
All HTC device have got 3,7v DC battery!! so it is not possible to power any kind of USB device!!.
The only way consist in voltage duplicator that should provide 5v using 3,7 v source, i think that HTC device has not this voltage regulator.
wishes
Antonio

fraant said:
USB standard provide 5 volt DC.
All HTC device have got 3,7v DC battery!! so it is not possible to power any kind of USB device!!.
The only way consist in voltage duplicator that should provide 5v using 3,7 v source, i think that HTC device has not this voltage regulator.
wishes
Antonio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the universal have the hw to have usb host functions but htc don't have put it to the out side world.
The mini-usb can't be used as initiator.
in thoery you could open the universal and hook another miniusb connector on the usb bus.... and then the drivers nightmare
Deje have drivers for mass-storage on ppc2003/ppc2 and they work fine.
I use both on casio-e200 and on the toshibare800.
btw:neither casio nor toshiba have 5v bateries and they work with external usb devices like keyboards mices etc, for disks i have to use external power...
bye

Has anyone tried plugging in a USB HDD?

i was wondering, what if i got a USB harddrive, and plugged it into my hermes?
would WM6 even notice its there?
this is assuming i've got a externally powered HDD that uses the normal USBHOST.
i searched "usb harddrive" in the hermes forums and not many things turned up..

If you have one lying around, give it a go?!

JamesHolden said:
i searched "usb harddrive" in the hermes forums and not many things turned up..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that might be the clue to your answer..... the usb port in the phone lacks the capability to host an actual usb device, whether the external device is powered or not... But give it a go anyway... i cant think of any harm in trying... unless there is some kind of major power backflow, but that shouldnt happen unless your external device is faulty

the OS may support it, but hardware-wise - i dont think the Hermes supports USB hosting? or does it?

My brain says no...
But the hope in me says yes...

Wondered about this myself before.
Doesnt the HTC have the ability to act as an external UsB drive through the USB port when connected to a PC using the Advanced USB settings. Maybe its just a question of reversing the settings maybe with an added utility or something i have an external hard drive but not converter to convert the full usb to a mini usb

4Site said:
Wondered about this myself before.
Doesnt the HTC have the ability to act as an external UsB drive through the USB port when connected to a PC using the Advanced USB settings. Maybe its just a question of reversing the settings maybe with an added utility or something i have an external hard drive but not converter to convert the full usb to a mini usb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
having the device mimmick and external drive and plugging in external storage through USB are 2 completly different things... and it all comes down to the USB host... when you plug your phone into your pc your computer then is able to act as a usb host, as it has the power and the drivers necessary for that... the phone itself lacks the abiltiy to be able to become a usb host...
but hey, at least your thinking

So it may be possible to access a USB HDD if we catered for it using a driver of some sort (written by us guys ofcourse). This may even show up in the file manager as something like /Hard_Drive.?

main procesor (and also OS itself) have support for USB host, but for some reason HTS decide to not enable this feature, it was asked many times, but solution doesnt exist yet... I used this functionallity on my old Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX n500 without necesity to install any drivers, or registry hack, after connection device had available after few second. It was WM5 device.

well think about this:
keep a laptop usb HDD in your car, 160GB of music at your command, with TCPMP who needs a ipod?
i've already modded my stock headset cable to have a 1/8" miniplug AND RCA's on it, so i'm set for the output, but my 4GB of microsd cards just don't cut it
so i'm working on tryin' to find a usb mini b male to usb b male cable right now, might just have to solder one up myself-- i'll post to see how it goes.

I think I've seen them for sale at Radioshack and Compusa - might try peaking in there though if you have a bunch of USB cables kicking around probably cheaper to solder

IF you look around on the net somewhere, someone successfully made a wifi hard drive, and i think it was fairly inexpensive... He loaded tons of mp3's and would access them from his phone via wifi.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/consumer_electronics/DAVE/
How about this?

skunker said:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/consumer_electronics/DAVE/
How about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I got to get me one of these. So many toys, not enough time.

jcb_home said:
Now I got to get me one of these. So many toys, not enough time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks nice!

I just tried this. And nothing happens. Tried a usb memory key (low power), an external HDD (on its own power supply) and a card reader, none of them did anything.

thanks for the go.. after my weekend spent messing with *nix and tryin' to get into locked up wifi, i was spent.

External USB hard drive

Does anybody know if it is possible to connect the phone to a USB hard drive?

only with flame and Athena as they are the only ones which support usb host
other devices cant use usb devices only be used by usb hosts normaly a pc

There was actually someone who developed a working hard disk storage driver for windows mobile but last I checked the site no longer offered it. Searched for days trying to find the file elsewhere. No luck. Cant think of the company that made the driver.

I'm bumping this as I am also after the same sort of program / utility.
I want to be able to access my External HD and view / play files off it... anyone able to help me out?

Maybe with a external powersupplied disk
Rudegar said:
only with flame and Athena as they are the only ones which support usb host...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct
Our Hermes has no usb host support. I found a topic at forum.brighthand.com which suggested the host functionality could be added with a usb host driver. I found the software (attached zip) but alas... Though I did exactly as the 'manual' (readme.txt) explained, the usb-stick did not appear in my explorer.
Possibly an external drive with external power supply might work because the hermes usb port is simply not powerful enough to supply the power to the usb-stick. However I did not "explore that possibility" (don't have one ) and chances are 'just a driver' is not enough and hermes lacks "usb host hardware".

dident read the post because you dident give a link to the post just the forum
but i doubt that it's a general thing
many pda's have usbhost in the cpu itself but htc never connected those connectors
so it's not wired to the connector they have their own usb chip
so if the post you read said it about any other pda then htc based one it could be that that manufactor did connect the usb but dident supply the driver which would then be fixed with what you found

Rudegar said:
many pda's have usbhost in the cpu itself but htc never connected those connectors
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like there could be the potential for a hardware hack...

heh, nice try. but it will end like GPS HW hack on the TyTN (aka Hermes). it is not worth it, I mean there is easy way, just buy device with GPS integrated, or buy external. I have electronic skills and proper tools, I can do such things but it is too complicated. in that hermes was problem, that antena was not properly connected and you can never get a GPS lock. I guess that with usb host is the same. missing circuitry.
Deuce Nitro said:
Sounds like there could be the potential for a hardware hack...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yepp!
Hi,
this is correct
sinmae said:
heh, nice try. but it will end like GPS HW hack on the TyTN (aka Hermes). it is not worth it, I mean there is easy way, just buy device with GPS integrated, or buy external. I have electronic skills and proper tools, I can do such things but it is too complicated. in that hermes was problem, that antena was not properly connected and you can never get a GPS lock. I guess that with usb host is the same. missing circuitry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The USB host port of the Samsung CPU is used to connect to the internal GSM/GPRS chipset. So no chance to break it up!
If someone would ever hack this hardware part, the result would be a hermes without radio.
The engineers at HTC used the USB host port to achieve the necessary bandwith for high speed data connection to the GSM/GPRS chips from Qualcomm.
Best regards,
scholbert

thats an interesting information, thanx
scholbert said:
The engineers at HTC used the USB host port to achieve the necessary bandwith for high speed data connection to the GSM/GPRS chips from Qualcomm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

USB Host

Does anyone know of a usb host driver that enables usb host on the X1? Another user reported that the Zeno usb host drivers did not work. Any one tried others with success?

it has been discussed here somewere, and the last thing was all agreed it doesn't have a USB Host!
i hope it's not true, only time will let us know!

Uh... Well... I understand what you are asking for, but I don't know what you want to do with it... What would be the need for a USB host function on a mobile phone

Trudi said:
Uh... Well... I understand what you are asking for, but I don't know what you want to do with it... What would be the need for a USB host function on a mobile phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's say you have some files on a thumb drive and wanna work on them (.doc , .xls...etc) but you don't have a laptop with you.
Or..Some images on an external HDD you wanna send via email, but no laptop with you...
Or..Show off to your iSheep friends that you can connect usb mouse and keyboard to use on your x1..
Get images off of your digi cam....etc etc
How about pluging in a usb joypad for gaming??
Endless possibilities.

I've recently seen some universal WinMo USB host drivers but the problem with X1 supposedly is that it doesn't power the USB port itself so you might need to power it externally. Dunno if it would really work though.

But you still need a pen drive or ext. hd with mini USB right?

Carty said:
But you still need a pen drive or ext. hd with mini USB right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This http://www.amazon.com/Female-Mini-Male-Adapter-Shipping/dp/B000Y6UL5E
http://tero.mononen.eu/index.cgi/Blog/N800_and_photograhy-2008-07-27-19-01.cgi

Does the amazon actually work on the X1?

Peeps, i have been thinking about this problem for awhile now. Check this thread, there is a link to a site with drivers that should work,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480279
BUT
BUT
BUT
Xperia doesn't have a powered usb. So, the only two ways to get something working are to either connect something with its own power supply, or to use a usb injector. Sadly the first option defeats the whole point of connecting a flash or a mouse and the latter one, well, i haven't had any luck with a suitable injector for the x1.
Good luck.

Concentrate said:
Does the amazon actually work on the X1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO, not unless we have a driver for USB host for X1
And as above posts stats, power to the USB.

Plug external usb drive into TD2?

Since the phone has a miniUSB plug at the bottom, I'm wondering if it's possible to plug a USB hard drive into the TD2 (eg: using a male-male miniUSB cable) and then copy files from the drive onto the phone's SD card?
My TD2 has an 8GB memory card in it, so I pretty much use it as a portable hard drive for work. I often copy files off other drives to the phone, so I plug both my phone & the USB drive into a computer. It would be nice if I didnt need to use a computer
Thanks for any help!

Nice idea!
Who's gonna try this?

You can try it, but you will not have any success.
For that experiment, the Topaz should have a USB-Host functions.
But the Topaz is only a USB-"Client" (like other external USB-devices). So you'll don't have any success.
The only Device I know that is capable to do this: Toshiba TG01
Greetings from Cologne,
Arniebirdy

I expected more from a Windows OS-ed device.
Maybe would be possible to have this function starting with WM 6.5?
After all, the WM 6.5 phones will be called Windows phones, isn't it?

Thanks for the info arniebirdy.
I also realised that the TD2's USB doesn't provide the required 500mA of power needed for an external drive anyway. So even with correct drivers (if they exist) it wont work

ozmbie said:
I also realised that the TD2's USB doesn't provide the required 500mA of power needed for an external drive anyway. So even with correct drivers (if they exist) it wont work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But most of the external drives have their own power cord, so they don't depend on the USB power.
At least, this is the case of my 1.5 TB Seagate external HDD.
In this case, it could be possible!

In this case, it could be possible!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order for a phone to see an external usb client device, there needs to be things:
1. A USB host controller chip on the phone's motherboard. I know of no modern phones which have this feature.
2. OS Drivers for EHCI/UHCI USB host controller. Winmo 6.x already has this.
So, there is no way you can plug in any USB client device unless you are seriously into hardware hacking.

Bothkill said:
I expected more from a Windows OS-ed device.
Maybe would be possible to have this function starting with WM 6.5?
After all, the WM 6.5 phones will be called Windows phones, isn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'd need to be supported in the underlying OS, Windows CE. WM6.5 is still based on WCE 5.0, as is WM6 and WM5.