Database Users

Usb host on dell streak

Looks like the streak might have usb host... if you look in the sdcard settings it has the option to unmount ums (usb mass storage) devices and the option to format them.
Im on the 8105 2.1 o2 rom on a us att dell streak.
Ill make a cable soon to test but was wondering if anyone else tried th already
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

If the option can be found in 1.6, I may already have the hardware to test it.
This would be a beautiful thing!

I just so happened to have the correct hardware on hand to try this so I gave it a go, looks like it does! I'm actually typing this message with a USB keyboard- I can't get it to mount a USB drive yet, but I intend to brush up on my Linux commands and syntax tomorrow and try again- if I can get it to mount external storage, all of my dreams have officially come true (minus the Froyo, that is).
Edit: I'm on the MoDaCo custom ROM r2, 2.1 build 8105, for those interested.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

Hey there, real interested in what you did to mod your cable to handle this. Was it a matter of tying the OTG pin to ground?
Did the streak supply power over usb? Many android devices cant, but I believe given the right cable mod the streak can.

I didn't have to do any mods on mine, I have the home dock (which converts the Streak's port to miniUSB) and a dongle that has male miniUSB on one end and female standard USB on the other. Streak on the dock, dongle in the back of the dock, and keyboard into the dongle.
I don't know if it supplied power or not, what would be the best way to check? Multimeter across the power/gnd should give 5V regardless of if it's powered, do I need to check the amperage as well? I was thinking I might just try firing up the ol' G1 and plugging it in, to see if it charges.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

A good test would be to not have the dock plugged in to any power source. Dock your Streak, then use your adaptor with USB keyboard. Does it work? if so, the power is being supplied by the Streak.
If not, it doesn't prove that there is no way to get powered USB host out of the Streak, it would just show that it may require different connections (a modded cable or dock).

Then yes, it supplies power, my dock was unplugged the whole time. Rejoice! I foresee emulators with a USB gamepad in my near future...
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

That's great to hear! Game controller for EMU's is what I'm looking to do with it as well
Funny though, I tried the same with a gender changer a week or so ago and it didn't work for me. I think the difference must be that the cable you're plugging in to the dock must ground the OTG pin.
Unfortunately that probably means I'd either have to get a dock, or dissect and solder my USB cable to get the same.

Glad to see it works as i suspected. now all we need is some to make it mirror the display over the hdmi out
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

Ah, I wondered what that meant. I have the home dock and saw Win7 did something funny... it's all a bit beyond my abilities so I look forward to someone doing interesting things with it

how can we make a usb cable with "usb host" feature ?

mrmrmrmr said:
how can we make a usb cable with "usb host" feature ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EiHter using the media dock with a male mini usb to female usb adapter, or i think using the standard usb cable with a female to female adapter placed on the end should work too.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

keatonreckard said:
EiHter using the media dock with a male mini usb to female usb adapter, or i think using the standard usb cable with a female to female adapter placed on the end should work too.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I don't think a female to female adaptor alone will do the trick with the Streak USB Cable. I have one here, and it's not working.
I believe the reason is the USB OTG pin needs to be grounded to identify that we are in USB OTG mode (pin 4 as identified here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDMI).
I think the reason it's working with the dock for that person is because the dock exposes that pin at the mini B port and the cable adaptor he's using is an OTG cable that grounds the pin.
I haven't tried modding my cable for this yet, but will soon. My soldering iron is in storage right now unfortunately.

Ok; I understand that we have to connect OTG pin (no 4 on PDMI) to GND (no 2 on PDMI)
Is that correct ?
Is there a way to do it on the other end (not the PDMI side but USB side) ?
Because I don't want to break my only Dell Streak data cable...

Unfortunately, no. only 4 wires run through the cable and are exposed at the other end. You would need a 5th (the USB ID, aka OTG lead).
So I just finished creating my own modded cable and it is working great.
I've attached pictures of the build here. I found that this only works in Android 2.1 (8150 build for me, may work with other 2.1 builds). 1.6 seems like it doesn't have the drivers for this.
DISCLAIMER: If you try to duplicate what I did here, you're taking the risk of damaging your cable beyond repair, and if you do something incorrectly and plug the cable in to your Streak, there is a definite possibility you will damage your streak permanently. So anything you do, do so carefully and at your own risk!
I will say this; this cable is HARD to de-shield! It has metal shield all around the parts we need to get to, and I had to cut with metal clippers and desolder parts of it to get the shielding off. Not pretty, and pretty risky for damaging the cable. I would advise you buy an extra cable before trying this. I didn't have an extra, but I was really risking not being able to charge my device or something if I broke my cable.
After removing the shielding you can see that there is a small PCB with traces marked 1 3 on the left, and then 2 5 on the right. These correspond to the PDMI specification at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDMI .
For my build, I chose to solder a switch to bridge the OTG pin 4 to GND pin 2. This way, my cable can still be used as a normal USB cable as well. In one image I have flipped the opened PDMI connector over and you can see an orange wire I have soldered on to pin4. (One side of the PDMI connector has ODD pins, like 1,3,5,7... the other side has EVEN 2,4,6,8...). Pin 2 is the first pin on the right on the EVEN side, and pin 4 is the second.
As was stated in earlier posts, you can use a female to female gender changer for the other end of the USB cable, rather than soldering on your own connector or something.
Note that having the cable in OTG mode when plugging your streak in to your computer or power adapter over USB could damage something because OTG mode will start outputting power over the same pins that it's usually inputting from!!!

0TheRain0,
This is great !
Thanks for sharing your findings.
I sent you a PM; please check it when you have time...

When I built my Dell Streak Mini USB adapter, I brought out PDMI pin 4 to the OTG pin on the Mini USB.
I tried it with 2 different cheap Mini USB to Standard USB ("A") female adapters, and tried several devices including a Apple Mini Keyboard/Hub, and USB Flash drives.
I also tried the same components on the Dell Home Dock.
They did not work, but I suspect that the Mini USB to Standard USB female adapters do not short the OTG pin to ground.
What we need is some that do. Then it would be plug and play at least for dock owners.
Edit:
These claim to enable USB host mode when Connected to a N800:
http://www.electronicproductonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2043
Therefore Should require no modification to use with the dock, as long as the dock brings out pin 4, which as far as I remember, my testing said it did.

This thread is currently of great interest. Should it, in theory, be possible to hook up my Canon digi SLRs as mass storage devices then?
Sometimes being able to get the image onto a bigger screen has it's benefits. The Streak's screen is actually very well calibrated as well, compared to my hardware calibrated monitor!
In the ideal world i'd be able to tether and shoot using the streak (like I can with my laptop) but I'm realistic and know that's not likely to happen!
What I DON'T get is why Dell have put in USB host functionality without implementing it in the lead?

Well, I was going to hold off on cutting up a cable to try something, but I just had a cable go through the washer and dryer... and it was looking pretty bad and actually cut through the jacket and shielding on the wire... so I cut off the PDMI lead and about 3" of cable (right before the break).
Inside the jacket are 4 wires. Black, White, Green, Red. Obviously they correspond to the USB 2.0 spec... so I guess in some way, VDC, Ground, Data+, Data-... but no OTG wire.
Would anyone that opened up the connector know how these wire colors correspond?
What I really want is for my 80GB iPod to have it's music available to the Streak in my car, so here's what I was planning:
1) Cut up the Dell PDMI cable (done).
2) Cut up an old iPod to Firewire cable I have laying around
3) Splice VDC+ and Ground on the iPod and PDMI to the corresponding VDC+/Ground USB end of the original Dell Cable. This will plug into a 12V->USB Adapter (probably the Dell one) to power and charge both devices.
4) Splice the corresponding PDMI and iPod data transfer wires.
5) Ground OTG on Streak side and add a micro switch, like TheRain did...
I can then wrap this up in some custom cable thing shround thing that I'll figure out.

Little bit of research led me to the micro-AB receptacle that basically determines if a device is acting as a host or slave. So, I would say the preferred way to do this, instead of wiring in a switch, would be to find a receptacle and hack into it... so here's one you can get cheap:
http://www.retractablecables.com/US...ro_AB_Female_Adapter_for_USB_OTG_Devices.html
This should be able to wire up something that basically puts the device into OTG mode when you connect a micro-A cable to the device, and a slave device when you connect a micro-B cable.
So solder/wire that up.. connect the Streak with a micro-A cable to a powered USB hub, connect the peripherals to the hub, and you should be good to go without a micro switch.
On an edit note, I also found a bare micro-AB female that you can buy... but it's more expensive than the previous adapter, so uh I guess it depends on how much time you want to spend tearing the adapter apart.
http://ntcdistributing.com/products/usb-connectors.htm

Idea for permanent host-mode switch...

Got the idea a few days ago after looking at the full breakdown of the Xoom...
Here's the idea:
Remove the dock charge contact points, and install a micro switch in its place. With the switch in place, find the proper contact points for ground and the host-mode pin on the micro USB port. Solder some 30 AWG to the contact points on the board, then to the switch, and put everything back together.
This would give you the ability to use any USB cable as a host-mode cable, while only affecting charging on docking units. With the battery life of the Xoom, I don't see it as a deal breaker.
Thoughts?

Well, I only charge on the dock. Way to convenient not to have. I don't trust the standard chargers design to withstand me..
However if you are not a dock user, then it sounds like it would be cool.

Just my opinion, but it seems like a lot of risk and effort for not having to carry around a cable. I mean if you have the standard cable, you still need a male to male adapter to use any usb device. So either way you still need something else besides the standard USB cable. I would rather just have a USB host cable that already has the correct USB ends on it and still be able to use my charging dock.
Again just my opinion, YMMV.

HuckFinn said:
Just my opinion, but it seems like a lot of risk and effort for not having to carry around a cable. I mean if you have the standard cable, you still need a male to male adapter to use any usb device. So either way you still need something else besides the standard USB cable. I would rather just have a USB host cable that already has the correct USB ends on it and still be able to use my charging dock.
Again just my opinion, YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well normally I'd agree with you, but it seems that most people are having issues getting good cables unless they buy the Motorola cable.
It's easier to find an adapter for the standard USB cable than it is to find an OTG cable as well.
Still just an idea, but I figured I'd see what everyone thought.

all you need is the Motorola Mini-USB to Micro-USB adapter, a USB extension cable and some scissors.
you'd to still carry around a Female-Female adapter for your USB cables with your idea, i'd rather not rip open my xoom and solder **** when the other option is easier.
Also, if you don't plan on upgrading to LTE, you could just wire up a USB port to the card slot for the LTE card, it should have USB routed to it.

LIV2 said:
Also, if you don't plan on upgrading to LTE, you could just wire up a USB port to the card slot for the LTE card, it should have USB routed to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This actually sounds like a better idea... Was thinking of how I could add in a full-size USB port to remove the extra cable completely. USB out the top would also allow me to hook up an external HDD and still sit the Xoom up in a cinema position.
The question with doing that though, is will it be recognized as a host-mode connection, and if not how would you get it to act as a host-mode connection without the 'fifth pin'?

[Q] Homemade USB hub? (no soldering!)

I posted this on Plopper's thread here(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=923864) but thought it might be better here as I might get a quicker reply
"I have bought a 4 way USB hub which has a usb socket on its input lead. This can be plugged into your PC or into a usb mains charger or usb car charger.
If the input lead is plugged into one of the four output sockets and the lead is cut open and the red and black wires are exposed, a 2A 5v charger can be connected to these wires by twisting together and taping.
This then powers both sides of the hub with 2A supply and by-passes the protection.
It does sacrifice 1 output socket but HD2 +keyboard+mouse= happy Ubuntu
Will this work?"
I am dying to try it but thought I'd check with tech savvy types first.
Edit; I am thinking now that the green and white data cables in the input leads may have to be cut and the ends taped, but it may not matter(?)

Have attached photo of the hub and the charger
The charger is an old Nokia one and has a lump of plastic near the end which I assume houses a fuse of sorts.
Reading through Plopper's thread again I am sure this is OK, but am unwilling to brick my HD2!
You could get a 7 way usb hub and add things like external HDD or (my favourite) a usb fan to cool down your HD2!

Working
OK over 300 views of this thread and no reply!
this usually means the idea is a dud or its been done before!
I have searched around but can only find y-cables, which supply extra 500mA from another USB socket but only allow 1 device connection.
If this has been done before, I apologise.
However, I got bored of waiting and went ahead with cutting up leads and splicing wires. I flashed WM6.5 and loaded Ubuntu 0.3 (only one with USB host that I can find!)
AND IT WORKS!!!!!
I had to buy a micro USB cable because I didn't want to cut my stock one (get a data cable because a charging cable only has 2 wires in it).
Note on cable colours, apparently there may be variation on some manufacturer's cable core colours, take care to identify by tracing circuits on the hub and checking continuity from the pins to each core.
Also, being an electrician, I am wondering what the current carrying capacity of the tiny core cables are, I will have to look it up at some point (adiabatic equation) meanwhile check for overheating.
Enjoy! (something to do on wet weekend!)

Homemade USB
i made this, unfortunately i can't use it with 0.3 bucouse i installed magldr and i use Android, and linit tutorial doesn't work for me
http://i54.tinypic.com/2dquiwo.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/2zsxz6b.jpg

Impressive!
It sure beats the above from me.
What do you use it with?
What else might support USB hosting?
I prefer to use WP7 and Android too (see sig)

i made it for HD2 for use it with Ubuntu, i hope that the v0.4 come out soon and with usb host support...

Doh!
467 views after first posting this and after re-reading plopper's thread again I have realised what plopper and Mister B were saying in their last posts.
There is no protection in unpowered usb hubs, so no need to bypass it!
I have over-complicated everything.
It is only necessary to change the hub lead plug to a microUSB one and then connect the charger to the usb plug which you have just cut off, then plug it into one of the spare ports.
Oh well never mind!

i take a photo with HD2 on it http://i53.tinypic.com/34dr96v.jpg

很好很强大！

nice... ...but, don't smoke so much....

Guys,
For those using Android, you can try Dorimanx's latest 2.9.9 ROM which claims to have USB Host enabled. I don't have a USB OTG cable to try it on, but let us know if having a self-powered USB hub works on it. Thanks

nikola360 said:
i take a photo with HD2 on it i53.tinypic.com/34dr96v.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG this thing is amazing! I really want to make something like this, got any pointers on how to do it?

wow thats the crazyest mod ever you should move to hardware moding scection! maby you will get more help!

bever86 said:
OMG this thing is amazing! I really want to make something like this, got any pointers on how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!....unfortunately i haven't a tutorial, i made it only with my fantasy, i saw 2 DVD cases and i made it.
Guys,
For those using Android, you can try Dorimanx's latest 2.9.9 ROM which claims to have USB Host enabled. I don't have a USB OTG cable to try it on, but let us know if having a self-powered USB hub works on it. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried it (XB V.19 that is based on it, with the same kernel USBH enabled) but unfortunately it doesn't work, i saw in the system partition of this rom and i saw that there aren't any driver for USB hardwares support (USB Keyboard, mouse, USB Flash memory...)...so i think that the problem is this (no drivers support)

nikola360 said:
i take a photo with HD2 on it http://i53.tinypic.com/34dr96v.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This looks really cool, you should produce it and offer it, I guess I would buy it

please i neeeeeeed help

i try to connect a usb flash memory to my tab 2 and i follow a trick
i get female-to-female usb adapter and connected it to the galaxy tab 2 usb adapter (that comes with it in the box)
then connect to it a usb flash memory , but my tab didn't read any thing
so after searching,using my avometer and making tests between my tab and my lab i concluded that:
-the female-to-female usb adapter is working probably
-there is no 5v output on the usb male adapter so i think because that the terminal device can't be read
please help me, any one can explain that?
is the manufacture close that property or my android is crushed or must be a microcontroller in otg to work,.... or what??

hey ever body , where is the developers
where is the genius people
i need help

My guess is they sell an official USB reader for a reason...
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app

mon3esh said:
i follow a trick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the trick I used:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300701358749#ht_891wt_1037
Open wallet, buy fix
:silly:

The following link shows how to make your own OTG cable (for another device). http://tech2.in.com/how-to/accessor...sb-otg-cable-for-an-android-smartphone/319982. So there is some additional connection b/w pin 4 & 5 that makes it works as OTG cable.
Is it worth the hassle? I am not sure. I got OTG cable for $0.99 in ebay. Before buying it I tried female USB cable like OP and failed.

thanks for every one tries to help
i found the reason
the secret in the 30 pin connector
which its pins are grouped each group is serves another connector in the another side of cable
so the group of usb has a pin named otg responsible for turning your cable to otg cable
so in the usb male connector it is not connected
so i think that is why samsung didn't built in its tabs a micro usb port and built this port instead it "to can market its accessories"

diy mircousb hub

hi folks,
i would to like to build a micro usb hub.
e.g. 1 male connector and 2 female connector.
does anybody have experience in micro usb to stabilize the voltage and current?
thanx

KindsKoPP said:
hi folks,
i would to like to build a micro usb hub.
e.g. 1 male connector and 2 female connector.
does anybody have experience in micro usb to stabilize the voltage and current?
thanx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be interesting to see, I think your gonna need drivers for that as well because your gonna need a switch to cycle back and forth on what connector your using, and thats gonna be hard to do from scratch. I was contemplating doing something similar to that but wound up at a dead end. If you figure it out let me know.

it won´t need a driver. i want to build as a host hub. but the current is too low i think, so it is difficult to stabilizise the current,,
mbm262 said:
That would be interesting to see, I think your gonna need drivers for that as well because your gonna need a switch to cycle back and forth on what connector your using, and thats gonna be hard to do from scratch. I was contemplating doing something similar to that but wound up at a dead end. If you figure it out let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It's not a question of stabilizing the current.
It's supposed to be 5 volts throughout the USB spec.
If you are using a cell phone as the host, that already produces regulated 5 volts through a charge pump.
The amount of current out of a cell phone is maybe around 100 mA.
That's what you have to work with.
If it's not sufficient for what you want then you need an external power source, not a regulator.
Hubs can be power hogs.
The spec says that a hub can take up to 100 mA all by itself.
To make a micro USB you can either take an existing hub and change the connectors.
Of course since the PCB pattern will not match up you'd have to wire the connectors in discreetly.
If you really wanted to make a real job out of this, buy a hub IC for $3,
lay out a PCB, slap on a 24 MHz crystal and connectors.

???
the idea is to build an mobile hub for tablets or smartphones for plugin external devices like sd card reader or usb stick and
mouse and keybord. hub will stick in a phone and plug in the external devices. i already had tried with a keyboard and mouse with standard usb and it works. i had already build some devices with micro usb connector. so i would like to use all devices at the same time and outdoor. i try to solve the idea without a lot of adapter..
if the usb give all devices 5v and 100mA at the same time, that would be great, without an additional IC power supplier..
thats all

i found out thats not possible to use more than 2 gadgets at the same time cause of the voltage without an external power supplier. keyboard and mice work at the same time but i f u want to plug in a 3rd gadget then wont work. 1 solution could be a mobile battery with 5v connecting with the hub. or make a built in battery in the hub..
@ renate. maybe u have an suggestion?

I have a jig for measuring current consumed by USB peripherals: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30668417&postcount=26
I use USB with only low power things like a keyboard or else
with a powered hub (also back-powering the Android).
The second option is more like a docking station.

KindsKoPP said:
hi folks,
i would to like to build a micro usb hub.
e.g. 1 male connector and 2 female connector.
does anybody have experience in micro usb to stabilize the voltage and current?
thanx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 2 female connectors don't make much sense i think, because:
I can't think of any device you would like to connect with your phone as host that has a µusb connector..? You would need 2 additional OTG-cables in almost all cases
You would need OTG capability for security reasons: Imagine you hub is pluggend in you phone and you connect you computer to the hub too -> Data crash + 2 power sources in parallel -> risk of damage
I would use a normal tiny usb hub and only change the cable

u did not read my post above attentively or?
quote:
i had already build some devices with micro usb connector. so i would like to use all devices at the same time and outdoor. i try to solve the idea without a lot of adapter..
and the gadget are already automatically OTG. I already thought all about that before!
-schumi- said:
The 2 female connectors don't make much sense i think, because:
I can't think of any device you would like to connect with your phone as host that has a µusb connector..? You would need 2 additional OTG-cables in almost all cases
You would need OTG capability for security reasons: Imagine you hub is pluggend in you phone and you connect you computer to the hub too -> Data crash + 2 power sources in parallel -> risk of damage
I would use a normal tiny usb hub and only change the cable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse