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Hy everyone,
First of all, thanks for this great forum which never fails to impress me.
I have a question which some of you might help answering: I'm wondering if it's possible to use the mini-usb port of my smartphone to get some data input.
Let me explain myself a bit more: I know that smartphones (HTC Touch for me) aren't USB hosts. However, the data connexions are still present.
Here's what I'd like to do: even though the smartphone can't control another peripheral, I'd like that external peripheral to send data to the smartphone, and the smartphone to use that data to control the screen. That would give an alternative way of controlling the screen.
The input would come from another touch surface, so my guess is that using the data to control the screen shouldn't be much of a problem.
So? Any idea if it's possible? What kind of platform/language would be nice to do that? C#?
(I have JAVA development experience, but I'm quite a newbie as far as Win Mobile devs are concerned. I'm willing to learn though
I think I searched this forum (and others) quite extensively before posting. If by any chance I missed a related post, I'd be glad to know about it
No ideas? Anyone?
Last up before I stop...
prob. not
i dont think that is technically possible. i think one has to be the host, and that host provides power. so to power the input device(im thinking keyboard) it would need the smartphone/ppc to be a host....
but i have no clue in this area...maybe someone could prove me wrong?
Hey, thanks for your answer.
The powering issues could be overcomed by cutting the cables and giving power from an external power source (I think several people have tried doing it, I need to find the links again). By the way, the peripheral itself is plugged on 110V, so there's plenty of available power
I'm not seeking here to "control" the device, just to aquire the signal it's sending... Does that seem feasible, or does the peripheral need to be somehow "activated" by a Host before sending anything?
Well, in order to get data, the host must ask the slave each time it needs some. Other things must be done by the host, like usb enumeration. That means there has to be a host or it won't work, unless you use usb on-the-go, but I do not know many devices that support it.
according to the qualcomm website, the msm chipsets support otg
I wonder if the USB on the Nexus One allows me to connect an external hard drive. I'm only talking about data transmission with externally powered USB-devices. The N1 doesn't need to power USB-devices for me to be satisfied.
And if not: could the deficiency possibly be mended software-wise, or is it a limitation of the hardware itself?
Thanks beforehand!
no it cannot be the host. Read this on a google forum, someone posted the link as an answer to a similar question yesterday.
Thank you for your answer, britoso!
But oh, what a pitty!!!
Can't it possibly be fixed by booting with another software driver or something?
What's the point of removing this ability? It seems completely ridiculous. It gains nothing at all to "un-specify" USB host capability:
"Now, I have my files on this USB memory stick and here's the Nexus One. Oh, what's the use. Google didn't care at all about this kind of scenaria..."
Well, let's see what can be done with bulky wireless adapters and stuff like that then, to mend this unnecessary fail of the N1... I probably need to use a PC running Windows and a cable internet in order to have any use at all of the N1. Was this the purpose of this deliberate design "feature"?!?
this feature was not removed, but simply never implemented into the Android OS (afaik). if USB was host that means anything connected to it would have to draw power from the Nexus One's battery. Im sure HTC does not want this, because some things connected to USB can put incredible stress on a battery.
I thought the inability was due to a USB design that will allow charging, but doesn't allow hosting.
(at least that what I gathered about the n900 and why it couldn't act as a host.)
edit: nevermind nokia opted to skip on the go support to get the product out faster.
I don't know if there's a hardware limitation in place, but even if there isn't, the software does not support it.
There's an app for the n900 to add host support in the maemo repository. Don't know if it works though. I've always thought host support was due to the software.
Go here:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738
Sign in with your google ID. Vote for the feature by clicking the star.
(While you are there, click on "Back to list" and browse for other issues/features you care about and "star" them too...)
Its been accomplished on the Droid... Host mode works, but as there are no drivers, anything that runs over usb will turn on / charge but not connect.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
mikecyber said:
Its been accomplished on the Droid... Host mode works, but as there are no drivers, anything that runs over usb will turn on / charge but not connect.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/10/droid-gets-a-usb-hack-allowing-it-to-control-printers-and-camera/
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Thanks for posting this as I saw this on another site and came here to raise awareness. I've heard that someone got a USB keyboard working over USB host. Could someone try this out on their N1?
Hi!
I am developing an application which connects a Wiimote to a bluetooth enabled android phone/device.
I did this by interfacing with the native bluez bluetooth library directly, rather than via the Android API. The reason for this is that Android API doesn't support HID devices, which a Wiimote is.
A problem now is that on some devices, mostly those sold by HTC, my app simply doesn't work. After calling the hci_get_route(NULL), this function should return an id of the first bluetooth device available (most likely 0), but instead returns ERNODEV (-1) as if no bluetooth device is available.
I suspect it has something to do with our beloved HTC grossly modifying something in the libbluetooth library to make this fail to work.
Has anyone ever done this kind of bluetooth interfacing?
How could I make this work?
Rooting the phone and replacing a library or two would be fine too.
For a list of working and non-working devices, check out the 2nd post of this thread.
HTC support
I just sent a customer service message to HTC about this issue. I hope they can get back to me with a "we'll work on it" message, or something. I really want this on my incredible. I'm new to coding like this, but could you disguise the Wiimote as another kind of device?
Just a response from someone equally interested in a solution. I'm trying to set up a bluetooth keyboard (Freedom Pro) with my gsm Hero running the 1.5 based MCR 3.2. Available drivers (Freedom's own, BlueInput & KeyPro) should work with 1.5, but HTC devices, especially the Hero, seem to be lacking something that is present in most 1.5 builds.
Investigating, I find the same issue of no route to device, because there is no known device. AIUI when bluetooth is turned on hciattach is used to establish a link to the hardware. At that point an hciconfig should list the hci0 device as present but down. However I find this list remains empty at all times.
I found this for keyboards.
Since I can't post the link, it's called "KeyPro for Android"
Google "keypro android" and click the first link.
Maybe that could help. It says it works with any android device above 1.5, however, I did read that some keyboards use a different type of bluetooth profile, SPP rather than HID.
I haven't heard back form HTC yet either.
EDIT: Upon reading your post again, you have tried this. Sorry, my bad.
Thanks for looking though The Freedom Pro is switchable between spp & hid profiles, so I figured I was safe, lol. Not with HTC's butchered 1.5 bt it seems.
Did you ever try to use the most likely id 0 on an HTC device? Even though the call to get the id fails?
Maybe you could use also the Android API to synchronize if a device is present and then use the id that Android API gives you?
Just some thoughts since I would love to see that App running on my Desire with Snesoid
Edit: Double post
tobren said:
Did you ever try to use the most likely id 0 on an HTC device? Even though the call to get the id fails?
Maybe you could use also the Android API to synchronize if a device is present and then use the id that Android API gives you?
Just some thoughts since I would love to see that App running on my Desire with Snesoid
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Believe it or not, I actually tried this. Unfortunately, the next command (to bind the bluetooth adapter) also fails, and of course every command after that one because the adapter is not bound.
Thanks for the idea anyway.
usb
does the wii remote have usb connectivity? could it be possible to have the communication pass through that connection rather than bluetooth? one advantage of this would be increased battery life and probably better compatibility across models.
i'm sure some people would prefer bluetooth, but i figure i'll always be using it very close to my phone so i can see the screen, so the wired option is actually a bit more attractive (considering battery performance).
i know ps3 has usb connectivity as well, you just might need an adapter (mini to micro).
rubber soul said:
does the wii remote have usb connectivity? could it be possible to have the communication pass through that connection rather than bluetooth?
[snip]
i know ps3 has usb connectivity as well, you just might need an adapter (mini to micro).
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I'm pretty sure the first answer is no - our wii is round at a friend's atm. However even if it was yes, you'd need more than an adapter. USB operates with one device as master & the other as slave. To allow you to connect slave devices to your phone it would need to be in host mode. Some mobile phone hardware implementations support this, however I don't know of any mainstream Android kernels which do. Even if you workaround that, you're left with the huge issue that slave devices can assume it's safe to draw power from the USB bus which could do nasty things (tm) to a lower power device like a mobile. This can be worked around via a powered hub, but it all gets very messy.
I looked into this a few months ago, hoping I'd be able to use a usb keyboard with my Hero. I ended up with a BT keyboard instead. Of course that doesn't work either but for completely different reasons, as hinted at by this thread. Hopefully a 2.1 ROM will solve that, but that's the subject of numerous other threads.
Uh, just throwing stuff out, what if you have a pc with two bluetooth adapters, it connects to the wii mote, and then broadcasts that in someway the android api can understand?
Also please actually try working on something with a rooted phone, the HTC EVO 4g is rootable, and I will make man love(no homo) if you get it working.
Either one works lol.
Using a PC as a proxy is kind of useless. If you have a wiimote connected to a PC, you might as well play games on the PC itself (there are nes/snes/sega/etc emulators for PCs too).
At this moment, rooting doesn't help with the problem either.
@1 True
@2 That sucks.
Do we think that this will/could be fixed in HTC's Froyo update for 2010 devices? Not looking for definite answers, just a ponderin'.
well if you send the null pairing code to the wiimote from the default bluetooth pairing screen.. it will fail to communicate with the wiimote too
waffles004 said:
Do we think that this will/could be fixed in HTC's Froyo update for 2010 devices? Not looking for definite answers, just a ponderin'.
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Doesn't it work in stock/vanilla Eclair? I thought the main problem was with Cupcake, though HTC seem to have done weird things to every stock firmware. I read that removing Sense from a 2.1 HTC ROM breaks bluetooth. Go figure. And there was I thinking Sense was a gui enhancement
I contacted HTC about their bluetooth issues and just received this response
My name is Courtney, and I would be glad to assist you today. I understand that you are unhappy with the Bluetooth connectivity on your HTC EVO. HTC is aware of the problems occurring with the EVO and Bluetooth. We are currently investigating this issue and are working on a solution. As soon as we have an update, we will inform our customers. Thank you for contacting HTC America Technical Support. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us via email or at 1-866-449-8358. We are open 7 days a week from 6 a.m.-1 a.m. EST. You can also check out our Community and Support pages at htc.com/us and our pages on Facebook and Twitter.
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Click to collapse
I contacted HTC about this issue with my incredible and I basically got the same answer except the guy was more knowledgeable and said that other people were complaining about certain bluetooth issues. I think they know what they did and are waiting to fix it in Froyo to be easy for them. No worries though, should be comin' in a few weeks. I can't freakin' wait. I have soooooooooo much Pokemon and Mario to play.
does anyone know if this works on samsung galaxy s, i dont have my phone yet to test, but as soon as it arrives (sometime next week) i will test this.
All I can say is that my wii controller is working really well on cyanogen on my evolution now!
Hello everyone,
I have nothing even close to development knowledge, so I have no idea if and how this can be done. Seeing what you guys cook together here though, I am quite sure that what I request should be possible.
As most of you will know, Samsung has removed the USB Host APIs from it's newer firmwares. No one kows why, but a lot of SGS2 owners, including me, dearly miss that feature. (I need it for chainfires DSLR controller)
I love to flash the newest firmwares, am eager to see whats new, and want the improvements they bring. So what I'm asking for, is for someone to "extract" that usb host-functionality from older firmwares and put it in a (cwm flashable ?) package that enables the funktionality for any firmware.
Since our hardware supports it natively it should only be question of software/kernel, right? Would love to see this happening... would hate to flash back to an old firmware.
Any help welcome! Would buy people bringing a solution a beer! cheers
works fine for me on KI3...? I use the usb host function often to transfer photos to a usb for work..
rbimdxe said:
works fine for me on KI3...? I use the usb host function often to transfer photos to a usb for work..
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Click to collapse
I don't really know how it works, but there seem to be different functioanlities. The new firmwares still are usb host enabled, which means you can still connect thumb drives, etc.. though as chainfire states here: http://www.chainfire.eu/articles/103/_SGS2_KI_Samsung_removes_USB_host_support_patches_bootloaders/ 3rd party aplications have been blocked from making use of this functionality.
no one?
...well I guess if it could be easily done chainfire would already be on it. please let me know if anything comes up!
there is a thread concerning this in the epic 4G forums. seems like they don't get usb otg at all, which is why that problem generates some more interest over there. chainfire himself contributes to their discussion. for everybody interested, let's follow what's going on over there. if they find a solution i'm sure we can apply it to the gs2.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265221
While i was thinking is it possible to make OTG work on Touch Pro 2?
Any Software or ROM or Kernel updates will do?
You mean like USB Host Mode?
I don't think anyone looked into it. Android or WinMo...
arrrghhh said:
You mean like USB Host Mode?
I don't think anyone looked into it. Android or WinMo...
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Yeah , that is whats making me ask it, it would be awesome if that Hapenned., by the way is it Possible?
nikhil.pgm said:
Yeah , that is whats making me ask it, it would be awesome if that Hapenned., by the way is it Possible?
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(Almost) anything is possible with enough time and determination...
Has it been done already? Not to my knowledge.
'Theoretically' you should be able to get this working. Like Arrrghhh said, anything is possible. I did get a usb otg cable for the rhodium (well, not FOR the rhodium, but 'theoretically' it should work) and found that this function is supported in the specs for our processor chip.
There are drivers and a pretty good source of information here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480899
I never advanced past the point of realizing that while our phone 'probably' has the hardware to receive input from usb devices it cannot provide them with power to function. You seem to need to use an externally powered usb hub for those drivers to do you any good, and there really isn't anything On-The-Go about carrying around a usb hub and its power adapter! So it was at that point that I gave up. But, there is probably all the information you need in the thread I posted above to get you started.
Please post your findings if you have success/failure
Caldair said:
'Theoretically' you should be able to get this working. Like Arrrghhh said, anything is possible. I did get a usb otg cable for the rhodium (well, not FOR the rhodium, but 'theoretically' it should work) and found that this function is supported in the specs for our processor chip.
There are drivers and a pretty good source of information here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480899
I never advanced past the point of realizing that while our phone 'probably' has the hardware to receive input from usb devices it cannot provide them with power to function. You seem to need to use an externally powered usb hub for those drivers to do you any good, and there really isn't anything On-The-Go about carrying around a usb hub and its power adapter! So it was at that point that I gave up. But, there is probably all the information you need in the thread I posted above to get you started.
Please post your findings if you have success/failure
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Surely i would, leme work on that!
does the Froyo Build support OTG?
nikhil.pgm said:
Surely i would, leme work on that!
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Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1250199&highlight=7
its said that OTG isnt working in the Build
So does Android generally support OTG without any software support?
Can i get OTG support by just running in Android? ICS or CM or GB or Froyo?
[i m working on the Win6.5 OTG, ordered Host cable, waiting for it to arrive..]
nikhil.pgm said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1250199&highlight=7
its said that OTG isnt working in the Build
So does Android generally support OTG without any software support?
Can i get OTG support by just running in Android? ICS or CM or GB or Froyo?
[i m working on the Win6.5 OTG, ordered Host cable, waiting for it to arrive..]
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That thread isn't talking about host mode, that thread is talking about transferring files via USB mass storage mode....
At any rate, I'm pretty sure the software simply supports it. Getting the hardware to talk properly is the hard part (again, as far as I understand it...)
arrrghhh said:
That thread isn't talking about host mode, that thread is talking about transferring files via USB mass storage mode....
At any rate, I'm pretty sure the software simply supports it. Getting the hardware to talk properly is the hard part (again, as far as I understand it...)
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i got the Female cable, but it never took the flash drive, dont know why? Tried Zeno's Drivers and Also Leo's too but its not working out, does it require an external power supply?
any one got it working ever?
nikhil.pgm said:
i got the Female cable, but it never took the flash drive, dont know why? Tried Zeno's Drivers and Also Leo's too but its not working out, does it require an external power supply?
any one got it working ever?
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Click to collapse
No one ever got it working, I thought I made that perfectly clear...
I'm not sure what you need, again there's probably quite a bit of legwork that you'll need to do in order for it to talk on our devices. I don't think you can just "use" the LEO drivers in this case - however, adapting them might be a good place to start.
nikhil.pgm said:
i got the Female cable, but it never took the flash drive, dont know why? Tried Zeno's Drivers and Also Leo's too but its not working out, does it require an external power supply?
any one got it working ever?
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Click to collapse
I thought I read somewhere that the TP2 can not provide power. You had to use a powered usb hub + device to have a chance at getting it working.
The downside being that you had all this stuff to haul around if you wanted to use an OTG cable.