Ok,
I was reading a post over at the PSP Linux forum about suspicions that the PSP has USB On-The-Go abilities. USB On-The-Go basically means a device can be a USB Host or a USB Client, and is usually restricted to a a certain class of USB devices - eg you might want a USB OTG camera to only act as a host with Storage Devices.
Now to quote this page http://www.beyondlogic.org/usb/otghost.htm ...
As a device can be either a host (A-device) or peripheral (B-device) and that the USB specification calls for different types of connectors for upstream and downstream ports, the OTG spec introduced two additional connectors. One such connector is a mini A/B connector allowing a mini A or mini B connector to plug into the one recepticle. A dual-role device is required to be able to detect whether a Mini-A or Mini-B plug is inserted by determining if the ID pin (an extra pin introduced by OTG) is connected to ground.
This basically says that tradictional USB uses A connectors for Hosts and B connectors for Clients. Because they needed to allow OTG devices to be used as both a Host and a Client, they designed a port that could accept both mini A and mini B connectors. Unsuprisingly, this is called a mini AB connector
So, for small USB Client devices, a mini B connector is used. They look like this:
http://www.cypressindustries.com/products/images/ccmusbb-32005-201.gif
For small USB OTG devices, the new miniAB port is used. They look like this:
http://www.cypressindustries.com/products/images/ccmusbab-32005-700.gif
so go look on the bottom of the Magician. Low and behold, a mini AB connector! In fact you'll see the cable they gave you with your magician is a mini B but it still fits into the mini AB connector on the jam, even though it's a slightly different shape.
Now, it could be USB Host was planned or the port was added to allow backwards compatability with the Magician2 or whatever, but all the same it's a pretty interesting feature, given that a company can probably source mini B connectors for cheaper than mini AB, (as not many companies are making them yet).
So... does the Jam have USB host functionality or not???
If so, here's some drivers to take advantage of this function. Use at your own risk.
http://www.deje.gmxhome.de/
http://www.anypakusa.com/PPC/
Maybe one could connect the jam to a hard drive???
I've did some research, and if the Magician supports USB On The Go (why else would there be a MiniAB connector on the bottom of the device in stead of a normal MiniB (4p) connector) it should be able to play USB Host.
I'm ordering a MiniA to A Female connector and I'm hoping it will work out so I can connect a USB Flashdrive, GPS reciever etc.etc.
Why do people need USB host on their Magician? I can only imagine using an USB keyboard, but everything else I can do with bluetooth and my 4 GB MMC card.
And for using my Magician as "USB-Brick" I use this here:
http://www.softick.com/pocket-pc/cardexport2/
Well... I don't like wireless That's the most important reason.
I want to use a wired GPS-reciever in my car.
I want to be able to connect a USB mass storage driver.
And I'm a geek who just wants to explore every possible option
So why shouldn't I give it a try
esackbauer said:
Why do people need USB host on their Magician? I can only imagine using an USB keyboard, but everything else I can do with bluetooth and my 4 GB MMC card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I think most of the people are interested on the fact that you can actually use an ext hdd, e.g. you have 80GB+ of videos, mp3s that you play on your unit (although I doubt it is able to power the 2.5" type). You can print documents from your unit to a printer, get your pictures off your dig camera, use a USB ext wifi, etc.
hanmin said:
Well, I think most of the people are interested on the fact that you can actually use an ext hdd, e.g. you have 80GB+ of videos, mp3s that you play on your unit (although I doubt it is able to power the 2.5" type). You can print documents from your unit to a printer, get your pictures off your dig camera, use a USB ext wifi, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excuse me for being a pain, but all these options are nonsense IMO, because Magician is the ultra portable device.
What is the sense of attaching a bulky 80GB hdd and cables to the Magician? To have its batteries empty in only 15 minutes?
Printing can be done wireless via infrared (HP printers) or WLAN, digicam pictures I can load by directly inserting its card in Magician. USB Wifi is also a joke as it drains the battery immediately.
If you want all these options, do it right and buy a Subnotebook and a 3G UMTS PC-Card.
esackbauer said:
Excuse me for being a pain, but all these options are nonsense IMO, because Magician is the ultra portable device.
What is the sense of attaching a bulky 80GB hdd and cables to the Magician? To have its batteries empty in only 15 minutes?
Printing can be done wireless via infrared (HP printers) or WLAN, digicam pictures I can load by directly inserting its card in Magician. USB Wifi is also a joke as it drains the battery immediately.
If you want all these options, do it right and buy a Subnotebook and a 3G UMTS PC-Card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ditto
I really doubt it supports USB Host. The board definately supports it, but HTC don't implement it. I think this will yield no results....
Hope you prove me wrong
And dude...... 1.8" Hard Disk Drives are TINY!!! so just quit being a spoil sport
Of course I wouldn't be connecting an periperal eventhough how small it is while walking around, but while at home or in the car sounds ok.
Well USB OTG would be great as I could dump all of my pictures on my digital camera (1GB card) onto my Charmers 4GB SD card. On holiday and stuff this would be really handy so I don't run out of space.
to be honest its not about what you can do with it, its partly bragging rights, hey look i can do so and so on my phone.... etc..
I, for one, would like to see a USB host hack.
Yes, there are SDIO wifis.
Yes, there are SDIO cards that allow wall projector connection.
But these require that I give up my memory card, where I store my stuff, making these things have only limited use.*
I could use Bluetooth, but:
- A standalone BT <-> Wifi bridge that isn't a PC or doesn't connect to a PC does not yet exist. There is a Bluetooth portable GPS receiver, but that's it.
- Projectors with BT enabled are FREAKING EXPENSIVE. Not to mention they aren't common. I've always wondered what that stray miniusb port on the more common small business models are for...
So why not buy a laptop, you ask?
Well, I already have a PC.
If you're suggesting I buy one, either you have never carried one around before, or you're so rich you can buy the lightest, least bulky ones without burning a hole in your pocket.
*That Sandisk 256/Wifi can't quite contain everything I'd want on my 1gig, leaving my only recourse to be (hopefully) the Eye-Film which is currently only in prototype stage. Sandisk already EOL'd that product anyway.
There are only 2 possibilities to get USB Host:
1. Wait for the WM2005 ROM for Magician, maybe HTC implemented the USB Host driver with it ;-)
2. Wait for HTC Trinity, maybe it has USB Host.
However, both options are not very realistic, because a WLAN USB Stick pulls 500 mA from the battery, so you get about 30 minutes battery life...
An USB Host has to provide power to the connected devices, and this is the reason why we probably won't ever see it on a mass market device.
You think you connect any USB device on that Host and it works? Like printers, scanners etc? Sorry, but you're dreaming. You need drivers for this and they just don't exist. There are no USB GPS mice that work with Pocket PCs and there are no Wifi sticks that work with Pocket PCs, period.
The only thing you could do is connect some mass storage device and use this. Besides that I'm 100% sure that the Magician doesn't support USB Host functionality, period.
So get a new PPC with Wifi and use Wifi disks etc. USB host would be nice but no Phone Edition device that I know of has it.
It would be SOOOOOO nice to connect a harddisk to my magician. A 4GB SD Card cannot store all my MP3s. And I want them all in my Car.
Dandie said:
So get a new PPC with Wifi and use Wifi disks etc. USB host would be nice but no Phone Edition device that I know of has it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, Eten M500 supports it.
You need drivers for this and they just don't exist
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Certain drivers do exist; like the JetCet unofficial ones. You'd also need to load drivers for SD-IO cards as well (IIRC the Sandisk Wifi/Mem combo needed a driver), so drivers are actually a non-issue. What matters is that it can be done.
jackleung said:
Actually, Eten M500 supports it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Magician also supports USB host, because
your BT is attached there. So what? It is the 500mA
current source and the electrical connection to
the USB socket that counts.
Currents not a problem i should think. All USB devices are standard 0.5A supply.. and all USB devices use the same supply.
Hmmm, seems like they've released a microUSB to USB adapter for supposedly transferring pictures.
Here's the link
http://www.motorola.com/consumers/X...toid=74686948cc47d210VgnVCM10000081bbb00aRCRD
dumb question ... if it pulls the data trough usb .. what stops us just hooking up memsticks etc to it ?
It shouldn't affect anything at all. And even if it does, I can see the awesome xda community making it work with flash drives and such since moto didn't lock down the xoom
So then presumably Honeycomb has camera profiles, so it will recognize when I connect a camera and offer to import pics? If this is what it does, then this is a relief. I could just get a generic microUSB cable for my camera and skip buying this almost-certainly-overpriced dongle from Motorola.
Although apparently the Toshiba has a built-in full-size USB that wouldn't require this dongle or special cable. I'm going to continue to see how things shake out over the next month before I decide which to buy.
Some more info from an engineer who worked on the XOOM. (Link)
keith_4g:
"I am the engineer who designed the hardware for USB on the Xoom. I can confirm that the hardware is capable of supporting any USB 2.0 (or earlier) device using the host mode adapter cable. The software will, however, have limitations. The software that will be shipping on the Xoom will only have support for USB keyboards. I cannot guarantee this, but I have been told that support for camera connection will be available at some point. This should enable the Xoom to also detect some phones as digital cameras. As far as flash drives and external hard drives are concerned, I don't know whether or not they will be supported.
For those of you looking to buy the adapter, please do not buy a standard micro-USB to USB adapter. It is not going to enable host mode on the Xoom. The adapter sold by Motorola has the ID pin set to host mode, and the generic adapters you can buy online will not."
I'm confident that the great minds at XDA will have this exploited before Monday.
arrtoodeetoo said:
I'm confident that the great minds at XDA will have this exploited before Monday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this! This feature is very important for me, and I hope it gets squared away in the next few weeks!
If I'm not mistaken, JB supports audio out through USB.
Does JB push digital or analog line?
There was a demo at Google I/O but reading up on this briefly hasn't stated if an external DAC is required.
Ideally, I'd like to make a male microUSB -> female iOS dock adapter to do both charging and audio out through one port, but never got to it on previous phones. It'd simple enough to do, and be great to take advantage of all the various iOS docks that everyone has, but if it requires an external DAC it could prove to be a little more complicated.
I presume nobody knows?
Correct me if I am mistaken but the Keyboard docks for Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 2 10.1 and Note 10.1 all provide keyboard and charging at the same time (and also audio out).
Well, This proves that charging and USB on the go can be made in a single device.
I was thinking in something a little more bold: integrating a full size USB port inside the tablet itself and a microUSB port just for charging with a conventional Android USB cable as the one that comes with my Galaxy S3 (but using the tablet charger, of course, due to the higher Amps).
I plan to make all the modifications inside the tablet and soldering the to the 30 pin port internally.
It sounds crazy but I think it could be done.
My only concern is about USB syncing with the computer. So I guess I should add a switch somewhere to change from USB host (pendrive, keyboard, etc) to USB slave (syncing with computer).
Also, it would be great too if when set in USB slave mode the added microUSB port could serve as syncing port (yeah, I don't like the docking port. It is good for docking, bad for everything else)
My previous tablet was an Acer Iconia Tab A500. It had plenty of interfacing options: a full size host USB, a syncing microUSB, a round two pins charging connector similar to the old nokia ones (allowing charging and using USB pendrive at the same time) and microHDMI out apart from a docking port and audio jack. The only thing I miss from this tablet is its connectivity
Any ideas, comments, suggestions?
Hi, dear friend!
don't you think it will make difficulties with the Tablet's slim design?
I'm interested in this... if you think you can do it, then I may help you do it...
BYE
arashtarafar said:
Hi, dear friend!
don't you think it will make difficulties with the Tablet's slim design?
I'm interested in this... if you think you can do it, then I may help you do it...
BYE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. Nobody said it would be easy, but my Acer Iconia A500 had a full size USB port and it was no thicker than the Galaxy. I think it is a matter of finding the appropriate empty space. Of course, maybe there is not such space to allow the project to become true. I will open the tablet this weekend and then we will see.
In the meanwhile, if anybody has good reference of the 30 pin port, resistance values needed to activate USB OTG and HDMI and if it is possible to have both running at the same time, it would be great.
Have you read this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1155065
In the first post, there are two images of the connections in the 30-pin cable...
I don't remember though... I have read it many months ago...
I just bought a 2nd gen unit to use in my car. I am planning to install it inside using OTG and all that fun stuff. I will also be running my audio out of the USB port (as the audio jack gets that feedback noise from the engine). The issue is the Nexus 7 barely fits in my dash. There is no room to plug a USB cable into the port (even an L shaped one). I know I could do QI charging and clean up the audio from the audio jack, but I need the USB port for the various in car features (turning on quickly and the like).
Looking at teardowns of the 2012 model, it appeared to be easy to move the USB port. In my own stupidity, I didn't know there was a 2012 and 2013 model. It appears the 2013 model is built very differently (h ttps://ww w.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+7+2nd+Generation+Teardown/16072) and I am not sure how I would go about moving the port.
I am willing to leave the back off the unit, or even just drill a hole in it as it will be mounted inside my car permanently. But with how the cables are attached to the PCB that has the USB plug, I can't easily move that PCB (see: h ttps://d3 nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/T1bQFwmsYTXKYX11). Is my only option to somehow create some kind of extender cable for the USB port, solder that onto the PCB and then put the USB port at the end of that? Am I missing an easier method?
Thanks! (Sorry for the non-clickable links. Stupid anti-spam features won't let me use links yet).
Did you ever figure this out?