Database Users

[Kernel]- Usb Audio support - Initial idea

Hi Devs.
After doing a little research, its seems that USB audio support is enabled in the S3 kernel. There seems to be a fair bit of support for implenting this feature accross a range of devices.
I also note that the cheap C-media chips are recognised by the S3 kernel. So I'm going to buy one, as they are cheap as chips. I realise the sound quality won't be up to much but its a step in the right direction, as I don't currently have and other USB audio devices.
So, I fancy a little kernel compiling. I have done this on linux systems many years ago and I still compile the odd program when I have to. There seem to be some kernel compiling good guides, but I am wondering if anyone else is looking into this feature, or can suggest a good place to start. Is it worth starting with an S3 kernel, (I guess not) or should I start from scratch, or another kernel I like? Anything I compile and test will have cifs support, as its something I can't do without.
I also see the Glados kernel for Nexus already has USB audio support.
Obviously I'm aware of the emmc erase issue, so starting with sources that disable this feature would be a good idea.
Am I completely mental or is this worth having a go at? I'm willing to wait a while if its too dangerous to try until Samsung release a fix for the SuperBrick.
I'll admit I'm rusty, but I have successfully complied kernels in the past.
Any comments will be graciously be recieved!

OK, no love for USB audio. Looks like I'm on my own then!

+1 for USB audio
Galaxy note Paranoid Android 1.7ghz goodness

audio over usb
Galaxy Note has USB audio support too. Take a look at Samsung EDD-D1E1 Dockingstation for Samsung Galaxy Note. it's with Line-Out for external speaker.

The note doesn't supply much power in the USB OTG configuration so may need to be an externally powered unit, or running via a hub.
As NBLive says, the car dock has a USB --> 3.5mm option which works fine with the Note (I was using it about 2 hours ago), so the support is there, we just need driver support for "generic" units.
It's also pretty much a non-issue for the S3 anyway as it's got the good Wolfson DAC rather than the crappy Yamaha (iirc) one the Note has.

NBLive said:
Galaxy Note has USB audio support too. Take a look at Samsung EDD-D1E1 Dockingstation for Samsung Galaxy Note. it's with Line-Out for external speaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I recall it the dockingstation only have analog audio (not usb audio but it might use the same connector), I have the dock somewhere, will check when I find it.
To OP, you are absolutely not alone on this one, It is one of the most requested features on Android (link).
There are also a few threads in the forum.

slinbin said:
As I recall it the dockingstation only have analog audio (not usb audio but it might use the same connector), I have the dock somewhere, will check when I find it.
To OP, you are absolutely not alone on this one, It is one of the most requested features on Android (link).
There are also a few threads in the forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct. The dockstation is just a usb connector with the sense pin 4 having a resistor of a certain value connected to ground, telling to phone to output analogue audio to the data lines of the usb circuit. This is similar to how the phone senses a USB OTG or MHL-HDMI cable.
What I'm talking about here is USB audio device driver support at the kernel level. Currently its not compiled into the Note's but is supported for a limited number of devices in the galaxy S3 kernel. Simplistically put, the phone doesn't have the drivers.
I've looked around at various config files in the Note and am now wondering if SPDIF audio can be outputted over USB. However, I could be wrong as the there is a lot of ancient crap left over from linux configs from 10 years ago, for instance, config files for Turtle Beach sound cards!
The other option is to use the MHL-HDMI adaptor and then an HDMI to digital audio but that's a bit clunky and given that the S3 can do what we want, it shouldn't be too hard.
The advantages of this are a higher quality audio, multi channel output from DTS surround Vidoe and audio and stereo line in recording. Although android is not the greatest OS for audio work due to latency issues, USB audio support is a step towards iphone like audio recording/mixing and effects work. The S3 can also support much higher Bit rates and sampling frequencies, upto 24bit/192kHz. Far better than CD quality, let alone mp3.
Many people can't hear or don't care for higher quality audio. I for one can tell the difference between mp3 and CD or FLAC. To be honest, listening to mp3's can sometimes be painful to my ears. If you can't hear the difference, imagine being forced to listen to everything on an AM radio!
Sorry to blabber on lol

knightnz said:
The note doesn't supply much power in the USB OTG configuration so may need to be an externally powered unit, or running via a hub.
As NBLive says, the car dock has a USB --> 3.5mm option which works fine with the Note (I was using it about 2 hours ago), so the support is there, we just need driver support for "generic" units.
It's also pretty much a non-issue for the S3 anyway as it's got the good Wolfson DAC rather than the crappy Yamaha (iirc) one the Note has.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reports are coming in that the Woflson DACs are not sounding so good. The Car docks do not have any kind of DAC in them.

+1, This would be great if I could use my Fiio E17 on note!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

I can build a kernel with that for you.. I guess. if nothing fails to build.
I'm using a custom kernel that I've had built for myself. Its basicly a Speedmod kernel with some modules (USB ethernet).
Do you have any chip in mind? I can make a CWM package to you.
It will be a Speedmod kernel with the modules.
Remember that Its not a kernel module thay you Want. I don't know if Android will recognize it and play out thru it.

mdrjr said:
I can build a kernel with that for you.. I guess. if nothing fails to build.
I'm using a custom kernel that I've had built for myself. Its basicly a Speedmod kernel with some modules (USB ethernet).
Do you have any chip in mind? I can make a CWM package to you.
It will be a Speedmod kernel with the modules.
Remember that Its not a kernel module thay you Want. I don't know if Android will recognize it and play out thru it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, saves me setting up a dev environment. I'm still struggling to get a stable laptop and I really don't wanna start doing critical stuff with it (fingers crossed, no hard video hangs with ubuntu 12.04!)
Try compiling for the cheapo c-media chipsets. They are only £1.50 and one is in the post. Think the driver is called cs4281 or something similar and are used in loads of crappy speakers/headphones.
I have read reports that these are recognised under dmesg on the S3.
If this is successful, they I might buy a better USB DAC.
I wonder if the yamaha chip can be persuaded to output spdif over usb. This would enable a wider (and cheaper!) range of DAC's to be used. There is support for ie958 under alsa in android........just a thought.
EDIT: hold off till I get the usb sound device. Some of them are using newer chipsets. I will plug it in to a linux machine and let you know what it is.

I would really benefit being able to plug my YETI microphone into my note for journalism. I remember vaguely looking at it a while ago where people were saying that you need to edit a file (to fake drivers or something) but in the end they were waiting on Google to release audio USB drivers.
I'm only a noob so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

+1
I would love to be able to plug a USB mic into the Note for audio recording.
I don't know if it will solve the latency problems that Android has, but the better audio quality would be good.

reconchrist said:
I would really benefit being able to plug my YETI microphone into my note for journalism. I remember vaguely looking at it a while ago where people were saying that you need to edit a file (to fake drivers or something) but in the end they were waiting on Google to release audio USB drivers.
I'm only a noob so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
richlum said:
+1
I would love to be able to plug a USB mic into the Note for audio recording.
I don't know if it will solve the latency problems that Android has, but the better audio quality would be good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I currently have a logitech usb mic to test with also but I have to stress, this testing is just intitial driver support. There probably won't be any programs that will be able to select inputs for recording. I may be able to write a script to select an alternative input device but we are still quite far from this goal.
Glad to see things gaining traction. Hopefully google and samsung are already far ahead and will release something soon.
I would like to see the S3 sources though!

I've been looking through the S3 kernel source. Under /drivers/usb/gadget/ there a various drivers and headers called f_audio.c, u_audio.c, u_audio.h.
Also the Kconfig file details on how to implement these drivers into the kernel. It seems to me that if these can be compiled sucessfully for the Note kernel, it should just be a matter of changing alsa config files to at least initially get audio input/output support for usb audio devices.
Can't wait to have a go!
Someone else will have to write an app to do the device selection in a nice way. That side of things is beyond me.
Downloading the Note kernel source to compare.

Do you know if android uses any sound manager?
My worst fear is that we can't play sound thru it.
Getting a USB device to be recognized by the kernel is easy. All I need to do is to build a kernel with that extra module.
Load the module and boom. Kernel should recognize it.
How about Android sets his output to that new device?

-Zage- said:
+1, This would be great if I could use my Fiio E17 on note!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the kind of cake I wanna eat.....
Have your music in one place listen to lowQ when thats enough and highQ when you want that (with a extra box on the side, but the music and control stays in the Note).

I feel like if android natively supported exterior USB audio better. The app potential would be huge for audio out apps and simple 2-8 track recording apps among other things
Galaxy note Paranoid Android 1.7ghz goodness

Always looking to improve sound quality. Thanks for thinking outside the box. Hope it all works out in our favour. Suck it iphones xD.

Dynamano said:
Always looking to improve sound quality. Thanks for thinking outside the box. Hope it all works out in our favour. Suck it iphones xD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst I don't like Apple products at all, audio is the one area that an Android user just hangs his head in shame when someone with iOS shows them what they can do on their iphone or ipad.
I'm hoping Android gets a low latency solution soon, but even then, it will be a long way till Android if close to being on par with iOS for audio apps.

[Q] Nexus 7 USB audio

Any idea if the 7 supports a external DAC out of the box? I am still waiting for USB Support on my Galaxy Nexus - jelly bean on the GN does not natively support it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus runningJelly Belly using xda premium

Questions go in the Q&A section

The Engadget article "Gear4 speaker dock supports USB audio for Jelly Bean at Google I/O 2012 (hands-on video)!" (I'm not able to post links yet) seems to suggest that JB supports USB audio out.

It does not support standard USB DAC out of the box.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 does.
The Nexus 7 only supports Jelly Bean's android proprietary USB audio, which is a situation where the android computer device is USB client and the DAC is USB host.
I am not sure what google was smoking when they came up with that; in which level of hell does it make sense that the computer would be client to a host DAC? Seriously wtf.
Anyway, standard USB DACs operate as USB clients, because that is logical. The Nexus 7 does not support this, as it is important that Google reinvent the wheel.

bradsh1 said:
It does not support standard USB DAC out of the box.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 does.
The Nexus 7 only supports Jelly Bean's android proprietary USB audio, which is a situation where the android computer device is USB client and the DAC is USB host.
I am not sure what google was smoking when they came up with that; in which level of hell does it make sense that the computer would be client to a host DAC? Seriously wtf.
Anyway, standard USB DACs operate as USB clients, because that is logical. The Nexus 7 does not support this, as it is important that Google reinvent the wheel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't Google design it this way so that the device could charged while docked into a USB DAC dock?

bradsh1 said:
It does not support standard USB DAC out of the box.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 does.
The Nexus 7 only supports Jelly Bean's android proprietary USB audio, which is a situation where the android computer device is USB client and the DAC is USB host.
I am not sure what google was smoking when they came up with that; in which level of hell does it make sense that the computer would be client to a host DAC? Seriously wtf.
Anyway, standard USB DACs operate as USB clients, because that is logical. The Nexus 7 does not support this, as it is important that Google reinvent the wheel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, can confirm that neither my E7 or E17 will work with the N7. E7 does work with my S3.

External HD and Earphones Questions

Rather than ask 2 separate questions I'll put both in this.
First off, I'm gonna be getting an external HD to copy my music from my laptop which I'll be selling, I assume the Nexus works fine with an External HD,can someone confirm they use one with the Nexus and there are no problems.
Secondly, my Galaxy S3 earphones don't really fit the Nexus too good and the sound is bad whereas the sound on the S3 is fine, is there a specific type of earphones I need for the Nexus?
Cheers
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Anyone??

I always switch whatever I have to skull candy headphones.... nice bass you can actually feel and great but not excellent jizz yourself kind of good
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

As you said anyone I thought I'd chime in.
1. I used to my N7 with a multitude of external HDs up to 1TB, some requiring external power, some not and its always worked for me until the updating to 4.2 that is, now otg USB mounting has become complex. So as far as my experience goes is as long as you have not updated you should be able to use the HD without issues all you will need is a mounting application like StickMount or USB OTG Helper.
2. I use standard 3.5mm Philips headphones and they seem to work. Sorry not much help I know.

شیرخدا said:
As you said anyone I thought I'd chime in.
1. I used to my N7 with a multitude of external HDs up to 1TB, some requiring external power, some not and its always worked for me until the updating to 4.2 that is, now otg USB mounting has become complex. So as far as my experience goes is as long as you have not updated you should be able to use the HD without issues all you will need is a mounting application like StickMount or USB OTG Helper.
2. I use standard 3.5mm Philips headphones and they seem to work. Sorry not much help I know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate :good:
No plans on updating to thje nightmare that is 4.2, never read so many bad reports about any update as i have this.

Until the 4.2 update has left me with onboard speaker only, I was enjoying my Samsung issued buds despite the insertion effort. J5M JBuds are also a nice fit.

I have CM10 installed on mine and I have used it with a 2TB powered hard drive (formatted as NTFS) as well as a 64GB USB thumb drive (formatted as FAT32). As stated, there are apps that allow mounting USB drives. Or you can flash a custom kernel and/or CM10 to enable it. It doesn't work out of the box though.
I have used a few different headphone sets with mine and not had any issues. If the S3 headphones don't fit well then maybe the connections are not lining up properly inside the plug, which might lead to some funny audio quality I imagine. You might need to buy some new ones.

External hd is fine, but I have noticed some kernels make it go weird with my Seagate external, I assume that's because it's not getting enough power, it will run for a bit then stop then start.
I currently have a set of turtle beach m3 headphones, they're fantastic.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Appreciated folks thanks for the tips :good:

jonny68 said:
Secondly, my Galaxy S3 earphones don't really fit the Nexus too good and the sound is bad whereas the sound on the S3 is fine, is there a specific type of earphones I need for the Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one thing no one has mentioned is that you really have give the headphone jack a good shove to get it seated properly.
That usually fixes headphone/earbud audio issues.
Simeon
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Q] HDMI output from Nexus 7 ? Is it possible at all ?

Hello, I have a Google Nexus 7 tabled and I like it very much. The only flaw I see is the screen colors but for budget tablet is is ok.
I have a question: Does Nexus 7 supports any microUSB to HDMI cable ?
I have read numerous posts in the internet about how Nexus 7 does not support neither HDMI or OTG - but I have a OTG cable and it works great, mice, keyboards, flash drives and even a 1 TB external hard drive work great on the tablet.
So I bought this cable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-1-5ft-1-5...912&pid=100015&prg=1085&rk=1&sd=230893786628&
but after I received it - I can't make anytong to make the cable work.
does anyone have any info on how to make it work or is is a possibility at all to have HDMI output on Nexus 7.
thanks.

As far as I know, n7 doesn't support any kind of HDMI out. As they have labeled that item as for the nexus 7 they are wrong... Correct me if I'm wrong.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Nope, sorry but there is no way. Unless no way known to me...and believe me, I made a very wide research!

[Q] Would Nexus 4 support USB OTG after updating to android 4.3 or 5 ..???

I was wondering if my nexus 4 would support USB OTG(obviously without external power bank) after upgrading to next android version 4.3 or 5 whichever comes out..
What do you people think can it be possible..????

No. It's the hardware. No software can change that.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

El Daddy said:
No. It's the hardware. No software can change that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firmware can.
I'm not familiar with the OTG situation with the Nexus 4, but is it a literal hardware restriction/limitation making it impossible to have powered USB OTG? Or is the code just... non-existent or non-finished?

espionage724 said:
Firmware can.
I'm not familiar with the OTG situation with the Nexus 4, but is it a literal hardware restriction/limitation making it impossible to have powered USB OTG? Or is the code just... non-existent or non-finished?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a hardware limitation. The phone can't detect a usb flashdrive when it's connected with a otg cable because it can't provide enough power to power the USB drive to access it's storage space.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

scream4cheese said:
It's a hardware limitation. The phone can't detect a usb flashdrive when it's connected with a otg cable because it can't provide enough power to power the USB drive to access it's storage space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More power can't be forced? It just seems pretty strange for a USB controller not to be able to power smaller devices like flash drives, especially with this phone (sure I could understand it with some no-name older Samsung phone, but not with the newest flagship Nexus phone).
Although I'm pretty sure this might of been discussed elsewhere in great detail.

espionage724 said:
More power can't be forced? It just seems pretty strange for a USB controller not to be able to power smaller devices like flash drives, especially with this phone (sure I could understand it with some no-name older Samsung phone, but not with the newest flagship Nexus phone).
Although I'm pretty sure this might of been discussed elsewhere in great detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Extra power be forced, just not from the phone itself.
You can read all about it here: (Read the 2nd post)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2181820
More:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38076758#post38076758
More info:
http://www.head4space.com/why-doesnt-nexus-4-support-otg-cables/
http://pocketnow.com/2013/03/25/nexus-4-usb-otg
http://www.androidcentral.com/android-advanced-usb-otg-nexus-4

Power can be forced. zidgey Kernel proves that with power you can do it. Its only a matter of programming to make the phone supply the power. All phone micro USB ports are the same, and if another phone can do it, this phone can.

scream4cheese said:
It's a hardware limitation. The phone can't detect a usb flashdrive when it's connected with a otg cable because it can't provide enough power to power the USB drive to access it's storage space.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
isn't there any way to supply that power through some coding...??

jaed.43725 said:
Power can be forced. zidgey Kernel proves that with power you can do it. Its only a matter of programming to make the phone supply the power. All phone micro USB ports are the same, and if another phone can do it, this phone can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there any development going on right now to supply 5v power from the phone it self.. i've this 4 days old nexus 4 with me and its so frustrating its not supporting OTG while my old GNex did same without breaking a sweat...

Not to sound like a jerk, but did anyone click on the links I posted previously? LOL.
http://www.head4space.com/why-doesnt-nexus-4-support-otg-cables/
Writing/modifying the kernel will enable OTG but you still need a external power source to supply the flash-drive.
Zippey's kernel is modified to enable OTG.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2181820

scream4cheese said:
Not to sound like a jerk, but did anyone click on the links I posted previously? LOL.
http://www.head4space.com/why-doesnt-nexus-4-support-otg-cables/
Writing/modifying the kernel will enable OTG but you still need a external power source to supply the flash-drive.
Zippey's kernel is modified to enable OTG.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2181820
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already using that on my nexus 4 and waiting for my Y cable to arrive...
BUt still i was wondering if there any way to supply that 5v from phone itself... i'm not a great developer but i think it may be possible with some programming.. sorry if i'm bothering you...

prateek80 said:
I'm already using that on my nexus 4 and waiting for my Y cable to arrive...
BUt still i was wondering if there any way to supply that 5v from phone itself... i'm not a great developer but i think it may be possible with some programming.. sorry if i'm bothering you...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh no not at all. LOL. :fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed::good:
So yeah the phone just doesn't have enough power to power an OTG cable. The usb port on the phone has a certain voltage output that is simply not enough to do OTG. Boooooo

Just wondering if anyone tried to make a 3.3v-5v converter with something like the ltc3529. I saw a couple post in the arduino forums about successfully get a 3.3v arduino to supply 5v for usb host.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

i thought the phone support USB OTG and so i ordered 8gb model and now i'm stuck with this 5gb usable memory...

prateek80 said:
i thought the phone support USB OTG and so i ordered 8gb model and now i'm stuck with this 5gb usable memory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well there's always cloud storage. Next time do some research before buying anything. :thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

scream4cheese said:
Well there's always cloud storage. Next time do some research before buying anything. :thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont think there is any way i could store my games on cloud... and also i own a GNex and it is capable of OTG so i never thought nexus 4 wont have that...
i bought this one just because of games and now i'm left 5 gb that means how much.. 3 games...??

prateek80 said:
i dont think there is any way i could store my games on cloud... and also i own a GNex and it is capable of OTG so i never thought nexus 4 wont have that...
i bought this one just because of games and now i'm left 5 gb that means how much.. 3 games...??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL.
It depends on the size of the game file. Hopefully the next Nexus smartphone will have OTG. :thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Android 4.3 Stock rooted nexus 4 to USB OTG
I had stock Android 4.3 and wanted to get USB OTG to have more space using powered USB.
I first downloaded and installed Nexus root toolkit 1.6.6 and Unlocked the boot loader and then rooted the phone (pre -requisites for loading ziddey-otg-r165-07291101. zip)
All went well.
I am at Android 4.3 and rooted and then I went to recovery (TWRP) and then selected Install and selected the .zip that I downloaded from XDA.
Boom!
I tried to reboot the phone and ever since stuck in the start up screen just displaying the google icon for nearly 15 minutes. Did i just manage to brick my phone? Please help!
Also I am currently using the same toolkit to re-install factory stock Nexus 4 Android 4.3
Will the ziddey-otg-r165-07291101.zip not work at android 4.3? Please help any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Sandy

ifyoucare said:
I had stock Android 4.3 and wanted to get USB OTG to have more space using powered USB.
I first downloaded and installed Nexus root toolkit 1.6.6 and Unlocked the boot loader and then rooted the phone (pre -requisites for loading ziddey-otg-r165-07291101. zip)
All went well.
I am at Android 4.3 and rooted and then I went to recovery (TWRP) and then selected Install and selected the .zip that I downloaded from XDA.
Boom!
I tried to reboot the phone and ever since stuck in the start up screen just displaying the google icon for nearly 15 minutes. Did i just manage to brick my phone? Please help!
Also I am currently using the same toolkit to re-install factory stock Nexus 4 Android 4.3
Will the ziddey-otg-r165-07291101.zip not work at android 4.3? Please help any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Sandy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup it wont... atleast for now, wait for cm 10.2 after that we may get it working on 4.3... please read the first page before flashing anything unless you want to brick your phone...:good:

with increasing popularity of 3D printers and electronics skills, it would be nice if somebody could create a low profile device that attaches to USB port and internally has a rechargable battery with DC-DC converter to scale up to 5V and has all the wiring to connect a microSD. I know I would buy it.