How to transfer data between Android phone and PC via USB?
As far as I know there is USB Host/Accessory support for Android devices, but will that work for Windows/Linux?
You can also use Sockets. For that you need forward packets via ADB, so how to connect Android app to both Windows and Linux PC?
Is there a way how to make this communication platform independent?
I have to communicate from tablet to PC using USB. I have studied about using TCP and abd but i have to do with the Serial port. I am even not sure is that possible or not. So please guide me through what is the way to achieve this. Any help is appreciated.
You can use a USB to UART bridge device to do this, but the caveat is that your tablet device will need a driver to do so. Your tag shows you are using Android, which is based on the Linux kernel. Linux already supports plenty of USB to UART bridge devices natively, so once you choose one you can go through the steps of building in the driver to your Android image and probably perform a make menuconfig and add in support for your driver that way.
Communication to the PC on the other side of the bridge can be through a standard RS232 serial port (if available), or you can use USB to UART bridge on the other side as well.
So i need to connect Android device with this.
The robot is running an API command interpreter on the USB port. Connection to the robot is made through a USB cable. The driver converts the USB port connection to a Com port connection.
I have htc hero with android 2.3.4 on board. But i can buy 4.0 tablet if i have to.
I have found the tutorial that covers the Serial library. This library allows you to connect with other Bluetooth devices using virtual serial ports (RFCOMM). I want to do the same thing but using usb connection.
Also i have found API to connect, read and write data through theses serial ports, but i don't think i really need this.
I'm in the begging of the development, so any help would be appreciated. I'm looking for some library or code sample that allows me to use virtual com port on android. something like this.
edited:
found something here not sure if it will help.
I want to develop on an unrooted android tablet that has both an OTG and Host USB. The Android Version is 2.3.0 so there are no Java api's to write directly to the USB host. The android device has to be attached to a computer using the OTG port so I need to connect the android host port to hardware I am designing (FTDI V2 in USB device mode). It seems the only way to communicate is using the adb to send commands from the Android tablet host port to my hardware slave port. My question is, is it possible to use the adb to communicate over the Android tablet host port, or will the adb only work on the Android tablets OTG USB port?
Any assistance appreciated....
David
You can connect to ADB on an Android device via WiFi. This would free up the OTG port.
See https://market.android.com/details?id=siir.es.adbWireless&hl=en
If u have a rooted device u can run the Linux binary with proper ownership, permission, and mode provisioning to the executable. Then you'd just hook up the OTG and use it as a client host. BE SURE ADBD IS RUNNING on server/target device.
You cannot use the OTG on the server side (target device) since the OTG represents the Host Control Interface and is specificly backwards to what you have set up...at least, that's the way it sounded.
In short, reverse the ports (if same type) to put OTG & HCI on the client side.
I am working on this Android application that needs to communicate over USB. I have an Archos 101 Tablet (specifications here: http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?country=us&lang=en). It has a full USB host port. I can put a flash USB drive in the USB port and copy files to and from the flash drive onto internal storage.
I have this Arduino Fio board, with an XBee attached to it. I have an XBee Explorer Dongle with another XBee that I plan to hook into the Archos 101 tablet into the USB port.
As of right now, I can put the XBee Explorer Dongle into my computer and send/receive data to and from the Arduino Fio, no problems.
Is there a way for Android to talk over USB? I know there has to be drivers somewhere in the tablet allowing USB communication, but I cannot find a way to access them or use them.
I can see Android recognizing the XBee Explorer Dongle. I downloaded a terminal emulator, and I can type "dmesg" and see that it sees the dongle hooked up. But I cannot do anything with it.
I seem to need a FTDI driver for Android.
I would greatly appreciate any help in getting my tablet to communicate with the XBee Explorer Dongle.
If you have root and can hack your kernel, FTDI offers its D2XX driver for Android OS. Check its website, please.
If your Android device is 3.1+, you should be able to use Android USB host to talk with Arduino. However, I met some issues on this.
If you have ADK/UHS at hand, your Arduino can act as USB host and talk to Android USB device. Even in same hardware, if your Android OS is quite old like 1.5/1.6, you have to use ADB interface rather than ADK (Accessory Developer Kit) protocol.
If you have Bluetooth, you can write your own Bluetooth SPP in your app.
If you can handle WiFi, you can write app to communication with socket, or via latest WiFi direct mode in Android.
Communication is various. However, it depends your hardware.
There is a solution by Inopiaaardbei using Arduino and a USB host shield with an Android Debug Bridge running on Arduino.
Using this solution you can use serial communication between the Android phone and the Arduino board.
See my post and the link inside for more info.
You can use an android adk or the android ioio connected to an xbee module as I did in this article. I have published the code on my github and another guy is going to implement the gui currently.
USB is not easy to programm, and it would be much easier with ethernet or rs232. However, if you insist, then take a look at V-USB (SW USB), LUFA (HW USB) and Lufaduino (HW USB). If Android has USB CDC drivers already embedded then it could be the easiest path for you if you implement it in AVR too. Slow, cheap and software only AVR USB CDC implementation is here.