Is there a way of discovering the full USB tree from within an Android Application? The current USB Host API only provides a list of all the devices and their endpoints. I need to be able to associate the device with a particular port on the USB hub. In Windows I can see what port number each devices is on.
It appears that the Android OS masks the hub from view.
I thought about trying to access Linux through JNI, however, the app at the commentary at:
https://github.com/alt236/USB-Device-Info---Android, suggests that it doesn't appear in Linux too.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
You can just walk the hardware tree. For instance, on my Nook it's /sys/devices/platform/musb_hdrc/usb1. Here's a screenshot of my app.
Related
I have a beaglebone-black/raspberry-pi that is running a basic command line linux system. I am currently operating the board with a keyboard (usb) an an lcd screen (hdmi). Now I want to control the board with my android smartphone through a usb cable instead of keyboard and screen.
Example. There is an application on my android phone say Linux Terminal. That application sends command strings to the terminal running on board, receives the output and displays it.
I can develop android applications and I am also very fluent with C and linux but I am not very good with interfaces (usb) and drivers etc. I have never used a driver in programming.
I wanted to ask is it even possible. If so, is there any existing tool that can do this. If no such tool exists , then give me a brief outline of the whole process (which drivers to use etc).
I think this is what you are looking for:
Termius
JuiceSSH or
Connectbot
There is also a documentation for Termius:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ssh/android.md
Best regards,
Ben
Device : Google Nexus 5 (Un-rooted)
Host Machine : Window 7
I want to Access Android Device as a Modem (using COM or Modem Port) and eventually pass AT Commands using HyperTerminal/Teraterm.
So after connecting the device to a Windows Box, The Device gets detected under Device Manager, but doesn't show any COM Port (other than the default COM0).
On right click and update driver, It shows it cannot find drivers.
I have tried the following options, but no luck with any.
Tried this on a rooted Nexus 5, but doesn't expose which /dev/smdX to use. Tried all combinations, didn't work.
Tried the Google USB Drivers from the Google Android's Website. No changes.
From here. I Installed drivers from LG Electronics, No changes in COM Port.
Universal Naked Driver helped me get to ADB Shell interface, but
thats not what I want.
In all of the Above procedure USB Debugging was enabled (Just saying).
I also heard the phone has to put into Modem mode to fire AT Commands.
If so, How do I do that ?
Or Is this a device driver Issue ?
Conclusion:
I want to access the Modem of the Android Device and fire AT Commands to it.
Could you please tell what am I missing ?
Any help on this would be really appreciated.
It's difficult to give an exact answer to this question, because it depends on how the manufacturer has implemented the device drivers. Unfortunately, there is a lot of information that isn't in the public domain.
It is possible, that the manufacturer has implemented some code to convert the device to a modem. Doing this yourself is device-specific, and proprietary. You might be able to get hold of a converter, for example bundled with the manufacturer's dashboard application for the PC, if such a thing exists.
Some devices don't expose the modem port at all. They may be visible as a network adapter, or as an always-connected LAN connection. If the device is visible as a network adapter, then you can access it via Windows Mobile Broadband API, or via MBIM for some newer devices.
To check if the device is visible as a network adapter, and get information about it, open a cmd box and type
netsh mbn show interfaces
Windows Mobile Broadband API doesn't give as many details as a good AT command set, but performs basically the same functions. MBIM is an industry standard interface with similar functionality, available on the Windows 8+ desktop via the Mobile Broadband DeviceServices API, for devices that support it.
If the device shows as an always-on LAN connection, there is probably a proprietary, high level interface for mobile functionality.
Driver behaviour can differ for different operating systems. If you have the chance to try the device on Windows Vista, 7 and 8, you may see different behaviour.
I'm a newbie to the Android development world but have some experience with embedded systems.
I'd like to use an Android phone (4.x or higher) to control other devices via its USB port. We want to set the Android device as a USB host, so solutions where other devices play the host role (e.g. Android Open Accessory Development Kit's Arduino) will not meet our goal.
We are currently using Eclipse-SDK for Android development and successfully have compiled/run/debug several apps. However, I have a very naive question. I was wondering if there is a way one could use the USB port of the development host PC as an input to the Android Virtual Device emulator.
I realize that an easier way to debug the USB-host apps we are writing would be by having a real device. However, the price of the new Ice Cream Sandwich devices is somehow far away from our reach and not the ideal way for debugging an application at its early stages.
I appreciate any help you can provide me with.
The Android Open Accessory Dev kit has been backported to 2.3.4 see here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html
So install CM7 or earlier (http://www.cyanogenmod.com/) on your HTC desire and you should be good to go!
Look at the example projects for the 2.3 SDK should help get you going in the right direction.
Path to SDK Samples for me was C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\samples
If your looking for USB Host Support basically control and talk to another usb device such as mouse, keyboard, usb thumb drive etc the following should help.
Nexus One as USB Host: http://sven.killig.de/android/N1/2.2/usb_host/
USB Host: External USB devices to Android phones?
Official Android SKD UsbDevice Class: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/UsbDevice.html
You should take a look at this project, its a great reference
https://code.google.com/p/mover-bot/
Does anyone know how to configure an Android device (tablet) to appear as a USB HID device when connected to a PC?
Is there any other way of getting data from the tablet to the PC (via USB) other than writing it to a file, and have the PC retrieve the (updated) file from the tablet which is acting as a 'mass storage device' for the PC?
Can USB carry a TCP/IP end-end connection?
Using a tablet as a high-end intelligent 'keyboard' or 'mouse' or similar device would be immensely powerful, and open up lots of possibilities. Controlling a model railway layout is the end I have in mind.
Thanks
It's possible to do this using the linux gadget framework http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/ using a custom composite USB device. The gadget framework is part of the Android kernel source tree by inheritance from Linux.
Unfortunately, Android has its own customizations that restrict the ability to dynamically register new USB gadgets so you will need to patch the kernel source tree for your particular device and add your HID gadget (otherwise you could create a module and load it that way) to the supported Android list.
I have done this before and will update this answer to contain more detail if there is interest. Unfortunately I lost the code so I will have to start from scratch.
If I set up a web server on my phone and enable usb tethering, I can access that server from my PC. If that's not enough for you, this might help: https://market.android.com/details?id=usbwebcam.application&hl=en
I'm running cyanogenmod on a Desire CDMA (BravoC)
Let me know what you find out; it would be pretty handy to use my phone as a USB keyboard in the field. An android server with a PC client is gonna be easiest though.
Have a look at Android Open Accessory Protocol 2.0. This could help you out.
Is it possible to access the USB port on Android phones? (Droid X for example)
Here is my usage case:
Have a USB device attached to the Android phone. The phone listens for data on this USB device. (The USB device is connected to a USB->RS-232 converter that has I/O attached to it)
This would be slick if possible. Does anyone know if this is possible?
Would be slick, yup. Not possible though. There's a feature request for it: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738
Actually it is possible on a lot of the phones if you are able to install a new kernel with a USB host driver and rig up a custom cabling scheme to provide usb bus power to the device as the phone won't. A few phones even shipped with this capability already live.
I don't know if the Droid X specifically ships with this already, can have it added (if you are able to flash kernels), could have it added but no one has written the host driver yet, or is missing the hardware capability.
You also would need to enable the appropriate usb serial converter device driver (identified by experimenting with the device on a desktop linux box), but that's probably already in the kernel sources and just needs to be selected in the config. You may also need to create a device file for the /dev/ttyUSB0 or whatever and give it permissions appropriate to the application that wants to access it. (This requires root, but if you can reflash the kernel, you can get root)
If you want to pursue this, search the android kernel google group for posts about USB host mode.
One serious downside to putting the USB into host mode is that you loose the adb interface into the phone, which makes working on your projects hard. You'll probably need to either build an adapter for the low voltage debug serial port if there is one (as on G1, mytouch, etc) so you can get a console shell (or just use that instead of USB to talk to your peripheral) or at a minimum set up an ssh and sftp server on the wifi.
Since you want serial anyway, another option people have used is to get a bluetooth-to-serial module from an outfit such as sparkfun.
A bluetooth to serial adapter might solv your problems.
You can find one at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/582. Boards from other companies are also available for example on ebay.