How to generate a video signal from Android device via USB? - android

Is it possible to create an application for Android, which can generate a video signal (HDMI or VGA) via USB?
Any Android device has miniUSB port. Theoretically it's possible to create a small commutator device on microcontroller or microscheme, which will be a USB-host for Android device. You'll connect Android device with commutator and then connect commutator with monitor.
For example, the scheme looks like: Android phone -> commutator (USB-host) -> TV/Monitor.
Summary, I need to connect android phone with TV via miniUSB port. I found soft which can use miniUSB -> HDMI cable, but those apps only for Motorolla Droid and HTC Evo.
I'll glad to get links to existing apps or projects on that theme, to info about software generation HDMI-signal and connecting Android devices with another devices.
Thank you and sorry for my bad english!

Not much chance of that working out: lacking an appropriate converter chip there is no way you will be able to generate an HDMI or DVI signal using only the 4 pins on a standard USB or mini-USB port. You will need to look into building a converter box that does the right thing: something like http://wiki.chumby.com/index.php/What_is_NeTV.

Those cables are not doing 'HDMI' generation - basically, some phones use the extended standard which has more than just USB in the socket.
Specifically, OMAP3/OMAP4 based phones (Droid, Evo) have an onboard HDMI/DVI chip - the cable just breaks out the pins.
I'd look at Open Accessory Development Kit for inspirations about what can be done in hardware.

Related

Connect external hardware to android tablet

Im developing an application for a manufacturing plant. They want to connect a scale, printer and meter counter to an android tablet.
They use rs232 ports.
Im planning on using the galaxy view tablets that have a Micro Usb port, then hook that up to usb hub and then use a rs232 converter.
My question is will this be able to communicate to the tablet? At least show the raw values and will it know its 3 separate pieces of hardware?
I have a similar problem but only part of your problem here:
Connecting external hardware to Android Phone
You need to ask those hardware manufacturer to send you the Android driver to include in your Android app. It will run on some phone but may not work on all phone. Most software developer will refuse to provide support for Android as there are so many manufacturers and possibly compliance issue. Your best bet will be to ask the hardware manufacturer which phone/tablet they have tested the device on. In any case you still need a hardware driver like the one for windows.

Android ADK bluetooth device compatibility

I am trying to get started with Android ADK.
My goal is to connect Arduino UNO + blue-tooth and Android devices via blue-tooth.
I discovered that ADK needs Linux kernel 2.6.35+ which is used for Android 2.3.4 to allow communication via USB.
So it's clear that all devices should support this requirement for USB communication.
But what about blue-tooth? Does it mean that the same rules applies to blue-tooth interaction?
Is it possible to establish connection and data exchange with device for instance with Android 2.1 (API level 7).
So, any explanations are warmly appreciated
UPDATE#1
My primary goal is to connect Android 2.1 device with Arduino via blue-tooth.
My first thoughts were that I should use ADK but I discovered that at least for USB it depends on linux kernel version.
But I think it still may be possible to use blue-tooth instead of USB and possibly I may still use ADK, if not how can I connect Arduino with android via blue-tooth without ADK.
Well.. Not sure I understand your problem exactly but I try to give you the best possible answer I can.
There is no relationship between ADK and Bluetooth. You need ADK if you use a USB cable to connect your ADK compatible development board with your Android mobile. The USB compatible board or the ADK shield contains a USB peripheral controller so it can control the USB devices through cable.
In your case you don't need any physical connection between your Arduino and the android device so it is a matter of Bluetooth connectivity. You just have to use a cheap Bluetooth Module with your mobile (Not needs to be an Android anyway).
Now you have to connect the Bluetooth module with your Arduino. Now you have two Bluetooth enabled equipment so you are ready to communicate. I found some good tutorials on web that you can use as a starting point.
How to control Arduino over bluetooth
Arduino Android Bluetooth Communication
Let me know if you need further clarification.
Bluetooth functionality seems to have been a part of the Android APIs since level 5. Thus Android 2.1 should work just fine!

controlling Embedded system from MOBILE. ANDROID or iOS? suggestions and explanations please

As a part of feasibly study. I need to choose between Android or iOS for integrating it with an embedded system.
Basically, that embedded system will have an AVR or a PIC Microcontroller. I want to establish a communication between a mobile and that particular system.
Need some wireless technology for communication (bluetooth,wifi,internet etc..)
Micro Controllers have communication ports like UART, USART etc..
It really depends on the kind of communication you need.
I particular, if you have a normal WIFI connection and your controller can work with receiving & sending your data via wifi, you may go iOS or Android.
If however you need some kind of free format serial communication, you need to go Android, serial cable via USB.
recarding other factors, I guess it really is just a personal taste issue.
Could you give more info on how & what needs to be communicated and what kind of communication device you have between your phone and the device itself.
Not sure if this is similar to what you have in minde, but you might look at this: http://www.arduino.cc/ being probably the best known example in this context.
Using some serial to bluetooth module would be the most easier to implement.
I would go with Android unless your target audience are photographers. Seriously. Also, with iOS you need to be careful. For instance you want to use BlueTooth, but not all iOS devices will connect to, say, the Bluetooth protocol for a keyboard. (Ah! You didn't know there were more then one Bluetooth protocol did you?) And I don't think any iOS device will let you connect using the Bluetooth serial port protocol.
With Android you can jump in and start flying immediately by using the (or a copy of) the PIC 24F based IOIO board. And if you are an Android / Eclipse developer (I think) you can down load and use the IOIO JAVA / Android libraries. I have been told this makes programming the IOIO board just about as easy as programming an Arduino. Especially if you are well versed in JAVA, Android and the Eclipse editor. Add to this the IOIO board can be a host to the Android (i.e. connected by wired USB) or host to some Bluetooth modules (i.e. connect to the Andoid's bluetooth radio).
If you don't want to go it along you can buy the Microchip Android Development Kit (ADK) board which is also a PIC 24F based "USB wired" using AOA protocol to connect to an Android. I say "not going it alone" as I would expect you can then get limited support from Microchip w.r.t. their hardware (the ADK board), software (Android) and firmware (PIC ADk board). This solution, however, does not have built in Bluetooth support. I am guessing you can add it, it's just not part of the ADK software/firmware that Microchip put together.

How to get raw data from serial port device into android tablet

I have a android tablet, i need to read raw data from any device(which supports rs 232) into my android tablet and display it in a rich text box inside my app. My android device should act as the host.
Thanks
http://blog.350nice.com/wp/
managed to run the ADK in an Arduino with a USB Host Shield controlling a servo or LED
im posting some good links u can refer..i personally found interesting..
http://code.google.com/p/android-serialport-api/wiki/android_to_rs232_guideline
http://sven.killig.de/android/N1/2.2/usb_host/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/google-announces-android-open-accessory-standard-arduino-based/
http://www.arduino.cc/
http://blog.makezine.com/2011/06/19/adventures-in-android-adk-development-hardware/
You need to get "FlexSerial" cable., getting the Tab to communicate with the RS232 cables in the right way may be tricky. The flex serial cable is certainly a start but the function you are looking for is probably very specific to the device you want to control so finding the right Android app will not be easy. Just out of curiousity, what device is it?

How to communicate with a USB device from Android tablet?

From a year ago, Is there a way to communicate with USB devices on Android? this didn't look like a common requirement, but tablets have evolved, and hopefully, the OS has, as well.
I need to operate a simple USB relay card from my Curtis LT8025 tablet, currently running 2.1 patched.
I'm also a newcomer to both Android and java, so relatively clueless!
No need for bi-directional communication, just a simple serial command out to the device.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Dave
Sadly, there is currently no standard API to achieve wired communication with Android devices. I was facing a similar issue a while back (see Android: Communicating with a USB device which acts as host ).
I was able to successfully implement the solution provided by CommonsWare. Leave a comment if you need more help regarding this and I can provide details.
Edit (more details) -
Basically, I narrowed down to two possible solutions for this problem:
Modify the Android source itself to include custom drivers for whatever purpose you need and install this in your tablet. Since its mostly based on Linux, if you develop the drivers for Linux, the same can be used in Android with a little modification. This solution is simpler to develop, but not practical commercially if you are not providing the tablet/phone yourself.
Make your USB device act as an host and implement the ADB driver/command-set in your device. When connected, you can issue "adb forward" to forward tcp ports so you can interact with your Android apps and have two way communication between the device and the app.
I used the second method and it works flawlessly. But its only practical if you are making USB host devices. for USB slaves, first method is the only way I recon.
If you are using a serial device and have the ability to talk to it over native serial, you might want to consider IOIO (see http://ytai-mer.blogspot.com/2011/04/meet-ioio-io-for-android.html for more details).
I'm building an Android custom system. I did connect several devices on the USB. I looked to connect a device on the OTG port, the one that usually gets out of a tablet on which you use ADB. I gave up. This is a nightmare. I don't think you can use ADB on the OTG USB that is currently a device and expect to be able to use another device like a USB to serial converter. That means that you loose the whole ADB toolchain for debugging when you want to use the port as a host. On top of that, the USB OTG drivers you have for your tablet was probably not very well tested in host mode since it's not really used that way. So lots of headakes.
The simple way that I found was to use the second USB port on the CPU. This one is a plain HOST port (unfortunately limited to 12 Mbit/s). Unfortunately, I don't know if there are any tablet out there with 2 USB port available from outside (One OTG and one host).
If you get a set-up with two USB port (one HOST) then it's possible to compile as a module (drivername.ko), a usb to serial converter. There are several chipset supported in the kernel source tree and I already used a few of them and it works.
hope this bit of info is helpful.

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