USB-serial connection, Android phone/tablet to micro-controller.
heater
Posts: 3,370
Sorry if I'm guilty of cross posting but I'd like tackle a little problem common to all micro-controller users who might like to interact with their projects from a mobile phone/tablet. I have post a very similar message on a thread in the Propeller forum. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=923042
Please tell Google you want to be able to easily connect your Android phone/tablet to your micro-controller projects via USB.
The Problem:
It would be very useful to be able to use a simple USB/serial link to enable communication between an Android mobile phone or tablet and a BASIC Stamp or any other micro-controller. There are a million uses for such a thing as discussed earlier in this thread (on Prop forum). Of particular interest on these forums might be robot control and enabling robot connection to the internet.
Problem is an out of the box Android phone/tablet does not support USB HOST mode. Put simply that means it is not possible to use, for example, USB/serial cable to talk to your BASIC Stamp/Propeller or such project. You cannot connect any USB device to the Android phone as you would connect them to a PC. Given that a typical Android phone is a more powerful computer than the average PC was a few years back it's crazy that you cannot even connect a USB keyboard, mouse or memory stick to it.
The solution:
Google maintains an issue tracking system for the Android OS. Here anyone can report bugs or suggest enhancements.
It just so happens that there is an open issue where USB HOST mode has been requested as an enhancement.
Issue number 738.
Now on this issue tracking system you can also hit a button to vote for an issue and add a "star" to it, thus hopefully pushing it's priority up in the eyes of the Android developers. So far the USB HOST issue has collected 1420 votes making it the 4th most voted for issue !
How can you help
Simply vote for the issue.
1) Go to this page code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738&sort=-stars&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
2) Way down the bottom you will find a button with a "star" and title "Vote for this issue and get email change notifications"
3) Hit that button. That's it.
4) Optionally add a comment describing why you would like to link USB/serial devices to your Android.
5) Optionally go to this page code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?cursor=1865&sort=-stars where you can check how well the issue is doing.
Now that we have 20000 members of the Parallax forums we only need a few of us to get this to top priority for Goggle [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Thank you all.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
For me, the past is not over yet.
Please tell Google you want to be able to easily connect your Android phone/tablet to your micro-controller projects via USB.
The Problem:
It would be very useful to be able to use a simple USB/serial link to enable communication between an Android mobile phone or tablet and a BASIC Stamp or any other micro-controller. There are a million uses for such a thing as discussed earlier in this thread (on Prop forum). Of particular interest on these forums might be robot control and enabling robot connection to the internet.
Problem is an out of the box Android phone/tablet does not support USB HOST mode. Put simply that means it is not possible to use, for example, USB/serial cable to talk to your BASIC Stamp/Propeller or such project. You cannot connect any USB device to the Android phone as you would connect them to a PC. Given that a typical Android phone is a more powerful computer than the average PC was a few years back it's crazy that you cannot even connect a USB keyboard, mouse or memory stick to it.
The solution:
Google maintains an issue tracking system for the Android OS. Here anyone can report bugs or suggest enhancements.
It just so happens that there is an open issue where USB HOST mode has been requested as an enhancement.
Issue number 738.
Now on this issue tracking system you can also hit a button to vote for an issue and add a "star" to it, thus hopefully pushing it's priority up in the eyes of the Android developers. So far the USB HOST issue has collected 1420 votes making it the 4th most voted for issue !
How can you help
Simply vote for the issue.
1) Go to this page code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=738&sort=-stars&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars
2) Way down the bottom you will find a button with a "star" and title "Vote for this issue and get email change notifications"
3) Hit that button. That's it.
4) Optionally add a comment describing why you would like to link USB/serial devices to your Android.
5) Optionally go to this page code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?cursor=1865&sort=-stars where you can check how well the issue is doing.
Now that we have 20000 members of the Parallax forums we only need a few of us to get this to top priority for Goggle [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Thank you all.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
For me, the past is not over yet.
Comments
Hello!
For those of us, one wearing an odd looking suit, that's not a problem. To even own a properly configured phone who beeps like R2D2, you need one.:smilewinkgrin:
I've had one since they were offering one, the Google Mail account came about when they were still in Beta, and a friend did the invitational method.:jumpin:
Now about his idea, it was first developed for a certain platform that thinks its easy to use, when in reality, its nearly impossible to properly use unless the user understands two languages.
Therefore using that idea, on either the Stamp, or on a Prop board makes excellent sense.