Keyboards & other stuff in the USB?

[Netjerenbau]

Hi all. I've been looking around to see just what we can plug into the USB port if we have the right cable and all I've managed to find is mentions of SD cards.
I was wondering, would a USB keyboard work? I don't really want to get a wireless one as the battery would be flat, I'd use it so infrequently.

What about anything else? Surely somebody's tried something other than an SD card in there?

 

[NeoGrandizer]

I'm too lazy now, so I'll just repost what I posted in the Note 2 forums...

Just an update. The Note 10.1 will not recognize partitions on a single drive. So that experiment failed. It will only recognize the first partition.

On an interesting note, the external HDD can be powered by an external battery with a special USB data+power split cable. I used an external 5000mAh battery and was able to hook it up without any issues. No need to look for a wall outlet plug now. I can hook up using a USB hub with keyboard and HDD without a power adapter. I don't know how long the 5000mAh battery will last in this particular situation, but at least that seems to be a mobile option provided it can last.

Since the 10.1 was able to work with the external HDD with an external battery supply, I thought the Note 2 would be more than able to handle it as well. I WAS WRONG. The Note 2 will pop a device error hdd corrupt needs reformat message. It would also crash the Note 2's USB driver at times and require a reboot.

Unfortunately, the Note 2 will require a power supply plugged into an outlet to work. The external battery trick will not work with the Note 2. Although, I'm not sure if a higher mAh battery would have handled it better. I am using a 5000mAh external battery with the external HDD.

Though, if that was the case, I would have expected a high powered device error and not a corrupt drive error. So it looks like it won't play nice with an external battery powering an external HDD.

Another side note, I plugged in a powered 7-port USB hub. I was only able to get a mouse, keyboard and 3 USB sticks to work at the same time. It failed upon inserting a fourth USB stick. It would exhibit strange inconsistent behaviour when the fourth stick is placed in. In the extreme case, it hard crashed the Note 2 which required a press and hold of 8 secs on the power button. The Note 10.1 on the other hand handled it all pretty well.

I'll probably play around with the powered hub later on just for the heck of it. Just curious as to what the Note 2 is capable of. Definitely not as strong as the Note 10.1, that's for certain. Maybe Sammy was a little more stringent with regulating power draw/drain on the Note 2. I have a wired xbox 360 controller I'm dying to see work with keyboard and mouse. LOL.

HTH

 

[Scooter04]

I have an old usb mouse for a laptop that works with the 10.1 note. Also have a logitech k400 keyboard/touch pad that I use for a smart tv and it works with the 10.1 note. Both of them are usb, plugged them in and they worked. Haven'tried anything else. Keyboard is handy if you know you are going to type a lot and are use to a traditional keyboard.

Edit-I also use usb memory stick to move around files from time to time or even just to backup some folders on my tablet.

 

[NeoGrandizer]

Edit-I also use usb memory stick to move around files from time to time or even just to backup some folders on my tablet.

Plenty of things you can do with it. Especially when connected with a USB hub.

 

[Netjerenbau]

Plenty of things you can do with it. Especially when connected with a USB hub.

Evidently. Thanks, both of you.
It's the keyboard I was mainly interested in but the USB stick trick will be handy too.