USB Peripherals

[SerenityNetworks]

I'd like to confirm my understanding regarding USB Peripherals.

I was intending to post a question on connecting USP Peripherals to my Motorola Droid; things like printers, webcams, keyboards, hard drives, etc.

I searched and found this post on USB Host that I interpret as 'it is not currently possible'. Or am I wrong and someone has developed a USB Host application that allows connecting USB peripherals?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

 

[wmtoandroid]

I'd like to confirm my understanding regarding USB Peripherals.

I was intending to post a question on connecting USP Peripherals to my Motorola Droid; things like printers, webcams, keyboards, hard drives, etc.

I searched and found this post on USB Host that I interpret as 'it is not currently possible'. Or am I wrong and someone has developed a USB Host application that allows connecting USB peripherals?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

The problem I see is that peripheral manufacturers have to be on board with the idea as well to develop drivers to work with Android.

Even when running a major os like Windows, you still need drivers for printers, scanners, etc. to work and I don't see this happening for android anytime soon.

 

[SerenityNetworks]

I would have thought as Android is a trimmed version of Linux that all the Linux drivers out there would work with Android. But then again, I'm not a developer.

Isn't there anything in the way of external peripheral support that has been developed for Android?

 

[wmtoandroid]

I would have thought as Android is a trimmed version of Linux that all the Linux drivers out there would work with Android. But then again, I'm not a developer.

Including "computer peripheral" drivers would inflate the size of Android considerably. That wouldn't be a good idea in order to accommodate a very small user base.

 

[SerenityNetworks]

I guess it must be more involved than I'm aware, else someone would be doing it.

But that still leaves my basic question; are there peripherals available? Maybe I'm missing it, but I'm not even seeing external keyboards available. Even my ancient Palm and Windows CE PDAs supported external keyboards. A decent external keyboard would allow me to use my Droid on planes in place of digging out the laptop.

 

[wmtoandroid]

I guess it must be more involved than I'm aware, else someone would be doing it.

But that still leaves my basic question; are there peripherals available? Maybe I'm missing it, but I'm not even seeing external keyboards available. Even my ancient Palm and Windows CE PDAs supported external keyboards. A decent external keyboard would allow me to use my Droid on planes in place of digging out the laptop.

As far as I'm aware, you should be able to find bluetooth peripherals designed for small devices, and those may have Android drivers (perhaps only for specific phone models though).

 

[SerenityNetworks]

I did find this post regarding using USB peripherals with the Droid. I probably won't have the time to pursue it anytime soon, but it looks promising. Who knows, I might even be able to hook up a web cam and use Skype for video chats.

I also found this advertisement for a BT keyboard. It seems to be a modern out-of-box solution, versus hacks to use obsolete keyboards.

 

[wmtoandroid]

I did find this post regarding using USB peripherals with the Droid. I probably won't have the time to pursue it anytime soon, but it looks promising. Who knows, I might even be able to hook up a web cam and use Skype for video chats.

I also found this advertisement for a BT keyboard. It seems to be a modern out-of-box solution, versus hacks to use obsolete keyboards.

I would always go with a commercial solution from a reputable company vs. a hack if you require a reliable option.