External USB Devices

[Guest forforum]

I used the V9 driver but in the end I removed all the differences so it ended up to be identical to the Blade driver. Not sure why you lost peripheral mode.

I did more testing and found that host mode only starts intermittently with your latest built. Do you have this problem?

I went back to my Blade driver kernel built and confirmed that I lost peripheral mode. I rebuilt the kernel with your config file and refreshed. This time, I got my peripheral mode back, as expected. And the bonus is that host mode now works all the time. I am happy with that now.

Do you if the V9 micro USB port hardware allows current to run both directions (charging and supplying power to devices)? I've started to compare USB related drivers between the V9 and S7 to see if I can spot how the S7 does it. But, if it is not possible hardware-wise, I am wasting my time.

[Guest kallt_kaffe]

I did more testing and found that host mode only starts intermittently with your latest built. Do you have this problem?

I went back to my Blade driver kernel built and confirmed that I lost peripheral mode. I rebuilt the kernel with your config file and refreshed. This time, I got my peripheral mode back, as expected. And the bonus is that host mode now works all the time. I am happy with that now.

Strange. My msm72k_otg.c is identical to the Blade version. However I did actually remove one line /drivers/usb/gadget/Kconfig while trying to fix, what I thought was, syspend issues. I'll try to revert that change.

Not sure if host mode stats only intermittent or not but it almost never works unless I removed the power to the HUB first and reinsert it after attaching it to the tablet.

Do you if the V9 micro USB port hardware allows current to run both directions (charging and supplying power to devices)? I've started to compare USB related drivers between the V9 and S7 to see if I can spot how the S7 does it. But, if it is not possible hardware-wise, I am wasting my time.

I honestly don't know. Where can I find the S7 kernel source? I'd like to investigate this too.

[Guest forforum]

Strange. My msm72k_otg.c is identical to the Blade version. However I did actually remove one line /drivers/usb/gadget/Kconfig while trying to fix, what I thought was, syspend issues. I'll try to revert that change.

Not sure if host mode stats only intermittent or not but it almost never works unless I removed the power to the HUB first and reinsert it after attaching it to the tablet.

I honestly don't know. Where can I find the S7 kernel source? I'd like to investigate this too.

Here is my working kernel, you can try to see if it fixes the power sequence problem. It work perfectly for me now.

Here is the link to the S7 kernel source.

Also, just like to confirm that the automount feature you added only works when the USB stick is plugged in prior to power on the V9.

[Guest boutsism]

could u please tell us exactly what we can do with this stuff u upload here? thank you :)

[Guest forforum]

could u please tell us exactly what we can do with this stuff u upload here? thank you :)

It allows you to connect supported USB devices to the tab. Devices tested working are keyboard, mouse, USB flash drive and USB hard disk. How useful it is depends on how you use the tab. For me, it the fun to get it working. But, playing media from an USB flash drive or disk is convenient too.

[Guest willbeans]

Many thanks to you guys for getting this stuff working, keyboard and flash drive work perfectly, still can't get it to automount a 500gb seagate drive, powers up fine through the hub, tried replacing the system/bin /vold file but no luck, any suggestions or what would need to enter in the terminal to mount it?

Bit new to some of this, any help appreciated. Cheers

[Guest willbeans]

Many thanks to you guys for getting this stuff working, keyboard and flash drive work perfectly, still can't get it to automount a 500gb seagate drive, powers up fine through the hub, tried replacing the system/bin /vold file but no luck, any suggestions or what would need to enter in the terminal to mount it?

Bit new to some of this, any help appreciated. Cheers

[Guest boutsism]

hello guys...i want to ask something...i ahve put hte last update from here...i have bought an adaptor from female usb to female usb...and i connect it to the main cable that zte v9 had...then i put a usb stick or a mouse or keyboard and i dont see any action as i connect my tablet at pc...what do i haev to do for making it work???can u help me please?thank you in advance!!! :)

[Guest forforum]

hello guys...i want to ask something...i ahve put hte last update from here...i have bought an adaptor from female usb to female usb...and i connect it to the main cable that zte v9 had...then i put a usb stick or a mouse or keyboard and i dont see any action as i connect my tablet at pc...what do i haev to do for making it work???can u help me please?thank you in advance!!! :)

You need an OTG cable (micro USB male to USB female), which shorts pin 4 and 5 at the micro USB end to tell Android to start host mode.

[Guest forforum]

Many thanks to you guys for getting this stuff working, keyboard and flash drive work perfectly, still can't get it to automount a 500gb seagate drive, powers up fine through the hub, tried replacing the system/bin /vold file but no luck, any suggestions or what would need to enter in the terminal to mount it?

Bit new to some of this, any help appreciated. Cheers

To mount a device manually, you need to first find out what device id is assigned to the disk, "ls /dev/block". Look for something like "sda", "sda1", "sdb2" etc. If you have only one disk plugged in, the first partition of the hard drive would most likely be "sda1", but sometimes, if you change drive/device, it may be "sdb1" instead. To mount a ntfs partition on sda1 to /mnt/usbdisk, "mount -t ntfs -o umask=000 /dev/ block/sda1 /mnt/usbdisk"

[Guest tsynik]

Hi, guys! It's clear now about ZTE V9 with storage devices. I'm looking for integration of the tablet to my car. ZTE v9 have all needed interfaces _except_ quality audio output. Now I have other chineese tab in my dashboard (wits a81g), which uses ALSA on froyo 2.2. It have external USB DAC connected to USB hub, which works fine. The only thing I need to change was /system/etc/asound.conf (card 0 -> card 1), as usb audio support already was built in the kernel.

Is it possible to use the same config (v9 + ext usb audio) with cyanogenmod 7? As I understand, we need usb-audio support in the kernel (and corresponding /dev/snd/device), and some mods to audio libs. 2nd part is unclear for me... or, is it possible to switch to alsa on zte v9 somehow?

Edited September 25, 2011 by tsynik

[Guest hazard69]

to make a otg cable i only need to short pin 4 and 5? is this just the earth pins? also to run power through the micro usb can you tap a wire from the battery(even though its 3.7v) to the 5v power pin on the usb cable to send power to the usb device?

i havent tried any of this yet but i would be very interested to get this to work and then say run a ubuntu linux desktop environment with usb hosting would be awesome. so basically a touch pad running full working linux with usb host :)

can either of you two awesome devs make a step by step guide for this as in flashing which kernal exactly and setting it all up? iv only just got the tab n still learning

im already running kk's gingerbread rom plus over clocked kernal.

thanking you in advance if i can get some help :)

[Guest forforum]

to make a otg cable i only need to short pin 4 and 5? is this just the earth pins? also to run power through the micro usb can you tap a wire from the battery(even though its 3.7v) to the 5v power pin on the usb cable to send power to the usb device?

i havent tried any of this yet but i would be very interested to get this to work and then say run a ubuntu linux desktop environment with usb hosting would be awesome. so basically a touch pad running full working linux with usb host :)

can either of you two awesome devs make a step by step guide for this as in flashing which kernal exactly and setting it all up? iv only just got the tab n still learning

im already running kk's gingerbread rom plus over clocked kernal.

thanking you in advance if i can get some help :)

You can get a proper OTG cable for a dollar or two from ebay, I wouldn't border trying to make my own.

I am not an electronic engineer, but I would strongly advice against trying to join the battery to the USB. As it is, the USB port is the charging port, if you feed the battery to it, it will try to use what ever current to charge the battery, essentially creating a short circuit.

To get USB host mode to work, you need

1. KK's 20110819 build (Anything after that may not work as it uses a different kernel).
2. OTG cable
3. Self powered USB hub - connect this to the TAB via the OTG cable
4. To test, plug a mouse into the hub and you should see the cursor on the screen
5. If not, try to install this kernel via recovery (Sebastian's Clockwork Recovery is needed)
6. USB flash or hard disk should automount to /mnt/usbdisk with KK's 20110819 build, you can go to settings->storage to manually mount of unmount.

[Guest shipoopi]

Many thanks to everyone for their advice - I stumbled across this thread, and it was exactly what I was looking for. I needed to use OTG to access a USB hard drive while travelling, especially on planes. For that reason, I've done it slightly differently, which some people might find useful...

If you have any powered USB port around (e.g. in-flight entertainment system, travel USB charger), you can use a split USB cable (e.g. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/POWER-DATA-USB-EXTENTION-Y-CABLE-2-MALE-TO-1-FEMALE-/270555945221 ) rather than a powered USB hub. Connect one of the cable's male USB connectors to the powered USB outlet, and connect the other male connector to the ZTE V9 via the micro USB OTG dongle. You then have a female USB port which you can use to access USB drives. I've tested this working with the ROM posted in this thread. For me, that's much less hassle than carrying a powered hub!

Thanks again for the advice!

[Guest DavRU]

You can get a proper OTG cable for a dollar or two from ebay, I wouldn't border trying to make my own.

I am not an electronic engineer, but I would strongly advice against trying to join the battery to the USB. As it is, the USB port is the charging port, if you feed the battery to it, it will try to use what ever current to charge the battery, essentially creating a short circuit.

To get USB host mode to work, you need

1. KK's 20110819 build (Anything after that may not work as it uses a different kernel).
2. OTG cable
3. Self powered USB hub - connect this to the TAB via the OTG cable
4. To test, plug a mouse into the hub and you should see the cursor on the screen
5. If not, try to install this kernel via recovery (Sebastian's Clockwork Recovery is needed)
6. USB flash or hard disk should automount to /mnt/usbdisk with KK's 20110819 build, you can go to settings->storage to manually mount of unmount.

Is it possible to use this kernel with rooted by Clockworkmod V9PLUSV1.0.0B03 ROM?

[Guest gianni76]

Dear all,

I recently purchased a cheap ZTE V9 Light and found it has a lot of features, but is incredibly missing USB support.

I need it to attach a small USB keyboard embedded in a case I am using for this tablet.

So, I thank you all for bringing this topic up and researching it fully.

i would like to ask:

a) is the OTG support built in the ZTE Light (Android 2.2, light build ZTE/V9_generic/v9:2.2/frf91/20110218) ? How can I check before putting a mod in?

At present I simply rooted the device and bought an OTG cable, but no message comes in and android does not see the mouse keyboard I attach to this cable (nor a usb key, basically the port seems dead with this OTG, but works well when I attach it to the PC with a microusb to USB male data cable).

B) Has anyone investigated if the ZTE V9 Light can put the 500 mA out of the microusb port? I read somewhere that the hardware is pretty much identical to the ZTE Blade, so it might be that they investigated it already. Any hint?

c) I need to use the tablet on the road and cannot have a powered hub aournd. So I read with interest the option of a USB hub with battery power, but cannot find any link to such product (the link to dealextreme brings me to a standard usb hub... maybe they changed products codes?). Anyone can comment?

Thanks for your help

Edited May 26, 2012 by gianni76