> > I would like to create an Android application that communicates with a > > PC Windows app using the USB interface. May I know if this is > > possible? Do I need to modify the Android OS, add in drivers or can > > this be done at the application level? > > This is possible, but poorly supported enough that it may not be suitable > for end users. > > Unless you are in a position to install a custom android build adding a new > device side USB driver, you don't really get to use the USB as USB. > Instead you have two choices: > > 1) Install an "ADB" driver on the PC and enable "USB debugging" on the > android device. Set up an ADB port forward. Run a TCP server on the > device, and have a TCP client on the PC connect to the local port which is > forwarded to the android device via ADB. This should work on all ordinary > android devices, but several of the steps (identifying and installing the > appropriate ADB driver for the phone, activating USB debugging on the > phone) may not be a good fit for non-technical end users. > > 2) Activate some device/build-specific USB (reverse)tethering or internet > pass through, and hope that as a side effect this makes TCP connections > between the PC and device possible. This will only work on some devices. > > A more practical option may be to ask the user to place the device and PC > on the same wireless network, or even communicate by was of a server you > place on the Internet so that it is visible from both the PC's network > provider and the android device's mobile network.
There is another option that is available on all the Android platforms I have looked at, load g_ether.ko. Unfortunately this isn't as easy as it should be since g_android.ko, the ADB kernel driver, wants to use the USB interface by default. If you could modify the default behavior so ADB connects to a TCP port via Wifi by default, then USB will be available. I have been able to accomplish this with a custom init.rc file. If anyone knows how to do this in a vanilla Android environment it would be greatly appreciated. Allen -- unsubscribe: android-porting+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com website: http://groups.google.com/group/android-porting
