MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Experiments with USB-OTG

HarryT · 07-03-2012, 04:55 AM

The announcement of the Nexus 7 was the first I'd heard about "USB-OTG", so I thought I'd do some experiments with it on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. I bought the cheapest Samsung USB-OTG adaptor I could find on Amazon UK. Although it said it was for the original 10" Galaxy Tab, it looked the same as the connector on my 7", so I bought it hoping it would work, and, thankfully, it does!

It's a short cable, with a Samsung connector on one end, and a USB socket on the other end. if I plug a USB memory stick into the socket, a few seconds later the tablet says "USB Mass Storage Connected", and automatically opens my file explorer app (the Samsung "My Files" app) to show the contents of the USB stick (which mounts as "/Root/UsbDriveA"). I can copy files from or to it, or open media files (music, photos, videos) on it from the normal apps. An item in the notifications area lets the memory stick be safely dismounted.

Interestingly, I can also plug a USB mouse in. When I do this, the tablet says "Mouse Connected", and a small mouse pointer appears on the screen. I can't really see much practical use for this, but perhaps it might be useful in something like a picture editing app?

A keyboard also works, and I can use it anywhere that the normal soft keyboard generally appears. I imagine this could be of genuine use for something like a word processing app.

It all works extremely well - rather impressive, in fact. It's a real shame that the Nexus apparently won't support USB sticks, because I think that's where this facility is most useful. Probably good for Samsung (and other manufacturers who do support them) that it doesn't!

07-03-2012, 04:55 AM	#1
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Experiments with USB-OTG The announcement of the Nexus 7 was the first I'd heard about "USB-OTG", so I thought I'd do some experiments with it on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. I bought the cheapest Samsung USB-OTG adaptor I could find on Amazon UK. Although it said it was for the original 10" Galaxy Tab, it looked the same as the connector on my 7", so I bought it hoping it would work, and, thankfully, it does! It's a short cable, with a Samsung connector on one end, and a USB socket on the other end. if I plug a USB memory stick into the socket, a few seconds later the tablet says "USB Mass Storage Connected", and automatically opens my file explorer app (the Samsung "My Files" app) to show the contents of the USB stick (which mounts as "/Root/UsbDriveA"). I can copy files from or to it, or open media files (music, photos, videos) on it from the normal apps. An item in the notifications area lets the memory stick be safely dismounted. Interestingly, I can also plug a USB mouse in. When I do this, the tablet says "Mouse Connected", and a small mouse pointer appears on the screen. I can't really see much practical use for this, but perhaps it might be useful in something like a picture editing app? A keyboard also works, and I can use it anywhere that the normal soft keyboard generally appears. I imagine this could be of genuine use for something like a word processing app. It all works extremely well - rather impressive, in fact. It's a real shame that the Nexus apparently won't support USB sticks, because I think that's where this facility is most useful. Probably good for Samsung (and other manufacturers who do support them) that it doesn't! Last edited by HarryT; 07-03-2012 at 05:37 AM.