The $20 Android tablet

[DMcCunney]

One of the questions I had about the tablet was use of an external keyboard. The A727 device FAQ says they aren't supported, but there are various on-screen virtual keyboards available. (It comes with the Google KEyboard, which I replaced with the Hacker's Keyboard.)

For any volume of text entry, a virtual keyboard is actively painful. It wasn't clear whether lack of support for a keyboard was a software limit in the default installation, or a hardware limit with no support for USB host mode. If it was a software limit, rooting it should have cured that. I have a small Logitech Portable USB keyboard, but couldn't try it because it uses a standard USB connector, and the tablet has a microUSB port. I got a USB->microUSB adapter so I could try the Logitech keyboard.

As expected, the FAQ was wrong for a rooted device. The tablet saw the keyboard, and a Logitech keyboard entry appeared in Settings with an option to select the desired keyboard layout. The keyboard worked in the a920 text editor and Google Docs.

Out of curiousity, I tried another test. I have a small Belkin 4 port USB hub. I plugged the hub into the adapter, then plugged the keyboard and a USB mouse into the hub. The tablet saw the mouse too, a mouse cursor appeared on screen, and I could use the mouse to perform operations normally done by screen touches.

I love it when a plan comes together...
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Dennis

[5thWiggle]

You may want to get Null Input Method from the Play store. It's a soft keyboard that doesn't display when you enter text from a hardware keyboard. It saves a lot of screen space, but you must select it as the input method when using the hardware keyboard (and remember to set the method back when you're done ).

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

You may want to get Null Input Method from the Play store. It's a soft keyboard that doesn't display when you enter text from a hardware keyboard. It saves a lot of screen space, but you must select it as the input method when using the hardware keyboard (and remember to set the method back when you're done ).

Interesting, but unnecessary for me.

The on-screen keyboard only appears when I am in an app where text can be entered and I select a field where text entry is possible. It's not always there, and can be minimized by a touch on a button that appears on the action line when the keyboard is active.

With the hardware keyboard attached, the virtual keyboard doesn't appear.

This appears to solve a problem on some devices where a Bluetooth keyboard is used. The Azpen tablet doesn't have Bluetooth, so a USB keyboard is required.

The behavior it displays is what I would expect. If it didn't, I'd consider the implementation broken.
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Dennis

[5thWiggle]

In some older versions of android, the soft keyboard would appear even if a usb keyboard was attached, let alone a bluetooth one (just tested with Android 4.1.2). Google does not allow the input method to be changed without user intervention (ie. choosing from a menu), so having both keyboards work in parallel and having the soft keyboard always appear was normal behavior. I guess they decided that plugging in a usb keyboard qualified as "user intervention".

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

In some older versions of android, the soft keyboard would appear even if a usb keyboard was attached, let alone a bluetooth one (just tested with Android 4.1.2). Google does not allow the input method to be changed without user intervention (ie. choosing from a menu), so having both keyboards work in parallel and having the soft keyboard always appear was normal behavior. I guess they decided that plugging in a usb keyboard qualified as "user intervention".

I assumed the Null input keyboard solved an actual problem, or it wouldn't exist. It just doesn't happen to be a problem that bites me. If I had a device that requires user intervention to turn off the soft keyboard, I'd certainly want something like the app you pointed to.

A lot of this may depend on the vendor of the device in question. Mine, for example, doesn't support an external keyboard "out of the box". Android does, and support appeared when I rooted mine, but Android is designed to be modular and customizable by the OEM that implements it on a device, with the vendor including the parts that support what their device is intended to do. Android device users also had to cope with sometimes mystifying choices by vendors in areas like the UI displayed to the user, as part of vendor attempts to give their device a unique look and feel.

Things are better than they were, but I don't think the dust has entirely settled.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

I mentioned previously that I was able to successfully use a keyboard and mouse by attaching them to a USB hub and connecting it to the table. The next question was "Can I connect an external hard drive"?

I have a Seagate Free Agent 512MB portable USB drive, intended as a backup solution, and formatted as NTFS. The answer was "Yes, I can, with external assistance."

The assistance is the free Paragon exFAT, NTFS & HFS+ app. The Paragon driver adds NTFS support through the Linux NTFS 3g framework. The device must be rooted to use this. (Mine is.)

Paragon sees the Seagate drive, and mounts it at /mnt/usbhost1. A root enabled file manager is required to explore the drive. I use an open source package called Ultra Explorer from the XDA Developers forum.

The Seagate drive is unpowered, expecting to get power from the device it connects to. The tablet doesn't have the power to drive it reliably. Connect it bare and Paragon sees it, tries to mount it, and loses it again. The solution is to connect it to a powered USB hub, and connect the hub to the device. I already use a hub to connect keyboard and mouse, so the Seagate is one more device plugged into it.

I don't have a particular immediate need to do this. It's mostly a "Why? Because I can!" exercise. But it's one more tool in the toolbox, and will likely be of use down the road.
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Dennis

[MajorDizaster]

I made the purchase today. As others, I couldn't pass up the deal to kick the tires on Android without worrying about borking a $300+ investment.

Anyhow, I read a review on the Microcenter site that stated "you can not put apps on the expandable microSD". I am too new to Android to know how to do this, but was wondering if this really was the case. Can some one confirm? Also, what about if it is rooted?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by MajorDizaster

I made the purchase today. As others, I couldn't pass up the deal to kick the tires on Android without worrying about borking a $300+ investment.

That was roughly my thought. As mentioned above, the primary use case of eBook viewer more than justified the price. All else was gravy.

Anyhow, I read a review on the Microcenter site that stated "you can not put apps on the expandable microSD". I am too new to Android to know how to do this, but was wondering if this really was the case. Can some one confirm? Also, what about if it is rooted?

The review is correct. I haven't been able to put apps on the external SD card, and my device is rooted. (I don't believe any Android device will let you install apps to an external card and run them from it, but I could be mistaken.)

The big issue with the A727 is limited application storage space. It has 787MB, total, and thus far I haven't found a way to expand it. The device has 512MB RAM, and 4GB of internal flash. The flash is partitioned, with 787MB seen as app storage, and another 1GB seen as SDCARD. Some applications can be partially moved to SDCARD, and some cannot. In particular, all of Google's apps must live in app storage and cannot be moved to the internal card. I had to drop a few Google apps to have space for other things.

Expanding app storage would require altering the device partition table to expand that partition. This far, I haven't found a way to do it.

What you can do with an external card is store data. For instance, it's where my eBook collection resides, as well as videos and audio files. Apps which use that data can be told to look there. The internal card is seen as /mnt/sdcard, and the external card, if installed, is seen as /mnt/extsd.

There is an app on the Play Store called Folder Mount that lets you fiddle with mount points on a rooted device, but it's intended for data normally stored in device flash that you would like to place on the card instead. It lets you swap mount points, so the card directory where you want the data to live is seen instead of the internal flash directory the app defaults to using. Thus far, I don't have anything that stores enough data in internal flash to make use of Folder Mount necessary, though that may change down the road.

Rooting the A727 is tricky, because it's not a well known device, and the usual "one click root" solutions don't know about it. There's a guide I followed to rooting the device here. I had the get the 64 bit version of the SDK and install the mentioned drivers from the SO's Win7 laptop. The 32 bit version would not work trying to install the drivers from XP. (XP said it couldn't find the software.)

The FAQ portion of the User Guide provided with the device says you can't use an external keyboard. That's not true for a rooted device, and my Logitech Portable keyboard was recognized and worked, with a Logitech section appearing in Settings to select the preferred keyboard layout. For that matter, a mouse works too. See my earlier posts in this thread for details.

Feel free to post questions as you proceed.
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Dennis

[martinvy1]

I have the older AZPEN 701 model which also has the limitation of not being able to freely use the external memory for apps.


Here is a link that helped me out, by modifying the vold.fstab file which tells the OS how to mount the memory devices.
Essentially, you are swapping the internal and external memory.
After making this mod, I now have 32GB of usable storage for apps, data, music, vids or anything else.

Was not necessary to root - did require me to install ADB on my MintLinux computer.

http://forum.sdx-developers.com/view...?f=531&t=23713


Hope this helps.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by martinvy1

I have the older AZPEN 701 model which also has the limitation of not being able to freely use the external memory for apps.

Here is a link that helped me out, by modifying the file that tells the OS how to mount the memory devices.
Essentially, you are swapping the internal and external memory.
After making this mod, I now have 32GB of usable storage for apps, data, music, vids or anything else.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2346389

You were able to install apps on the card and and run them from there? Which ones?

I looked at that as part of my earlier investigations. The issue I had was that it let me swap what was seen as SDCARD with a mount point on an external card, effectively expanding the size of SDCARD.

The size of SDCARD isn't my problem. It's 1GB on my device, I've used 397MB, and have 707MB free. The limit for me is System Memory, which is capped at 787MB, and currently has 700MB used.

Apps which can be moved to the card on the tablet can be partially relocated to SDCARD, and everything on my device that can be, has been. But not all apps have been set up to permit that, and some must be installed in System Memory. In particular, all of Google's official apps must be in System Memory, and can't be moved to the card.

There's an interesting app called Folder Mount for rooted devices that lets you swap mount points to move stuff in internal storage to an external card, but that won't address the issue of limited System Memory.

I did see a promising lead elsewhere about a config change that could force apps not designed to install to a card to do so. If it will work with a couple of heavy hitters like Google's apps, many of my problems are relieved.
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Dennis

[martinvy1]

I am still pretty new to Android.

After doing the fstab kludge, I used AppMgr III to move many apps to the 32GB external card.
As I recall, at the time my 4GB internal was getting pretty full and the tablet was getting very pokey. I assume that it was the equiv of having my Linux system run low on swap space.

Agree that there some apps that cannot be moved, but I did move a large number of them. I just tried Google Chrome and it worked, but as you say other Google Apps like Maps cannot be moved.

Not sure what apps are currently installed on the external card - I have all the original apps that came with the tablet plus Andropen ANdSMB Boatwatch Cardstar Calendar Diskusage Brother iPrint IPWebcam Netfix Shazaam Skype some Weather Apps TV Guide and a couple of apps from radio & TV stations ES File Explorer. Many of these have been moved to the external.

Of course, I must now keep the external card installed pretty much at all times if I intend to run my apps.

I show Internal Storage 868Mb used and 313Mb free.

How do I check to see what System Memory I have used/free ??

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by martinvy1

I am still pretty new to Android.

As am I, but the learning curve is fun.

After doing the fstab kludge, I used AppMgr III to move many apps to the 32GB external card.

You expanded the available space seen as SDCARD by the tablet, by switching mount points. As mentioned, that's not the issue I have. I have plenty of available space on SDCARD. What I'm short on is system memory were apps can be installed. Everything on my device that can be moved to the card, has been.

A not quite up to date annotated list of what's on my tablet is here on my Google Drive as a Google Doc.

As I recall, at the time my 4GB internal was getting pretty full and the tablet was getting very pokey. I assume that it was the equiv of having my Linux system run low on swap space.

I don't think it works quite the same way.

Linux and Windows both want a swap area. On Linux, it's a dedicated partition. On Windows, it's a file - pagefile.sys. (If you dual boot Linux and Windows, it's possible to use the Windows pagefile.sys as the Linux swapfile.)

You want to install a lot of RAM in either system to minimize how much the swap file gets used. Windows won't let you not have a swapfile, though I believe Linux will.

Android does use the internal file system for things like cache files, but doesn't seem to have a swap file as such.

The A727 has 512MB RAM. That's fairly paltry, but I've never seen lack as RAM as a bottleneck. Looking at running processes, most are actually using tens of KB.

Agree that there some apps that cannot be moved, but I did move a large number of them. I just tried Google Chrome and it worked, but as you say other Google Apps like Maps cannot be moved.

I moved everything that could be moved. I couldn't successfully move Chrome. Since I prefer Firefox, which can be moved to the card, I removed Chrome to free storage space.

Not sure what apps are currently installed on the external card - I have all the original apps that came with the tablet plus Andropen ANdSMB Boatwatch Cardstar Calendar Diskusage Brother iPrint IPWebcam Netfix Shazaam Skype some Weather Apps TV Guide and a couple of apps from radio & TV stations ES File Explorer. Many of these have been moved to the external.

I removed the Azpen Reader, Game Store, Mobile Systems Office, and Outlook Security apps.

The Azpen Reader is an Azpen branded version of the Blio app. Since I get content from a variety of places, and put it on the card with Calibre to read with FBReaderJ, I have no need for it.

Game Store is a Wild Tangent offering, but I'm not a heavy gamer on the tablet. I have a few, all open source, but gaming isn't a principal use case, so Game Store went away.

Instead of Mobile Systems Office, I use Kingsoft WPS Office. It seems to have the fullest feature set of the free office suites, and can load from and store to my Google Drive.

The All-In-One-Toolbox app on my list has an App2SD section which lists all apps on the tablet in one listing, and all on the card in another, and lets me move stuff from one place to the other.

Of course, I must now keep the external card installed pretty much at all times if I intend to run my apps.

I put a 32GB card in the A727, and haven't had a reason to remove it for some time.

I show Internal Storage 868Mb used and 313Mb free.

Sounds like the A701 has more system memory than the A727. I have 787MB total, of which 83.3MB are currently free.

How do I check to see what System Memory I have used/free ??

Here, that's under Settings/Storage.
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Dennis

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Windows won't let you not have a swapfile, though I believe Linux will.

You can remove it in Windows but it is kind of a lot of monkeying around

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

You can remove it in Windows but it is kind of a lot of monkeying around

I'll take your word for it. What isn't clear is why you would bother, other than to demonstrate it can be done.

Along those lines, noted Windows expert Mark Russinovitch managed to boot Windows with no services running. Microsoft's official line is that it can't be done. Mark did it. Granted, you can't actually do anything in Windows with no services, but he was able to get it to boot.

I experimented at one point in a different direction. You can install Linux and run it in a pure command line environment, and not have a GUI. The GUI is a layered program running on top of the OS. In Windows, it's baked into the OS. It is technically possible to boot Windows to a command line, by diddling the registry to tell it the shell is CMD.EXE, but it's problematic actually doing anything if you do.

If you ran Mac OS "Classic" - versions before OS/X - there was no command line. You did everything from the GUI. OS/X has one, but few Mac users ever touch it.

It's possible to get to a command line in Android. I use Jack Palevich's open source Android Terminal Emulator, which is an Android equivalent of rxvt. The version of Android on my device includes a truncated version of Busybox, which provides an assortment of commands bundled in a single executable. I installed a larger and more complete version, and have most of the standard Linux commands available.
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Dennis

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'll take your word for it. What isn't clear is why you would bother, other than to demonstrate it can be done.

Yeah, there is no point really, it is just another option that isn't usually used the only thing I can think of is if you have a lot of RAM and a really small HDD

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Along those lines, noted Windows expert Mark Russinovitch managed to boot Windows with no services running. Microsoft's official line is that it can't be done. Mark did it. Granted, you can't actually do anything in Windows with no services, but he was able to get it to boot.

lol I bet