[Q] Asus Transformer full size USB Challenge - Eee Pad Transformer Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

One of the very few downsides to the Asus transformer is the lack of a full-sized USB port on the tablet itself. You can always purchase a dock and Asus has said that they will be selling a miniUSB >USB dongle. However, neither of these solutions is really the same as having a slot within the tablet.
I figured the folks at XDA wouldn't stand for this!
Here is my challenge. Add a full USB slot to the tablet and post instructions.
Here is how I could see this going down:
1) Someone with more hardware know-how, open up your transformer and find a physical spot in which one could place a full female USB connector with a small mounting bracket.
I haven't seen a hardware teardown yet probably due to lack of stock.
2) Figure out wiring from a full USB slot to controller. Perhaps directly splicing with the microUSB cables?
3) Either do it yourself or write up your findings and let the community try.
I think with a small dremmel tool and some pieces from radioshack we could make a pretty good mod.
What do you guys think?

I'd be interested to see someone do this, but I think 99.99% of the population would be too afraid to take a dremel to their TF considering it is about 6 mm in width at the edges. It would have to be a pretty tiny dremel. That's not considering the risk of opening it up. Then, finding the right location to solder the USB port to on the circuit board.
I think I'll wait for the dongle

The easiest would be a dock connector to USB dongle. That way, it doesn't require opening anything, just scoping the dock and how that works.

Just wait for the official solution that's my advice

For what it's worth, I bought a usb 3.0 F-F adaptor and attached it to the power cable. I then plugged in a usb memory stick. There was some activity and drivers were loaded on the Transformer, but the memory stick was not recognized.
Anyone else have any luck with this?

Related

[Q] USB host mode, specifically via Nebtop

So, I purchases a USB OTG cable in an attempt to try and expand the functionality of Webtop while using Nebtop. I've been unable to get any response from the phone when I plug in this cable. I've tried my wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard that worked off the bat with my TF101 using the Unifying remote they came with as well as an external TB drive.
Has anyone else had any experience with this? It seems logical that the phone supports host mode since the actual dock has 3 full sized USB ports.
All the information pertaining to this sort of thing I've come up with seems extremely phone specific but if there's a simple solution I'm missing thanks all the more.
ri4naire said:
So, I purchases a USB OTG cable in an attempt to try and expand the functionality of Webtop while using Nebtop. I've been unable to get any response from the phone when I plug in this cable. I've tried my wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard that worked off the bat with my TF101 using the Unifying remote they came with as well as an external TB drive.
Has anyone else had any experience with this? It seems logical that the phone supports host mode since the actual dock has 3 full sized USB ports.
All the information pertaining to this sort of thing I've come up with seems extremely phone specific but if there's a simple solution I'm missing thanks all the more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem actually lies in the usb port of the phone itself. The dock was designed for this purpose, and the dock app handles most that for you, the one thing that the dock is able to do that a straight USB cable can't do, is provide enough "bus" power to use a mouse or even a USB stick directly from the phone. If you want to use a Mouse you will need to get a dock. I got mine directly from wireless.att.com, and it was only $49.00 back in Nov. when I got it. It works VERY well with webtop.
P.S. Motorola is very famous for doing things like this to force you into a dock, or to lock out certain features that everyone really wants to use.
I made my own dock by using a powered usb hub I had sitting around (it was actually the one that came with Rock Band for my Xbox 360). I did have to modify it slightly so that the 1 pin was powered from the 5V (a simple shunt from the 5V inner pin of the power supply solder joint to the solder joint of the 1 pin worked fine--although it might be wise to insert an inline fuse since it also charges your phone while plugged in).
Otherwise, the only other thing needed is coming in the form of your otg adapter that should short the 5 pin (common) with your 4 pin (ID). I did this by cracking open an extra micro usb cable and soldering a wire between the two.
So, my setup was like this:
1. Modified usb cable to short the 4 & 5 pins to let the phone know to go into host
2. Use a female A-female A usb coupler to join the usb cable to the powered hub (I got mine here from Monoprice
3. Get 5V to the 1 pin in the usb hub to provide power to your phone and for whatever is plugged into the hub.
With this, I was easily able to run a usb mouse and a wireless keyboard that had a usb dongle. Paired with a micro hdmi cable to hdmi-dvi adapter, I am able to use my office monitor and the webtop linux. I honestly haven't really used it much yet (if I found it really useful, I probably would have just paid for the dock).
The obvious easy way is to just get the dock. However, I really like being able to do this on my own and since I had this stuff already laying around. Also, the cheap prices from monoprice (I actually made $4 off of the purchase from a PayPal bill-me-later promotion).
So, you should be able to get it to work if you get power to the bus on your usb (but again, it might be safe to pass an appropriate fast-acting fuse, ferrite core, or something to protect from surges). I haven't had issue yet, but I also don't use it often...yet .
It sounds like a bit of yes and a bit of no. The OTG cable I got is microUSB to female full USB, am I going to need to modify this cable as you've described by crossing the 4th and 5th pins?
I'm thinking about ordering this "7 Port USB Squid Hub" since it has the 5v power adapter, do you think it might work?
Just one more question and thanks for all the help but should I not see any response from the phone when I plug in the cable? I read through some of the reviews for cheap cables on Amazon and apparently sometimes they're just useless.
ri4naire said:
It sounds like a bit of yes and a bit of no. The OTG cable I got is microUSB to female full USB, am I going to need to modify this cable as you've described by crossing the 4th and 5th pins?
I'm thinking about ordering this "7 Port USB Squid Hub" since it has the 5v power adapter, do you think it might work?
Just one more question and thanks for all the help but should I not see any response from the phone when I plug in the cable? I read through some of the reviews for cheap cables on Amazon and apparently sometimes they're just useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OTG cable have should work. The OTG cable, to my knowledge, should already have pins 4 & 5 shorted together. I'm not completely certain, but if it's designed as an OTG, it would probably already have that done. If you have an ohmmeter/multimeter, you could try to check (it's hard to isolate the small pins, but you can try). If it's already going to the USB female (type A), you will then be able to directly attach your hub when you get it (without the need of the coupler I had to get).
When I used mine, there was no notification that said "Hey, I'm in USB Host Mode!". However, if you successfully have a mouse attached, you'll see a mouse cursor arrow on your screen.
Have fun with it and if you can't get it to work, let me know and I'll try to explain with even more detail (perhaps with some pretty pictures) of what I did. I more or less went off of what I could glean from reading what others did.
It works great! Also, it is weird to see the mouse on this little a screen, it seems oversized.
I just plugged everything in and it worked off the bat. I'm using just two items from Amazon I got for under 12 bucks (plus, of course, the keyboard and mouse I already had for my computer). I don' think I can post links to the forums yet but the ASINs for the items if people want to do this on the super cheap are as follows:
B0043TBCDS 7 Port USB Squid Hub, a whopping $5.19
B005N55WHI Micro-B USB OTG Cable... $5.99
I chose these because of their Prime eligibility and also for their form factor so as not to cover the HDMI port, I bet it's not impossible to get these even cheaper.
While this isn't technically a replacement for the dock since I had to root the device and I have to press "Load" in Nebtop if I want to go to Webtop I'm extremely pleased with the results.
I also love that all the soft keys are available. The ones I've discovered are that right button on the mouse as well as Esc are Back, the Home key is Home, clicking the wheel as well as Ctrl, Cmd, Alt and a whole slew of others bring up the Menu, but all I can find is F5 for Search.
On another note, while the phone does charge when hooked up, a practical boon, the screen still times out despite having the "Stay awake" feature checked. This is annonying when the phone is on it's side accross the room and I have to squint to see the cursor and swipe it unlocked sideways as well as click back into Mirror Display.

[Q] DIY USB Cable?

Does any one know what the pinout/components of the USB kit are? I want usb otg but I would rather have a dock cable with a usb female connection rather than the bulky oem usb kit. I'm thinking of just buying a dock cable and a female usb connector. I am assuming that there is some resistor there that signifies the USB Cable. Any ideas?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Glad someone else is itching for home made cables too. Already got the iron on standby ready to go. After a bunch of link hopping and thread reading, here's the most useful info I've found so far...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630300&page=2
Chief Geek said:
Glad someone else is itching for home made cables too. Already got the iron on standby ready to go. After a bunch of link hopping and thread reading, here's the most useful info I've found so far...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630300&page=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked at it but I didn't see anything useful. I could use info on the internals of the USB kit. Was there something I missed?
(I awaiting my new multimeter and then I'll order a new soldering iron)
Once all the needed pins are IDed it should be easy to order the plugs and make your own cables for pennies on the dollar or start work on an OTG or other cables.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26283265&postcount=22
If anyone is interested, I found the 40-pin connector that is used on the OEM USB cable:
Mouser Part #: 571-2129276-1

TF700 without keyboard and USB device

Hi all,
Looking To Buy Asus Transformer Infinity TF700 without keyboard, i have few questions.
How can i connect usb disk (or usb memory key) on TF700 ?
Using "usb female to usb female adaptor" can work for connecting usb drive on Usb dock cable of TF700 (without dock) ?
Thanks.
There's this asus thing on amazon for some money that converts the bottom proprietary port into a USB port. From there you could (possibly) attach a USB hub or whatever for your needs.
I got b& at /g/ for sh!tposting ;_;
jdeoxys said:
There's this asus thing on amazon for some money that converts the bottom proprietary port into a USB port. From there you could (possibly) attach a USB hub or whatever for your needs.
I got b& at /g/ for sh!tposting ;_;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's right, it's called an usb kit but i'm not sure if it works for the tf700 since it says "ASUS USB Kit for Eee Pad Transformer TF101, TF101G, TF201 & TF300 Tablets"
You can get the USB adapter for like $30 (works on the 700), or you can go to best buy and get the tf201 dock (that works perfectly on the 700) for $99. IMHO, the dock is the way to go...
Currently, I have both the TF201 dock (best buy $99) and an Asus USB kit (amazon $17) and am glad to have both. The USB kit works but seems to easily come loose, which is horrible for hard drives.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
You could also buy a micro sd card and plug that into a cheap $3 usb adapter. eg: http://www.dealextreme.com/c/card-readers-300
Thats how I've been loading up my micro sd cards with ebooks and movies.
I asked earlier on the forum about pluging in my usb external 2tb drive to the tablet 40 pin via a usb adapter but was told that might be a no go due to lack of android drivers. Has anyone attempted it? I'd be curious to see if it could somehow work.
Syn010 said:
You could also buy a micro sd card and plug that into a cheap $3 usb adapter. eg: http://www.dealextreme.com/c/card-readers-300
Thats how I've been loading up my micro sd cards with ebooks and movies.
I asked earlier on the forum about pluging in my usb external 2tb drive to the tablet 40 pin via a usb adapter but was told that might be a no go due to lack of android drivers. Has anyone attempted it? I'd be curious to see if it could somehow work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just plugged a Seagate 2TB external hard drive into the USB adapter and it came up and is working. Movies play, music plays, pictures, etc.
According to you will it be possibile in a future (maybe with an hack) to connect in this female usb port an usb stick modem with sim card?
Go with the dock.
PAPB0007 said:
I just plugged a Seagate 2TB external hard drive into the USB adapter and it came up and is working. Movies play, music plays, pictures, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wicked! :good: Wait do you mean via tablet 40pin usb or do you mean usb via the dock.
Asus drives me nutz with this idiot connector deal.
It's horsepoop if you ask me.
Even them Samsing tabs with their weird plugins have connector options available locally.
Asus = nope...uh-uh...sorry...no deal my man...your stuck buying our big ole' huge massive goofy interface clunker unit thingy!
I find this irritating.
Syn010 said:
Wicked! :good: Wait do you mean via tablet 40pin usb or do you mean usb via the dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little more testing and perhaps better wording:
The 2TB hard drive worked via the tablet's 40 pin input (the one on the bottom that you usually charge from) using the USB adapter.
The 2TB hard drive worked via the dock's USB input.
Nothing worked when I plugged the USB adapter into the dock's 40pin input.
I hope this helps. I have other external hard drives I can test. 500GB - 2TB, Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, a few are USB 3.0, most are USB 2.0.
FWIW, like others, I would highly recommend the dock, especially @ $99. I didn't think I needed it, felt it defeated the idea of a tablet, and had the TF Prime for months without it, but when it went up for $99 @ BB I pulled the trigger on it and I have been pretty amazed at how much I like having available. I use it all the time. It adds a lot of value to the TFs. The fact that I could upgrade to the TF700 and keep it was awesome, I'm not sure I would want a tablet that didn't have something similar going forward.
I got the Infinity without the keyboard as well. I actually already had a portable blue tooth keyboard, which is the Freedom Pro Keyboard. You can pick up on the net from $50 to $100. Amazon link
It's not going to have all the integration of the dock or anything. But I can use it on multiple devices since it has both the HID and SSP blue tooth protocols. I've used it both on my Evo 4G and the Infinity and works like a champ. It does use two AAA batteries. But in the months I've had it, I've only changed them once, and I think I left it on for about three or four days before I discovered it one time.
The thing the dock has that you may want, more battery life, USB ports, and SD card slot. In theory, would could type with it in bed or something too, although I've heard you'll want a flatter surface. It's a pretty nice looking dock and all. But I just didn't see what big benefit it would give me compared to what I had, other than battery life.
I did write on the Freedom Pro Keyboard from when I got it (Link to another forum). It gives my opinion and observations.
I tried to connect a Logitech K400 wirelesse keyboard with no success. I bought a female-female usb adapter and plugged it at my ASUS usb docking cable. The RF receiver isn't recognized and the keyboard can't be used.
WTF ASUS is forcing to use expensive accessory, e.g. dock by 150 € or usb adpter by 30€? Today I'll try the K400 at my sister-in-law's Acer A700 tablet. If it works she can have the keyboard.
Does anyone try another 3rd USB adapter acccessory with things like webcam or keyboard?
I have a little HP bluetooth keyboard that pairs to tf700t pretty well .... it messes up sometimes.
Sort of saved me from buying the dock.
Wish I had a bluetooth mouse tho...
I agree about the Asus pain in the ass 40 pin connector.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
thunderger said:
I tried to connect a Logitech K400 wirelesse keyboard with no success. I bought a female-female usb adapter and plugged it at my ASUS usb docking cable. The RF receiver isn't recognized and the keyboard can't be used....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not that surprise this isn't working. One, the keyboard is not blue tooth, which you know. Two, you need drivers to work the unifying usb receiver. I would be surprised if Android had the drivers. Didn't you notice when you plugged into your PC, WIndows or OSX downloaded drivers to install?
To your point, no you don't have buy the ASUS keyboard dock for $150EU/US. If don't mind it not matching, from what has been explored in other threads, the Transformer Prime (TF200) dock is the same, and can be found for around $100EU/US. But since you're you were trying to use something else, there are a plenty of other blue tooth keyboards that can be used. You're looking for one with the HID protocol. Although, you can probably use the SPP, but you'll probably need to make sure you get the drivers somewhere.
I suspect you're looking for that wireless to be able to use with it. I only briefly explored it for use with my phone. You'll have to search and research. There may be something. Personally, it wasn't a must have. Since I'm right next to the tablet, I can just touch the screen just as easily. Other than a few games on OnLive, I can think of what it can do better than my finger on the tablet. Plus, I think the cost will be the same after both the keyboard and mouse/touch pad.
I guess the question for you, not so much is ASUS keyboard dock is pricey, but can you do what you plan with something else. And is the cost of whatever you get, worth the benefit derived.

USB on tablet possible without keyboard dock.

My friend has a USB internet stick which gives her internet access in remote areas.
We already have 40 pin usb to male usb with the tf700t.
Could I attach that male usb end to a female usb connection then to a male internet usb stick?
cheers.
I think that the USB stick requires software that might be not designed to run on the Android OS. Even if you can get the tab and the stick communicating, there's really very little likelihood they will work together. Many USB sticks have their own software in addition to the drivers needed for actually talking with the OS. Until it says "For Android" on the USB Stick's box, I think it's a no-go.
alienedd said:
I think that the USB stick requires software that might be not designed to run on the Android OS. Even if you can get the tab and the stick communicating, there's really very little likelihood they will work together. Many USB sticks have their own software in addition to the drivers needed for actually talking with the OS. Until it says "For Android" on the USB Stick's box, I think it's a no-go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Alienedd.
Syn010 said:
Thanks Alienedd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out the a500 forums. I dont remember specifics, but there are usb data sticks there that will work. This was one of the main tablets that had a build in USB host port.
phoenixbennu said:
Check out the a500 forums. I dont remember specifics, but there are usb data sticks there that will work. This was one of the main tablets that had a build in USB host port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good call! Maybe try this thread?
While this does not address the use of a internet connection USB thumb drive it will address the topic of "USB on tablet possible without keyboard dock."
There is a Asus addon that plugs into the 40 pin connector to use it as a USB port. Amazon link - ASUS USB Kit for Eee Pad Transformer TF101, TF101G, TF201 & TF300 Tablets
In the reviews some say it is fully usable on the TF700.
Bohemian said:
While this does not address the use of a internet connection USB thumb drive it will address the topic of "USB on tablet possible without keyboard dock."
There is a Asus addon that plugs into the 40 pin connector to use it as a USB port. Amazon link - ASUS USB Kit for Eee Pad Transformer TF101, TF101G, TF201 & TF300 Tablets
In the reviews some say it is fully usable on the TF700.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I own one of these and use it with a hub to plug in a full size desktop keyboard and mouse. Also, they're cheaper at Microcenter.
MattZTexasu said:
I own one of these and use it with a hub to plug in a full size desktop keyboard and mouse. Also, they're cheaper at Microcenter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link?
Also, if you can get a cheap Charging cable from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GJR7GS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00) anda cheap USB cable, can't you just make your own by splicing/soldering the wires and using some shrink tube?
It would be flexible and you can make it as long as you need it to be. I feel like having their adapter + a USB stick would stick out pretty badly from the bottom of the tablet
I was wondering the same thing - would be a lot less clunky if you could just attach a female to female usb adapter at the end of the charging cable to avoid having a big brick sitting on the side of the tablet.
Ozark_8125 said:
I was wondering the same thing - would be a lot less clunky if you could just attach a female to female usb adapter at the end of the charging cable to avoid having a big brick sitting on the side of the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too
Not for internet access just for a thumb drive or card reader.
I had the A700 that would see most stuff;
Wired or wireless mice
Keyboards
32 gig data stick
SDHC card reader
etc
I did try a TPLink wireless data stick in the ACER, yet it was not recognized by Andwoid ICS.
Asus does sell a "converter" to convert the docking port to a USB port - sounds like that would do the trick for reading thumb drives, etc...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
I'd like to buy the 40 pin thing for cheap, pop it open and see if there is a circuit interface inside.
I think it's big because of the female USB A plug built into it.
Wonder why Asus just doesn't offer the plug with a wired dongle?

[Q] MS Surface Cover Connector Pinout

I know this is probably more for Microsoft Surface Developer Section but seeing how I am still pretty new I don't have enough post to be able to post in that area.
I am mainly curious if anyone knows the pin outs for the Touch/Type Cover connector on the bottom of the tablet and if it uses standard USB or if it is some kind of special propitiatory type connection that would say connect the keyboard membrane to the keyboard controller that may be in the tablet? If it is just a standard USB connection I am thinking about cannibalizing a touch cover to see if I can create a home Grown Dock so to speak for the tablet that would have a USB hub for keyboard and mouse and a USB to Ethernet adapter that works with the tablet. The USB hub will draw power from a modified Power Cord for the tablet IF I can figure out that electrical later on to where it wont fry my tablet or other accessories but first I need to figure out the first part.
TLDR Does anyone know if the touch/type cover user a standard USB protocol and if so what is the pin layout for the connector on the tablet. If anyone can help that would be appreciated.
I just received a surface and they through in 2 type covers. said, "keep it" on a sticky note. I am now working on figuring out what the connectors are. I dont see the point of having 6 connectors, so I think that some may be ground or false. I will open up one of the keyboards to see what ships they are connecting to. i would think it has to be usb. I know that the 6th pin, that is 6th from the left pin, is 1.8v when grounded. I am guessing that the voltage goes up once the surface detects the attached keyboard. I will write back, let me know if you have figured anything else out. seems like we are hte only people on the internet who even care at this point. and microsoft is literally giving away surface computers.
Greg00135 said:
I know this is probably more for Microsoft Surface Developer Section but seeing how I am still pretty new I don't have enough post to be able to post in that area.
I am mainly curious if anyone knows the pin outs for the Touch/Type Cover connector on the bottom of the tablet and if it uses standard USB or if it is some kind of special propitiatory type connection that would say connect the keyboard membrane to the keyboard controller that may be in the tablet? If it is just a standard USB connection I am thinking about cannibalizing a touch cover to see if I can create a home Grown Dock so to speak for the tablet that would have a USB hub for keyboard and mouse and a USB to Ethernet adapter that works with the tablet. The USB hub will draw power from a modified Power Cord for the tablet IF I can figure out that electrical later on to where it wont fry my tablet or other accessories but first I need to figure out the first part.
TLDR Does anyone know if the touch/type cover user a standard USB protocol and if so what is the pin layout for the connector on the tablet. If anyone can help that would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any progress?
i already build a power wire, with a 5,5mm plug to connect it to my Intocircuit PC26000 for more juice on the go, and for a second charger.
you can see the pinouts of the power plug in the attatched pic.
let me know if you got any results for the cover connector so far - if its USB, i will implement my UMTS stick into a cover
Cheers!
just got pictures of the cover connector, see attatchment.
in fact all the 6 pins are connected. USB 2.0 would take 4 of them.
my guess is that one of them could be a switch, to turn the device & keyboard on and off.
any progress
Curious if anyone has made any progress on decoding the pinout, figuring out if it's usb or not?
i didn't do any further research - but it guess it's usb, or at least kind of... as it shows up as USB device in the device manager...
tfBullet said:
just got pictures of the cover connector, see attatchment.
in fact all the 6 pins are connected. USB 2.0 would take 4 of them.
my guess is that one of them could be a switch, to turn the device & keyboard on and off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Judging by the connector and the fact that the covers are USB-based and can be used reversed, the pinout makes perfect sense. The likely possibility for the pinout is as follows:
Power Cover connector (Using pin labels in picture)
1/10 = Power cover +ve
2/9 = Power cover Ground
Touch/Type connector (Using pin labels in picture)
3 = +ve
4 = Ground
5/6 = Data +ve or -ve (reversible internally)
7/8 = Attachment direction detect
Pins on Touch/Type cover itself (Pinout from left [1] to right [6])
1/6 = +ve
2/5 = Ground
3/4 = Data +ve or -ve (reversible internally)
As to if the USB data pairs are swapped on the SP or the Cover, we cannot know without more information. Depending on the voltage supplied or the presence of unauthorised hardware detection (e.g. the ID chip in Apple earphones, I doubt it), custom USB devices should be fairly trivial (electrically).
I know this is an old thread but has anyone made any further progress on this? If not, I'm considering experimenting myself with a spare touch cover and a raspberry pi
geronphillips said:
I know this is an old thread but has anyone made any further progress on this? If not, I'm considering experimenting myself with a spare touch cover and a raspberry pi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, im sorry, i didn't make further progress on this, exept what i already posted.. it is a USB connection, you can easily verify that yourself by looking at the Touch/type-cover in the device-manager...
I guess you can easily connect other USB devices if you build yourself an adapter..
but there could also be some kind of verification, if so then its most likely software based, if you hit a barrier, try reverseing the type-cover driver, you might find something there...
One additional info: the big outer nipples can be used to charge the device.
Peace
If I were to leverage the bottom grooves for charging, can you tell me which pin is which? +/-
tfBullet said:
Nope, im sorry, i didn't make further progress on this, exept what i already posted.. it is a USB connection, you can easily verify that yourself by looking at the Touch/type-cover in the device-manager...
I guess you can easily connect other USB devices if you build yourself an adapter..
but there could also be some kind of verification, if so then its most likely software based, if you hit a barrier, try reverseing the type-cover driver, you might find something there...
One additional info: the big outer nipples can be used to charge the device.
Peace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi tfBullet,
When you say "the big outer nipples can be used to charge the devices" are you referring to these...
Power Cover connector (Using pin labels in picture)
1/10 = Power cover +ve
2/9 = Power cover Ground
Any new discovery?
Any new discovery?
will the power output still be live, if the data signals are not shorted? e.g: IOS devices
Can we just connect the keyboard via usb to a windows pc?
I don't think this is true USB, as there is no 5 volts anywhere on the connector, only 3.3 volts.. It may be USB, but needing to be level-shifted before you can use it. It may be potentially a way to get another USB port on the damn thing. Why did they think one USB port is enough? I have been trying to boot it from flash drive, but need keyboard as well, but the USB will not boot with a hub connected. Grrrrr.
slurpy1 said:
I don't think this is true USB, as there is no 5 volts anywhere on the connector, only 3.3 volts.. It may be USB, but needing to be level-shifted before you can use it. It may be potentially a way to get another USB port on the damn thing. Why did they think one USB port is enough? I have been trying to boot it from flash drive, but need keyboard as well, but the USB will not boot with a hub connected. Grrrrr.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not booting on a flash drive and use the usb for keyboard???
There's someone here who's made some progress...
edwardsh.in/keyboard%20cover/2015/08/13/applying-logic-to-the-surface-touch-cover
i want to connect the keyboard itself to other devices
Hey guys
Good thread going on , i would like to see if any one of you ever thought about to use keyboard itself not the port , for some reasons I would like to use the keyboard on other devices (i mean kinda convert the pins to a USB port and use it on other pcs or what i really desire about is using it on Xbox) i want to see if any of you have any ideas or information about this , i mean is this even possible ? I've read the whole replies and most of them were about the port on surface and yeah its really cool , but i want to see if its possible to do , cause if its possible then it would be a lot easier than the port on the surface
Thanks
Ferrybigger said:
Hey guys
Good thread going on , i would like to see if any one of you ever thought about to use keyboard itself not the port , for some reasons I would like to use the keyboard on other devices (i mean kinda convert the pins to a USB port and use it on other pcs or what i really desire about is using it on Xbox) i want to see if any of you have any ideas or information about this , i mean is this even possible ? I've read the whole replies and most of them were about the port on surface and yeah its really cool , but i want to see if its possible to do , cause if its possible then it would be a lot easier than the port on the surface
Thanks
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Well, take a look at the link Neakmenter posted, the guy there analyzed the communication, turns out it's no standard USB, it's proprietary.. Which means, there is no easy way of using this keyboard anywhere else than the surface... You would need some kind of microcontroller which connects to the keyboard, interprets it's signals, and relays them as Standart HID signals to a USB port..
The connector alone is a problem as well, you'd need to 3D print a connector or something like that, it's just not worth the effort i guess [emoji2371]
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