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[Q] Asus Transformer full size USB Challenge

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?

[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.

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.

[Q] USB Hub/Controller

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has had any success using a USB hub with the Asus Transformerpad TF300T? Powered/unpowered? Found some information mostly saying they will work in theory. Hoping someone can prove that in practice.
Also was curious has anyone found a reliable USB and/or BT controller for use with emulators that does not require root (I read some good things about Wii Classic controllers). Worst case scenario, I will use the PS3 pairing tool and root.
Thanks for any help you can provide me!

wilkie1020 said:
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has had any success using a USB hub with the Asus Transformerpad TF300T? Powered/unpowered? Found some information mostly saying they will work in theory. Hoping someone can prove that in practice.
Also was curious has anyone found a reliable USB and/or BT controller for use with emulators that does not require root (I read some good things about Wii Classic controllers). Worst case scenario, I will use the PS3 pairing tool and root.
Thanks for any help you can provide me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Gear Head USB hub(4 port - $4.99) which works with the Asus USB adapter and with the dock. The only thing I have used it for is to access 2.5" usb drives (fat32 and ntfs). It always works without any changes.
Be mindful that the drives always pull power when plugged in even with the tablet powered off.
There is no part number or other identification on the unit.
I forgot! I have also used the hub with a wifi mouse and a 2.5" drive at the same time (prior to getting a dock).

tobdaryl said:
I have a Gear Head USB hub(4 port - $4.99) which works with the Asus USB adapter and with the dock. The only thing I have used it for is to access 2.5" usb drives (fat32 and ntfs). It always works without any changes.
Be mindful that the drives always pull power when plugged in even with the tablet powered off.
There is no part number or other identification on the unit.
I forgot! I have also used the hub with a wifi mouse and a 2.5" drive at the same time (prior to getting a dock).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good price too. I did not know that drives pull power, even when the power is off. That actually explains some things haha.
Thank you, sir.

wilkie1020 said:
Good price too. I did not know that drives pull power, even when the power is off. That actually explains some things haha.
Thank you, sir.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! Good Luck.
As a note the 2.5 drives work without external power but 3.5 drives require external power.

[Q] Tablet for car use - smooth mkv, usb otg + hdmi out?

Hi,
I am looking for tablet to use in my car - I want it to be a multimedia device used for playing audio /or/+/ video (outputting it to rear-seat monitors as well), being ready for usb stick connection anytime and have dvb-t tuner connected 24/7.
Now after a long search I cannot really find a tablet that's around 7-8 inches, is powerful enough to handle full hd mkv's, and have mini hdmi along with double micro-usb otg, so I can have both usb stick and dvb-t tuner connected, and still have car charger attached to it, so I thought someone here may be able to help.
Anyone?

how about this tablet?
http://www.amazon.com/PPTab%C2%AE-Inch-Android-4-2-Tablet/dp/B00KAJ9444/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1401839610&sr=8-9&keywords=hdmi+tablet

That won't work smoothly with 1080p high-bitrate video for sure
I gotta admit there's [probably] no high-end tablets with separate hdmi out currently on the market, I keep searching and searching and nothing comes up...

ntdm 3000 is a cheap chinese tablet which i use its great for 1080p on bs or mx player,.
idont know if its hdmi though.

Yeah, it doesn't.
The point it it does not need to be cheap - but there's none with hdmi out.
Found some of the tablets by "KURGER & MATZ" to have 2 micro usb ports but... they don't have both gps and bluetooth

freqfreq said:
Yeah, it doesn't.
The point it it does not need to be cheap - but there's none with hdmi out.
Found some of the tablets by "KURGER & MATZ" to have 2 micro usb ports but... they don't have both gps and bluetooth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus 7 2012 has mhl (HDMI through USB port) and DVT tuner support and has car specific roms . Samsung tablets (8 inch and up) all have capability also . older 7 inchAcer a100 has HDMI and a500 10 inch. Nexus 7 2013 has slimport (newer HDMI through USB) capability. Slim port and mhl plug are only around 10- 30 $ nexus's and Samsung both have USB host and charging at the same time capability (need for DVT support) there is still active development on the old nexus its the one I'd go with. And its pretty easy to solder to the volume and power buttons so u can permently mount in your dash...

HDMI throught usb doesn't do the job for me.
I found only one tablet actually that fills my needs - Chineese PIPO T9.
One thing that sucks, is that it has 4.2.2 and they don't plan on any updates to kitkat.
Aside from that, it has everything needed.
http://www.pipo-store.com/pipo-t9-t...hone-call-tablets-gps-bluetooth-2gb-32gb.html
Separate charging port, mhl-host usb, hdmi, aux, octa-core.
Anyone has better ideas?

In case anyone googling the topic wants to know how I sorted it out in the end:
Bought PIPO M7T tablet (t9 turned out to not have separate hdmi out),
upgraded it with stock rom to 4.4.2.
32 GB MicroSD.
Full HD, even with very high bitrate plays smoothly there.
Has usb otg, hdmi, aux and dc connectors.
Got headphones out connected to aux in my car,
HDMI out heads to hdmi->av converted and goes to car av inputs.
A USB 2.0 4x hub is connected to micro usb, to which I have connected dvb-t tuner, hdmi->av converter power cord and any pendrives I want.
Tablet is constantly connected to external power using DC in.
Works superb, couldn't been better.