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Does the Xoom support portable USB hard drives?

I've been searching all over and I cant find a definitive answer on this.
I have a Toshiba portable USB hard drive that gets its power from the USB connector (it does not have a separate power supply).
Can I hook this up to my Xoom and watch movies/tv shows from it? Does the Xoom support USB hard drives or thumb drives at all?
Sorry in advance if this has already been answered.
Thanks

Yes but you need a USB OTG cable. Not sure if the Xoom will power an external hard drive that runs off of USB only though, you might need to get one if those cables that splits off for power.

I can't get anything to work, even with a USB OTG cable, and I have 3.2 installed.
When I bought the cable it said this ...
This adapter allows you to plug a USB memory stick pen drive so you can play music, videos, backup & transfer files and view photos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Motorola forum says it can't be done, yet.
Others say you need to root the phone.

I'm sure you need to unlock and install tiamat rom I think?

I'm new to these forums as of today,
But i've read around the forums, and it seems to me that 3.2 doesn't support USBhost, and therefore PENdrives/USBHDD's cannot be used.
As Kippui stated, you will need to use a custom ROM with USBhost support, before you will be able to use the HDD at the very least

oRAirwolf said:
I've been searching all over and I cant find a definitive answer on this.
I have a Toshiba portable USB hard drive that gets its power from the USB connector (it does not have a separate power supply).
Can I hook this up to my Xoom and watch movies/tv shows from it? Does the Xoom support USB hard drives or thumb drives at all?
Sorry in advance if this has already been answered.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it has no separate power supply then no, the xoom doesn't put out enough power
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

my wd passport works fine.
I use a motorla host cable(cheap one ship from china a no go)
I'm rooted
use usb mass storage watcher app
I'm on moray rom

superchilpil said:
If it has no separate power supply then no, the xoom doesn't put out enough power
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true about the newer Passports, for example. I have a 1st generation 250GB Passport that can only work if I use a powered hub, but my brand new USB3 650GB Passport works fine and is fully powered by the Xoom.
Please note, I am unlocked, rooted, and running a custom Rom/kernel that supports USB Host Mode.
Stock Honeycomb does not support USBOTG/host mode.

xoom 2 support usb otg with stock firmware

I would go on eBay and buy an Angled USB OTG cable. I got two of them on their for around $7-$8. It's better because you don't have a wire sticking out of your tablet.
I'm paranoid on breaking my ports.

mdcykkk9 said:
xoom 2 support usb otg with stock firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's something in it's favor, anyway.

[Q] Re: Nexus S usb host is not working

http://support.google.com/ics/nexus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2386439&topic=2375623&ctx=topic
According to the official Google Help Page, it should support USB Host. However searching online have returned a lot of out-dated threads about how the USB chip works when it was still running Gingerbread.
I have purchased a USB adapter, tried to connect any USB device to my Nexus S, and nothing happens. The USB port will not be powered. However quoting Google's official help text :
You may need an adapter to connect the keyboard or other device to your phone's USB port. To connect more than one USB device at a time, use a powered USB hub to reduce the drain on your phone’s battery.
This implies that connecting devices to your Nexus S will drain your battery?
I am very confused. I have no powered USB hubs so I cannot try to see if the USB host function is purely limited by the lack of power or the USB chip.
I am sure I am not the only person who would love this to work. Is there anyone who knows what does it take to get USB Host to work on Nexus S upgraded to ICS? (Despite Google's help site indicating that it should just works out of the box)
Thanks a lot.

So, I spent some money and bought a powered USB hub.
No it didn't work.
I think the reason is that the power is not being transferred UPSTREAM. For example, I have connected the USB hub to my Nexus S, and a Logitech wireless mouse receiver to the powered USB hub.
Although I am sure that the Logitech wireless mouse receiver has power (from the USB hub), the Nexus S does not recognize the existence of the USB hub, since the power is not transmitted from the USB hub back INTO the Nexus S.
Feeling disappointed, I repacked everything nicely and exchanged my purchase for a slightly more useful 16GB SD Card.
Does anyone has any information to how is this supposed to work?
Or should we assume Google has made a stupid typo in their help articles, and that the Nexus S will not actually work in USB Host Mode ??

anyone please?

I too am looking for answers. Anyone?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

[Q] How to enable UMS/Mass storage mode??

Yesterday I made a custom usb Y cable and connected it to a USB OTG adapter to our phone and supplied a external +5v power then connected USB keyboard and mouse both worked.
But when i tried connecting my pen drive it did not shown any sign of life.
I searched and narrowed these methods:
http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/how-to-mount-usb-flash-drives-t1865.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1334444
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=997187
According to these two methods I should get sda1 and sda 2 in dev/block after connecting a USB pen drive but that is not happening.
Then I searched and found out that our kernel should have UMS enabled to mount any usb storage device as stated here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22597744&postcount=3
I am really confused now, I know I have enabled USB Host mode as usb mouse and keyboard are working but dont know how to modify our kernel to get usb pen drive work.

prasannapmv said:
Yesterday I made a custom usb Y cable and connected it to a USB OTG adapter to our phone and supplied a external +5v power then connected USB keyboard and mouse both worked.
But when i tried connecting my pen drive it did not shown any sign of life.
I searched and narrowed these methods:
http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/how-to-mount-usb-flash-drives-t1865.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1334444
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=997187
According to these two methods I should get sda1 and sda 2 in dev/block after connecting a USB pen drive but that is not happening.
Then I searched and found out that our kernel should have UMS enabled to mount any usb storage device as stated here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22597744&postcount=3
I am really confused now, I know I have enabled USB Host mode as usb mouse and keyboard are working but dont know how to modify our kernel to get usb pen drive work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you won't be able to modify our kernel with our locked bootloader, but your problem could be elsewhere. the drive requires more power than a mouse or keyboard, so it just may not be getting enough. will your power supply give a full 500mA that is what a normal usb port gives, and is probably overkill for a flash drive, but it would prove whether that is the problem or not.
Does the drive have a light on it that usually turns on when you plug it in? if so, does it come on when you plug it in with your splitter into the phone.
It may be that it is just not supported on our phone, but I think a power problem is much more likely.
EDIT: once you think it is getting power, check for it in /dev/block by running this in terminal emulator. you can check before and after to see what changes, if anything in case it is not named /sdxx
Code:
ls /dev/block

lkrasner said:
you won't be able to modify our kernel with our locked bootloader, but your problem could be elsewhere. the drive requires more power than a mouse or keyboard, so it just may not be getting enough. will your power supply give a full 500mA that is what a normal usb port gives, and is probably overkill for a flash drive, but it would prove whether that is the problem or not.
Does the drive have a light on it that usually turns on when you plug it in? if so, does it come on when you plug it in with your splitter into the phone.
It may be that it is just not supported on our phone, but I think a power problem is much more likely.
EDIT: once you think it is getting power, check for it in /dev/block by running this in terminal emulator. you can check before and after to see what changes, if anything in case it is not named /sdxx
Code:
ls /dev/block
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is right, our phone does not provide power on the usb connection, it is a one way charge only, no matter which cable you use, it is an issue with moto's implementation of the USB protocol.
---EDIT---
I do think that I read that someone was able to get it working by using a powered usb hub attached in between the A2 and the usb device. WARNING some assembly/dis-assembly was required!

jimbridgman said:
That is right, our phone does not provide power on the usb connection, it is a one way charge only, no matter which cable you use, it is an issue with moto's implementation of the USB protocol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
devices do work as long as you provide external power, which is what he has done. basically you cut the power wires out of the cable and hook them up to a power supply, thus givng the power and giving the data to the phone. Since it supports host mode, it SHOULD work with a flash drive as well as mice, I have heard of people doing it.

lkrasner said:
devices do work as long as you provide external power, which is what he has done. basically you cut the power wires out of the cable and hook them up to a power supply, thus givng the power and giving the data to the phone. Since it supports host mode, it SHOULD work with a flash drive as well as mice, I have heard of people doing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this does not explain it, but it is mentioned that a powered hub is needed.... This person was thinking of making basically a DIY HD doc, and there was someone else on here that has done it too, but I can't find that post and I can't remember the users name.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1462541
A cheap hub will do the job much better, and I have heard of other users having trouble with the otg cable and usb storage.
Just more information to think about and look into.

Try this
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.stickmount&hl=en
Motorola lied and I'm still locked mb865

I've tried every single thing that I can to make Usb flash drive work but its something in our software that is restricting it detect any of my storage devices.
I saw one more thread yesterday it was for XOOM which says kernel has to be modified in order to get usb Drives work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068999
I now understand that with locked bootloader it will not be possible to modify the kernel so i am abandoning this project and hope we find a way to unlock bootloader soon in the future.

You can try by using a self powered hub which provide power to devices, If it works do post the results as I am also looking forward to use USB HOST feature

john1989 said:
You can try by using a self powered hub which provide power to devices, If it works do post the results as I am also looking forward to use USB HOST feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive done this. I have a powerd usb hub, otg cable hooked up and it does not recognize drives or mice. None of it is working. Beginning to think there is not a way to make this work.

It does work when you connect pen drive to lapdock so its not software/firmware/kernel issue.
Easy solution: buy a lapdock or a media dock with usb ports and connect your drive there.
Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2

I did finally get this to work.
One caveat, you have to connect the power directly from the cable to the otg cable. Basically power the hub and the otg cable from one line even though they are connected. This is what did the trick for me.
Ill post pictures when i can if its still foggy.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

Rebelj12a said:
I did finally get this to work.
One caveat, you have to connect the power directly from the cable to the otg cable. Basically power the hub and the otg cable from one line even though they are connected. This is what did the trick for me.
Ill post pictures when i can if its still foggy.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update and edit. No automounting at all. Have to use an external program to mount. Been trying to debug this for a while but the OS is not seeing the usb device.
Using USB host diagnostics Android api does not detect the device. Although the claims and classes were found. Kernel is in the green here too. Unfortunitely this makes it so that the USB device cannot be used by 3rd party programs. Still working on figuring this out. I saw a post about shorting out the 4 and 5 line of the microusb cable. Going to try that see where it goes.

Usb cable or dock that can be used to transfer data but uses separate power source.

I would like to know if this exists, as if it doesn't I was thinking about making it. As the title may be confusing to understand, maybe describing what I'm trying to do will be easier to explain.
I going to create a dock in a family mini van for a tablet. This tablet will have limited storage space, but has usb otg capabilities. Thus hooking up a flash drive with movies on it would be the goal.
Now running a female to male cable would be fairly easy, however I want to be able to have the tablet charge and still use the usb port to access the usb cable. Thus I need a cable that may be spliced cable with three ends. Where two ends are for usb transfer and another to supply power to the devices. Or if there is another solution, I am up for it.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app

I have seen Y cables for such a purpose.
If you want to do charge/power and USB host at the same time
you will need the plug into the Android to be an OTG plug with a grounded ID pin.
The other end will go to the flash drive.
If you apply 5V to the Vbus/Gnd your device has the possibility to use this power.
Of course this is an odd situation and it may ignore the 5V and only use its own battery.
Experimenting will show you if this will work without a driver hack.

Any Roms that support usb otg

Are there any Roms that support usb otg.
I'm on clean rom 2.5 and can't get it to work. Also the few Roms I have tried it hasn't worked.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

CleanRom 2.5 (and 2.1 before that) and it works fine for me. Higher-drain usb devices might need their own power source.

What kind of usb otg are you using maybe I have the wrong cord. Did you have to enable any options?

bsannes said:
What kind of usb otg are you using maybe I have the wrong cord. Did you have to enable any options?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used what I thought was a non-OTG micro-usb-to-usb adapter, and then a cheapo OTG cable and both worked with a wired Xbox 360 controller. The cable also worked with a flash drive. I haven't really tried any other devices.
The ones I used were:
http://www.amazon.com/T-Flash-Adapt...UTF8&qid=1350406382&sr=8-1&keywords=otg+cable
and something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Micro-Male-Female-Adapter/dp/B0027YYMU6/ref=pd_sim_cps_8
I didn't enable/disable anything when I did the tests -- it just worked. Possibly I had done something earlier, but I can't remember anything specific, and haven't done any specialized hacks for this.

Yeah I have the same cord odd. Oh well .
Thank you for taking the time to supply the links.

Is it possible to attach a powered hub to
A) Attach higher power-requirement devices that do not have external power
and/or
B) Attach multiple devices for simultaneous use (say, a keyboard and a mouse
??
(my USB OTG cables are in the mail)

crabapples said:
Is it possible to attach a powered hub to
A) Attach higher power-requirement devices that do not have external power
and/or
B) Attach multiple devices for simultaneous use (say, a keyboard and a mouse
??
(my USB OTG cables are in the mail)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I *believe* both answers are "yes". You can attach a usb hub. A powered one should give power to the devices, or you could try a "y" usb cable to provide power as well.
btw, here's a video showing off some of the capabilities (i believe this is the international version):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46IiRyigUH0
---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 PM ----------
bsannes said:
Yeah I have the same cord odd. Oh well .
Thank you for taking the time to supply the links.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shoot. I guess I'm not sure what else to try so hopefully someone else can chime in. I haven't tested it out recently, but I'll let you know if I happen to discover anything.

Works fine for me...just plug the otg cable in (I had one from my old fascinate I got off Amazon for like 3 dollars...and I can either plug a single item like a mouse or flash drive straight into it or a hub that can be powered or not...if you plan on using an external hard drive is suggest plugging it in...I believe the phone holds up to like 6usb connections at once but don't quite me on the exact number...I have had a mouse, keyboard, flash drive, sd card reader, and second phone all plugged in at once...only think I've found is that not all usb hubs will work for some reason...I use a 30 dollar (at bestbuy) belkin 6 port hub and never had a problem...to have it powered though you have to plug the actual power cable on the hub into a power source and run a usb cable from the hub to otg cable...as far as I know every room should support this...I used liquid smooth which is an aosp rom and it works great, also works great on any tw Rom as the capability is built into the phone...hope this helps anyone with questions about this...only think I haven't tried is a hard drive mainly because I have no need to buy one but it should work...and if it means anything I use all 2.0 cables and accessories, no 3.0 or 1.0
Sent from my blackened liquid galaxy