How to use USB Host without an HD Dock (Updated 11/7/12)

codenamefly21 · Jul 22, 2012

Very nice setup. I may order one of these and and change one end cable to a female usb and take out all the usb sockets and put a battery in the case that way I could have a nice clean portable usb drive reader.

---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 PM ----------

The other day I had my usb hub plugged into my phone and the usb was off while the phone was booting up the status led came on for awhile and once the phone got past the motorola logo the light turned off. So this tells me the Bionic is able to output power through the micro usb port.

silversonic1 · Jul 22, 2012

ToddFerrante said:
For a while now I've wanted to be able to use my waterproof camera to take pictures, and use my phone to upload them to the web without needing to fire up a computer to do a transfer from the SD card to the phone. This thread inspired me to finally take the leap to work up an OTG adapter. I went on Amazon to buy the Y-cable and the little adapters, but found something better.
(Removed imaged to make reply smaller - silversonic1)
This (board won't let me post a link because I'm new) is a USB hub that connects a phone to one of the four downstream ports with a built-in micro USB connector cable. I ordered one up, suspecting that I could mod it to be an OTG adapter. I was right.

To do the mod, the first step is to pry the endcap off the micro USB connector and slide the cover back. This exposes the soldered wire connections. One side of the connector has three wires.

The other side has one wire and an empty solder pad.

Solder a jumper wire from the empty pad to the black wire on the other side.

Then slide the connector cover back over the connector, and press the endcap back into place. If necessary, you can secure the end cap with a drop of super glue.

Next, open the case of the hub. Mine pulled right open with only finger pressure. Use a small screwdriver to remove the circuit board. It is not held by anything other than a light press fit.

This is the back side of the circuit board.

This is the chip that runs the USB hub.

I googled the chip number and downloaded the data sheet, just to be sure there were no gotchas. There weren't any. The only modification is swapping the regular and the micro USB cables. It goes without saying that this requires a very fine soldering iron and a steady hand. Desolder both cables and reattach the micro USB cable on the Host end of the circuit board.

This lets your phone control the hub. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, the Droid Bionic won't power the hub, so you need to hook up the other USB cable to the device side of the circuit board to provide power. Only hook up the power wires. Just cut the data wires short.

It would be easy to wire a battery to the hub either by connecting to the USB port cable, through the 5VDC power input jack, or by removing the jack and hard wiring directly to the circuit board.

To use the adapter, I plug my SD card reader into the hub, plug the power USB connector into my wall adapter (or car adapter), and plug the micro USB cable into the phone (in that order). The phone immediately loads the card as an attached storage device.

Enjoy,
Todd F.

Amazing work. I'll have to buy a couple of these and have my brother mod them for me.

silversonic1 · Jul 22, 2012

codenamefly21 said:
Very nice setup. I may order one of these and and change one end cable to a female usb and take out all the usb sockets and put a battery in the case that way I could have a nice clean portable usb drive reader.

---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 PM ----------

The other day I had my usb hub plugged into my phone and the usb was off while the phone was booting up the status led came on for awhile and once the phone got past the motorola logo the light turned off. So this tells me the Bionic is able to output power through the micro usb port.

Mind posting a picture of it? If what you're saying is correct, there may be a way to patch the OS to make OTG work without being plugged in.

codenamefly21 · Jul 23, 2012

Ok so i ran a test with a multimeter no voltage fluctuation through the micro usb port all the way through boot. I dont know what caused the led to light up but it may merit some more testing. The led was wired straight to the power and ground wires connected to the phone.

silversonic1 · Jul 23, 2012

Maybe there's something you did before that you didn't do this time.

Dirtdawg57 · Nov 7, 2012

Sorry to bring up and old thread but has anyone determined if this still applies to the ota ics update? I would just like to know before I spend money on it. Thanks!

scottyd035ntknow · Nov 8, 2012

Um, if you do this now you are not very bright. An OEM dock is like $12 now from Amazon... this was useful back when docks were $55 and even then you weren't saving much after you pieced it all together and shipping.

silversonic1 · Nov 8, 2012

scottyd035ntknow said:
Um, if you do this now you are not very bright. An OEM dock is like $12 now from Amazon... this was useful back when docks were $55 and even then you weren't saving much after you pieced it all together and shipping.

The standard dock doesn't do USB. However, the HD dock does and is now $24 on Amazon, making my method obsolete for Bionic users. Still, other phones can still benefit from this method if they share in the Bionic's plight. I will revise my opening post to share this data.
PS. It still works on OTA ICS.

Dirtdawg57 · Nov 8, 2012

The problem with the hd dock is does it force you into webtop mode? I haven't been able to get joy2touch to work in webtop mode. If you can use mirror mode does the usb ports still work? Thanks for the response!

silversonic1 · Nov 8, 2012

Dirtdawg57 said:
The problem with the hd dock is does it force you into webtop mode? I haven't been able to get joy2touch to work in webtop mode. If you can use mirror mode does the usb ports still work? Thanks for the response!

I'm almost positive it doesn't force it. But if it does, I believe there is still an option to switch to mirror mode. As for the usb, I believe it works as long as you are docked. Just make sure to unmount any external storage before removing anything.
Nothing is certain for me right now, as my little brother has my dock in his room and is currently asleep. I cannot confirm at this time.

scottyd035ntknow · Nov 8, 2012

silversonic1 said:
The standard dock doesn't do USB. However, the HD dock does and is now $24 on Amazon, making my method obsolete for Bionic users. Still, other phones can still benefit from this method if they share in the Bionic's plight. I will revise my opening post to share this data.
PS. It still works on OTA ICS.

Yeah I just ordered the standard dock. I might order the HD dock as a docking station for my desktop... or maybe not. I used the HDMI/USB out features on my Droid 3 HD dock exactly 0 times in the year I've had it.

Dirtdawg57 · Nov 8, 2012

silversonic1 said:
I'm almost positive it doesn't force it. But if it does, I believe there is still an option to switch to mirror mode. As for the usb, I believe it works as long as you are docked. Just make sure to unmount any external storage before removing anything.
Nothing is certain for me right now, as my little brother has my dock in his room and is currently asleep. I cannot confirm at this time.

Ok that would be alot nicer than messing around with a bunch of cords! If at some point you could confirm that there is a way to get to mirror mode on a tv with usb support also that would be great! I think I will hold off ordering the hd dock until I can get a confirmation because I can't find anything about mirror mode on the hd dock on the internet. No rush though thanks for your help!

silversonic1 · Nov 9, 2012

Dirtdawg57 said:
Ok that would be alot nicer than messing around with a bunch of cords! If at some point you could confirm that there is a way to get to mirror mode on a tv with usb support also that would be great! I think I will hold off ordering the hd dock until I can get a confirmation because I can't find anything about mirror mode on the hd dock on the internet. No rush though thanks for your help!

Okay. Mirror mode is go, as well as USB. The phone prompted which mode to go to upon connection.

Dirtdawg57 · Nov 9, 2012

Thank you so much for checking that for me! I have had such a hard time getting answers on anything. You are a great forum user man!

silversonic1 · Nov 9, 2012

Dirtdawg57 said:
Thank you so much for checking that for me! I have had such a hard time getting answers on anything. You are a great forum user manual!

You're welcome. I find that it's a key responsibility of an OP to look at all angles and not just assume things work.

sfcascooter · Dec 10, 2012

Loving my HD Dock

silversonic1 said:
You're welcome. I find that it's a key responsibility of an OP to look at all angles and not just assume things work.

Got a good deal from Amazon and I am loving the dock. Hoping to get another one for the office. I tied the home one into a kvm switch on my home computer -- love using the mouse and keyboard to reply to texts, etc. by just hitting the switch button on the KVM

jkensing · Dec 12, 2012

USB Tether

Does anyone know if you can tether an internet connection 4g/3g via USB from the doc to the computer. I'm assuming no because both I assume are live. I know they only advertise the USB connections for a mouse or keyboard.

silversonic1 · Dec 13, 2012

It's doubtful, but I will try to find time to test it.

Edit: It's not possible. Sorry. When in host mode, you can't use USB tethering. I have my phone docked right now and am connected to my PC, but neither side is recognizing the other.

jkensing · Dec 13, 2012

Thanks

silversonic1 said:
It's doubtful, but I will try to find time to test it.

Edit: It's not possible. Sorry. When in host mode, you can't use USB tethering. I have my phone docked right now and am connected to my PC, but neither side is recognizing the other.

Thanks for checking. I didn't think it would but that was just a hunch. I have to say that the lapdock is really nice. It's a shame that it didn't take off any better. They were priced out of the market and I think that if moto could have got this into peoples hands to know what it's all about and priced it accordingly they could have sold a bunch of these.. I could have sold 10 of them so far. I would say $100 is the right price point from day 1.

codenamefly21 · Jan 1, 2013

rechargeable battery powered usb host connector

I've been working on this forever partly because of laziness but also because I don't have much free time. This device uses an iphone battery with a stepup circuit to 5v wired to an on/off switch. I also built a charging circuit that takes a micro usb and has a red status light to show when charging and a green status light to show when its on. This unit will power any usb device including portable hard drives that only require power from the usb. Even though its been a long process it was fun making it. I built this to see if I could and also for my dad who would like to see picture from his wild game cam then and there at the camera copy it then wipe the SD card and put it back in.