Nexus One gets USB host driver from a dude with an oscilloscope (video)

For Sven Killig, running Android 2.2 wasn't enough. No sir, this dude wanted even more power for his Nexus One, so he went ahead and penned a few lines of code that have allowed his Googlephone to act as a USB host. As a result, he can now do cutting edge stuff like plugging in USB keyboards and webcams, as well as more useful things like watching movies off USB sticks or connecting to a monitor via a DisplayLink USB-to-DVI adapter. All these features are demonstrated in the video after the break, and you'll find the downloadable binaries at the source -- Sven expects them to work on Android 2.1 as well.

[tindola Posted Jun 4th 2010 9:02AM]

this is great. What about the ability to run a small, 7 inch touch screen usb monitor? that way i can replace my car-puter with my N1. I would love to just have a 7 in ch touch screen that i hook up to my phone when i get in to the car... that would be perfect in so many ways.

[cicada Posted Jun 4th 2010 10:19AM]

@tindola just a matter of writing the drivers. get to it!

[Peter F Posted Jun 4th 2010 1:43PM]

@tindola
That would be SO awesome! Just dock the phone and its interface is just on the screen in your car! Works exactly the same, always up to date!

[tindola Posted Jun 4th 2010 3:19PM]

@cicada i'm an idea man, the last time i understood programing was in basic, and that was um, basic

[sonic74 Posted Jun 5th 2010 3:53PM]

@cicada Actually, the drivers exist. I tried the Samsung U70 7" below the left monitor before. And I've seen touch screen open source drivers, too.

[spongebob Posted Jun 4th 2010 9:38AM]

too cool

[ah30k Posted Jun 4th 2010 10:42AM]

I wonder how tied it is to the hardware? Getting the USB access on a Droid would be very useful to some people I know.

[Snake87 Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:10AM]

i want the wallpaper on the left :(

[SN7 Posted Jun 4th 2010 11:31AM]

I'm impressed and a bit jealous!

[twoboxen Posted Jun 4th 2010 12:42PM]

Google, I know someone there is reading this. (Andy, is that you?) Can you please fold this into the Android trunk for the official Froyo release? This is something that would have helped you sell a lot more devices from the get-go.

Also, under the assumption that Google (Andy?) will ignore my previous paragraph... can someone give me newb-friendly instructions on how to add this into my rooted prefroyo N1? I have debian all ready to go (ubuntu, actually, on a dedicated partition). Much appreciated.

[KC Posted Jun 4th 2010 1:34PM]

@twoboxen

Easy instructions on how to make this work out of the box? For your next phone, ditch Android and go with a MeeGo device.

[twoboxen Posted Jun 4th 2010 2:00PM]

@KC

1. I just sold my n900 after giving up on Nokia after 6+ months (I preordered it) of waiting for basic functions (phone, calendar, email) to work well. Advanced stuff was always fun and possible, but the basic stuff was crap. So no thanks on Nokia anything (with or without Intel... doesn't matter).

2. I would like google to add usb host support and a basic set of usb device drivers out-of-the-box. I don't need instructions on how to have them add it to the trunk.

3. I was asking for instructions on how to incorporate his build.img without touching my current ROM.

[junktrunk Posted Jun 4th 2010 2:03PM]

Regarding the "DisplayLink USB-to-DVI adapter" demo, is he saying X11 is running right on the Nexus One, and that what we see on the monitor is that output? Pretty slick (though I would have preferred seeing the Android UI).

[willmac2 Posted Jun 4th 2010 4:16PM]

PLEASE tell me this will support my NES (-to-USB) controller. PLEASE!!!

[xus1 Posted Jun 4th 2010 5:36PM]

Watching movies on a memory stick sounds so obvious and I've been waiting for this since I got the nexus1. I can't even workout how to download movies onto my nex1 and this Guy has turned his into a bloody tardis! Good luck to him, he's a genius.