Usb Devices


aesir911

aesir911

aesir triumphs
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Aug 8, 2009
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So have any of the lucky 600 tried using usb devices with their pandora yet? do hard drives, gaming controllers, and keyboards work with it? (looking for videos...)
 
There's a USB compatibility list in the wiki. Hardware requirement is USB 2.0 or a USB 2.0 hub in between the device and your Pandora. Drivers are obviously another issue.
[edit] you may have seen the "Read This First" thread here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/44746-the-pandora-information-index/
which would have pointed you to the FAQ here: http://pandorawiki.org/FAQ
and then you would have found mention of USB devices here: http://pandorawiki.org/FAQ#Will_I_be_able_to_use_USB_and_SDIO_accessories_with_my_Pandora.3F
and the USB page here: http://pandorawiki.org/USB_reference
with links to the compatibility list here: http://pandorawiki.org/USB_compatibility_list
 
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The best reference point in the wiki is the Documentation/Tutorial index
http://pandorawiki.org/Tutorials_and_documentation

There is also the Unofficial User Guide which is slowly gaining links to more detailed reference.
http://pandorawiki.org/User_manual

The FAQ page in the wiki is more useful for questions of market positioning, history, etc.
 
If you want videos, I give you mindlord's pandora usb test :p :
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3M6f_NUnHs[/youtube]
 
aesir911 said:
any attempts with a ps3 or xbox 360 controller?
Click to expand...


a ps3 controller should be easy, as it uses a standard mini-usb connector.


I made my own mini-usb to usb adapter but i dont have it with me, here, i'll draw my diagram.

EDIT: picture removed, see the one below.
 
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There's a fifth pin on the USB mini that needs to be taken to ground, as noted in one of the threads in the Help forum. When you splice the USB mini cable, you should see 5 wires. Which ever one is not red, black, green, or white should be spliced together with the black wires. This extra pin forced to ground tells the USB OTG port to switch from client to host mode.
 
I'm still looking for a tiny/discreet usb hub like the one Gruso posted a while back.
 
WizardStan said:
There's a fifth pin on the USB mini that needs to be taken to ground, as noted in one of the threads in the Help forum. When you splice the USB mini cable, you should see 5 wires. Which ever one is not red, black, green, or white should be spliced together with the black wires. This extra pin forced to ground tells the USB OTG port to switch from client to host mode.
Click to expand...
The problem with those cables is that the host pin sometimes isn't fed through. I had to do a pretty ugly hack dismantling the complete plug to ground that pin for my N800 adaptor.
 
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For the record, it works perfectly with the Pandora. :p Excellent little hub. I used it to hook up a USB keyboard and mouse.

Everything else I have is USB 2.0, so I didn't try it with those items (those were a USB 2.0 flash-drive, an Apple USB Ethernet adapter, a WD Elements 160GB HDD, and a LaCie Rikiki 250GB HDD which did not work and did scary things to the screen - I added most of them to the USB compatibility list).
 
WizardStan said:
There's a fifth pin on the USB mini that needs to be taken to ground, as noted in one of the threads in the Help forum. When you splice the USB mini cable, you should see 5 wires. Which ever one is not red, black, green, or white should be spliced together with the black wires. This extra pin forced to ground tells the USB OTG port to switch from client to host mode.
Click to expand...


ah! forgot about that! will fix.

I had a blackberry and the 5th pin broke off of it on its mini usb port and it wouldnt charge...

usbthingy-1.jpg
 
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milkshake said:
cant you just buy one of these? instead of butchering 2 cables?
Click to expand...
You can, but I've not seen a cheap one.
You can (or at least I can) get a standard and an extension cable to splice together from the dollar store.
 
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Well, seeing as we're on the subject of USB devices I won't start a whole new thread for this...

I'm planning ahead with my Pandora to have a leather case built for it (my misses is like a miracle worker with that stuff), and the idea is to have room for my 320G external HD to be connected via usb to the Pandora inside this case. My question is, and it's probably a very silly question due to the fact I am not used to little devices like this letting me do whatever I want with it, does the Pandora allow me to click and drag files from that HD to the SD cards like a normal computer would? I want to be able to copy and move files freely with the Pandora without needing to plug everything into my Desktop to click and chose.
 
Abanest said:
does the Pandora allow me to click and drag files from that HD to the SD cards like a normal computer would?
Click to expand...
It surely would.
Now an important question for you: is that external HD USB powered or does it have an external power source? If it is powered by the USB itself, then it is very important to ensure that it does not exceed 500mA load. The USB spec says that devices shall not exceed this 500mA, but not all devices respect this. A desktop PC, being plugged into the wall, usually has no problem maintaining a higher load. The Pandora is very limited in what it can provide, so sticks pretty close to the standard. If your hard drive tries to draw more than 500mA off the USB, bad things will happen.
 
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Yeah, it's powered through the USB. It's one of those 2.5 external WD HD's, almost the same shape and size as the Pandora itself actually. I can't seem to find any mention of it's max power load on the label, though. I'll do a google.

Many thanks for your input, Wizard.

[EDIT]
Okay, I'm not finding any info regarding it's power output. Is there a way I can test or gauge how much power it consumes using my laptop?
 
WizardStan said:
Abanest said:
does the Pandora allow me to click and drag files from that HD to the SD cards like a normal computer would?
Click to expand...
It surely would.
Now an important question for you: is that external HD USB powered or does it have an external power source? If it is powered by the USB itself, then it is very important to ensure that it does not exceed 500mA load. The USB spec says that devices shall not exceed this 500mA, but not all devices respect this. A desktop PC, being plugged into the wall, usually has no problem maintaining a higher load. The Pandora is very limited in what it can provide, so sticks pretty close to the standard. If your hard drive tries to draw more than 500mA off the USB, bad things will happen.
Click to expand...

well, Im having serious problems with my external hard drive. it uses a laptop hard drive and is powerd by usb. the hard disk it came with stopped working properly, so recycled one from an old laptop, so now it has 80GB. The first problem is that it crashes one of my laptops (dell latitude d600) with a blue screen of death whenever I plug it in, unless i am extremely lucky. it works with my netbook flawlessly, though. also having trouble with my dell desktop. windows tells me its causing a power surge. my wii also has trouble with it. I have to keep trying to connect it because it keeps failing (sounds kind of like a car that wont start up.) and i have to completely power down my wii and connect it, or else NeoGamma won't recognize it. I think its because it slightly exceeds the .5A load. i dont remember how much i bought it for, but it was cheap. a good 'ole Western Digital external hard drive should do you no harm, though. a friend of mine has one of those, and it rocks. hrm... you could probably hook up the hard drive to another power source, such as a car battery, but you might have to use a step-down transformer.
 
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