What USB ports mean to me.

[JRowe]

I'm looking at these tablets and wondering if some basic hacks might be possible. You can daisy chain USB ports, so if there's room in my pad, I might add a 16 or 32 GB thumb drive on the inside. There are a few other ideas I have, given the available hardware, but you can get things like GPS USB units, HD cameras, and so forth. Mods like that will require power and probably some software support, but Android is certainly capable of handling it.

For example, I could get a GPS antenna for 30$. Daisychaining a USB connection by rewiring the connector from the inside should leave no external evidence of the mod, but you could glue the GPS hardware to the inside of your case. I'm sure any USB device would have similar potential. The only requirement is maintaining power supply to the device, so perhaps switching would be necessary - turning a device on would turn power off to others.

Just a thought. I'm sure there are bound to be problems with the idea, but that's the first thing that came to mind when I considered the availability of USB ports. Daisy chain, provide the power, and away you go (500 mA per device, or some such?)

 

[gurgle]

It is not just the power which is an issue. It is also the needed application package integrated into the OS Firmware. By default simple HID and UDisk capability is readily available. It is the other elements to be recognized and such. Most Android Firmware do not have the hardware recognition you need integrated. It would have to be coded and integrated.
There is another issue which some may forget. USB ports are really not that sturdy and the ones on some tablets I have evaluated were even less sturdy. The constant wiggle,bump and insertion/removal wear the USB ports out over time. Our Tech department has to deal with users who have yanked USB Mice, 3G modems and other USB things out with such force on Notebooks the USB port is unusable. I can easily see the same happening to a tablet USB port. There is no lock or fixing element to give strength.
My opinion is the USB port is more fragile than many realize. But that is my opinion