usb demands massive amount of battery power
 

hi all

i just got a usb adaptor and a keyboeard as i figured it was far cheaper than a bluetooth keyboard and i don't have a huge deal of money to spend on these kind of things. i'm using usbcontrol to put me into host mode, which works great.

anyway, it seems that i can't use usb things for very long as they take so much battery power. i assumed it was the keyboard but actually a memory stick had the exact same effect - plug these things in and it reads 1 hour battery time when the battery is fully charged, but if i unplug them then it goes back to normal.

any ideas? i really don't wanna buy a usb powerboost thing as that's so annoying to carry around on top of a small keyboard.

thanks in advance

Re: usb demands massive amount of battery power
 

hmmmm interesting. I have a USB keyboard (the adesso flexible one) and I was wondering what kind of impact it would have on the battery, which would determine just how often I would use it including whether to use my Solio with it. I guess I'll experiment tonight or tomorrow just plugging it in and leaving it.

Re: usb demands massive amount of battery power
 

I don't think USB keyboards were designed for use on mobile devices, so they presumably have very poor power efficiency.

But to be fair, if you really want to use a USB keyboard with the tablet then you're almost certainly near a power socket anyway so you could plug the tablet in.

Re: usb demands massive amount of battery power
 

You would be surprised. the iGo bluetooth keyboard was remarkably cheap and very good.