Alrighty, that's a new one... it doesn't show you the USB logo in the top or anything when you connect? You shouldn't need any additional drivers or anything to get USB drives working, all the support is already in Chinook/Diablo. To troubleshoot, try checking to see if the tablet is correctly switching modes when you insert the adapter:
1) Open Xterm
2) type: cat /sys/devices/platform/musb_hdrc/mode
It should output "otg" or "b_idle" I belive... I'll have to doublecheck in later...
3) Plug in the USB adapter with your USB drive connected
4) do #2 again, it should now say
"a_host" I believe.

If it's not doing #4, then it's not recognizing the adapter or has manually been put into device mode instead of OTG mode...

Thanks,
-Rob

I've got a Lexar Jumpdrive Trio sd card reader that I'd like to get working with my OTG adapter, but regardless of the card all I get is 'unable to connect, no filesystem available'. I suspect it's because of the LED on the reader drawing more current than the N800 can supply, so if that's the case I'll deal. But if the _is_ the case, then are there any similar pocket-able readers that _would_ work? One that works with SDHC cards too would be a bonus, since i may have to 'upgrade' anyway I may as well get one that can read those cards too while I'm at it .

TX

Just a general update for everyone regarding N800/N810 accessories:
I will be offering N810 "OTG bundles" very shortly (as soon as my shipment comes in) that will include a MicroUSB to MiniUSB dongle cable (6" I believe, might be slightly shorter) along with the standard miniUSB OTG adapter. This will allow you to do plug and play USB OTG on the N810 as we've enjoyed on the N800 with the advantage of a slightly longer cable. The price will be approximately $12 for the combination, or $7 for just the Micro-Mini USB cable itself (if you've got an existing OTG adapter).
Also I'm bringing in a shipment of USB "pivot" adapters that will allow you to plug in USB equipment to the OTG adapter and have it sit BEHIND (or beside) the tablet. (I couldn't find my thumb drive so I just used the Linksys USB100M, but it could be a thumb drive or anything else!). The pivot adapter will be somewhere in the range of $9-10.

Thanks,
-Rob

I built a USB power injector cable, a fairly simple three-headed USB cable that goes between the tablet and any power-hungry devices. This way, I can supply extra power on the road with my 4xAA Noma RX4. This seems to be something that might have a market.

Hey qole,

How exactly does the power injector cable work? From all the information I could find you couldn't just "add" power to a device because when you connect the device the USB module negotiates and determines if there's enough power available before activating... thus even if you have enough power available, the device doesn't actually activate because the kernel module still thinks it only has the limited N800/N810 power to supply. Powered hubs work because they have active communications with the kernel modules to essentially say "I'm doing my own power management now, thanks". That was what I could determine from researching, I'm interested to know if that information is incorrect if you have an actual cable that's working in practice...

Thanks,
-Rob

You're exactly right; you need a kernel tweak to tell it to approve any amount of power in negotiation.

Any possibility of making a pivot USB OTG adapter that plugs in directly to the N800? (As opposed to a separate adapter, as it appears this is.)

Sure, a little superglue, and there you go; one piece!

I haven't seen one of these pivot adapters, but I seriously doubt you could readily swap full-B to mini-B plugs on it without mechanically compromising it.

wouldn't some silicone work heck you could even use some 2 part epoxy....add some colors...

While a complete one-adapter solution would be awesome, it's not going to happen anytime soon; the pivot adapter itself is not very widely available, and as we've mentioned here before the mini-B to Female A is equally scarce, so the chances of getting the two together in any way shape or form is pretty much impossible. It's theoretically possible to hack the two together but I'll leave that one up to your discretion; personally I'm with Benson in that I wouldn't trust it to hold "Structurally" for very long... In any case the cost would be fairly prohibitive as it would require a good deal of work on my part and would be more of a "one off" effort than something that would be readily reproducible.

Thanks,
-Rob