Using the OTG USB port on BB

Has anyone had any experience of connecting USB devices to the OTG USB socket (the mini one) rather than the normal USB socket on a Beagleboard?

I have followed the instructions in the manual to short out J6 in order to make the port a ‘host’ port, but if I plug into the socket all USB activity ceases, even on the other socket. (There is a reason why I want to plug into both sockets at the same time)

I have double checked my wiring and all seems to be in order Even if I just plug into the mini socket it does not work.

The code that detects the insertion of a USB OTG cable and wakes the USB controller (causing it to enter host mode) is currently very rough, and not entirely reliable.

(I had problems with OTG too.)

(There is a reason why I want to plug into both sockets at the same time)

Anything worth sharing here?

Thanks. That’s a shame, I might have to rethink my plan.

I bought a Lindy USB Data Dock, which would normally be used in a PC 3½” drive bay. It provides hot plug 2½”HDD/USB Hub/Media card reader. The connection on the rear is two seperate USB connections that would normally go on the PC motherboard connections. I chopped those plugs off and fitted a USB A and USB mini A. One goes on the USB A and the other on the OTG. The plan was to plug them in and have a hard drive and USB hub in one.

Back to the drawing board I suppose :-(

They all work via a HUB on the USB A, so all is not lost, just not as neat as I had planned

Nice to have HardDisc 4 back though :-)

Is your combo thing fully USB powered or does it take its power from elsewhere? I think the USB host port is capable of providing the full 500mA, but I think the USB OTG port can only provide around 200mA, so you’d probably run into serious problems if you wanted a hub, HDD, and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, NIC?) all powered by the BB.

Of course as Trevor says there are a few problems with the USB drivers at the moment, so the failure of your plan isn’t necessarily all your fault!

It has a seperate 5V DC input ala 3½” floppy disc drive, so I am running this from the same external 5V DC supply as the Beagleboard itself

I bought a Lindy USB Data Dock…

Like this I guess?

Is your combo thing fully USB powered or does it take its power from elsewhere?...

It has a seperate 5V DC input…

If all 3 trays are getting power OK then is the problem in getting the data from the HDD (as it’s not working with the OTG)? This isn’t a tidy idea (and you’ve probably already tried it) but what if the HDD data goes via a standard USB A round to the front again and into a spare hub port?

Yes, that’s the one. If I connect everything via the USB A socket, it all works. How I achieved this was to connect the Lindy data dock to the USB A port, with only the hub fitted to it. I then plugged the keyboard and mouse into the hub (by the way, I am using an Apple USB keyboard, which works OK). Next I ‘daisy chained’ a D-Link USB hub into the Lindy hub and plugged the HDD in it’s caddy into that. This arrangement works fine, but as you say isn’t tidy.

My experimentation stopped at this,due to time constraints. I intend to do more investigation over the week end.

It is my intention to show my efforts at the Southampton Acorn User Group this Tuesday, so if I can get it working as intended, this would be a bonus.

...at the Southampton Acorn User Group…

OT: I took my (standard setup) BeagleBoard to the Wessex Arm User Group with Vince Hudd this morning. I think I heard there that your group meets at a uni and hires a room for just £6 or something. If and when we get enough numbers to form a Bristol user group that’s something we’ll perhaps strive for. We could also promote RISC OS to undergraduates, where there must be a great deal of talent and hopefully free time :-)

I have a question considering EtherUSB using the OTG Port. I have the LogiLink USB-Ethernet Adapter as listed in the hardware compatibility List and found out that is does not work using the BBRev6 OTG-Port (using a powered Hub). Could someone please confirm if this behaviour can also be seen on revision C-Boards? I have the same problems porting for the Davicom Chip: The interface simply does not do what it should (as stated by the datasheet or as in the BSD sources). I hope this is due to a bug in the OTG Drivers…

...confirm if this behaviour can also be seen on revision C-Boards?

I had similar problems .

...I hope this is due to a bug in the OTG Drivers.

AIUI this is the case. Jeffrey stated that "the code that detects the OTG cable is a bit dodgy" (later in that thread).

Ah, thanks. Is there any other USB-Ethernet device known to work on the OTG Port?

in contrary to the thread you mentioned, I normally have no problems with the OTG port – well I don’t have a comparison what might work as I only have the OTG with my Revision6 BB

I have the LogiLink USB-Ethernet Adapter as listed in the hardware compatibility List and found out that is does not work using the BBRev6 OTG-Port (using a powered Hub).

I’ve just tried this same adapter with an xM A2 board in a powered hub via the OTG port. RISC OS (ROOL 2010-11-01 build) hangs during Boot:Choices.Boot.PreDesk.SetupNet (cursor stops flashing and hourglass not animated).

The keyboard and USB flash drive aren’t recognised initially, so I waited a few minutes longer for the ethernet adapter to potentially be recognised. I then booted¹ with *!boot. Moving the adapter to the on-board hub permits booting¹ with other devices connected via the powered hub.

Is it worth me loading EtherUSB from the Supervisor prompt and trying to check anything?

Edit: I’ve just tried with a Digitus USB 2.0 4-Port Powered Hub (still via the OTG port) and while the ethernet adapter elicits the same behaviour, the board boots as though the USB devices were connected to the on-board hub, i.e. keyboard and USB flash drive are recognised straight away.

¹ With the standard “Machine startup not completed successfully: ‘The disc drive is empty’” message, due to the drive not being detected during initialisation.