Been a while since my last update. I’m in somewhat unfamilar territory so progress is slow. I’ve been messing around with my Android tablet, the Eclipse IDE for Android and this neat little chip, the FT312D.
In theory, this chip should provide a way to have the tablet control external hardware via ttl serial, and as a bonus, provide external battery power. It acts as a host module and that’s how the tablet sees it but the USB side is somewhat alien to me, both h/w and s/w. My first pass prototype came out a bit sloppy, it connects to the tablet but with less than acceptable results.
So back to the drawing board I guess. Here is a new, base circuit diagram, drawn from the reference circuit on the ftdichip.com web site. I’ve cut out the Attiny, the Joystick and the Xbee for a minimalistic situation. I have all the parts, just have to build it.
I’ll be working with these softwares- Android demo application projects from the chip manufacturer – Android.zip
And of course, to download the Eclipse IDE to load and build all this, you can go here: Android Development