Adapter that will allow a USB keyboard to plug into a tablet???

[micky]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

A lot of these things seem to take a couple years. Do you think
someone will make one soon or eventually?

Thanks.

 

[philo]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

A lot of these things seem to take a couple years. Do you think
someone will make one soon or eventually?

Thanks.

There were only 25 million hits on Google.

I suggest trying again in a year or two.

 

[VanguardLH]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

Heretic! You're not entenched into the "finger does everything" noobie
techno fav mantra that frowns on keyboards for input (because those
users refuse to learn keyboarding for faster input)? How dare you want
to use a keyboard for faster input than what a finger or mouse can
provide. How precocious to perceive 1-finger pecking around an online
keyboard as slow input.

The manual for the *unidentified* secret tablet doesn't tell you what
the ports are used for? What happened when you plugged in a USB
keyboard into the USB port (which you say this undentified product has)?
The [micro] USB port might just be for charging, not for USB devices.
Maybe they expect you to use Bluetooth to connect external devices, if
the product has the Bluetooth feature. Don't know because "tablet"
doesn't identify brand and model.

Here's just one example:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePAD/ME371MG/Nexus_7_2013_Guidebook.pdf
page 24

Tells how to use a USB-attached keyboard. But that is for THAT brand
and model. You didn't identify yours. If you're asking about tablets
in general then the answer is "Yes, some tablets let you use a USB
keyboard and, No, some tablets do not."

 

[Paul]

There were only 25 million hits on Google.

I suggest trying again in a year or two.

Knowing nothing about tablets, I'll give it a try...

1) The simplest adapter would be microUSB to
regular sized USB. The problem with that, is the
regular USB is *male*, and is intended to plug
the tablet into a desktop computer (for charging
or for sync).

2) The other kind of device I could find, is female
on the regular-sized USB end, but to use it, the
Tablet documentation has to mention OTG or
"On-The-Go" USB ports.

http://www.startech.com/Cables/USB-...o-USB-OTG-Host-Adapter-Male-to-Female~UUSBOTG

The low price suggests that thing is passive, and there
is no chip inside. It's just a way to get a cable
with a female on the end. The magic is inside the tablet.
An OTG port handles the details.

Regular USB goes from host to peripheral.

It was not intended to go from host to host (at first).
The OTG option (if designed in), adds more options
for gender reassignment (OTG device can be a host
or can be a peripheral).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go

You'd think there would be a picture in the manual,
but the cheapest mobile devices you can buy now,
they come with a single sheet of paper in the box.
Which doesn't offer much possibility of providing
useful instructions.

Paul

 

[micky]

Heretic! You're not entenched into the "finger does everything" noobie
techno fav mantra that frowns on keyboards for input (because those
users refuse to learn keyboarding for faster input)? How dare you want
to use a keyboard for faster input than what a finger or mouse can
provide. How precocious to perceive 1-finger pecking around an online
keyboard as slow input.

Please don't whip me, Sire. I can't help myself.

The manual for the *unidentified* secret tablet doesn't tell you what
the ports are used for? What happened when you plugged in a USB
keyboard into the USB port (which you say this undentified product has)?

No, Sire. I never said it had such a port. All I know about tablets
is what little my ex-girlfriend tells me, and she's had hers for 6
months without ever showing it to me. Is it all right, Sire, that I
have an ex-girlfriend? I will abandon her if you say so.

The [micro] USB port might just be for charging, not for USB devices.
Maybe they expect you to use Bluetooth to connect external devices, if
the product has the Bluetooth feature. Don't know because "tablet"
doesn't identify brand and model. Here's just one example:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePAD/ME371MG/Nexus_7_2013_Guidebook.pdf
page 24

Sorry. It took me a while to do this.

Hey, it uses mice and keyboards too. And the tablet has a USB port.
And it says to connect more than one thing, use a powered hub. I have
one of those!!

Tells how to use a USB-attached keyboard. But that is for THAT brand
and model. You didn't identify yours.

I have no brand or model. Another friend asked what I would recommend,
and I told him tablets were becoming popular and were light, but afaik
they wouldn't use full-sized keyboards, but then I started to wonder why
they didn't.

Then later yesterday he wrote that his son probably wanted a laptop, not
a tablet. In his first email he only said "computer".

If you're asking about tablets
in general then the answer is "Yes, some tablets let you use a USB
keyboard and, No, some tablets do not."

That may or may not interest him, but it sure interests me.

 

[VanguardLH]

Hey, it uses mice and keyboards too. And the tablet has a USB port.
And it says to connect more than one thing, use a powered hub. I have
one of those!!

Yep, some do. Those devices draw power and the batteries for tablets
aren't very big. A powered hub lets you plug in multiple devices but
has the powered from an external source (i.e., wall outlet).

Just remember that all devices plugged into the same hub or port have to
share that USB controller. If you hookup a printer (if that's even
supported) then a print job's traffic could make jerky the mouse or
keyboard attached to the same USB port.

If you use a wireless mouse and keyboard that are paired (use the same
transceiver plugged into the USB port) then you could probably get away
from having to use a powered USB hub. There would be just the one USB
transceiver used by both the wireless mouse and wireless keyboard. That
transceiver will still suck up some power and drain the tablet's
battery. If the tablet uses a separate charging port, like for a wall
adapter, then you could leave the tablet plugged into power and not be
concerned about the power draw of the wireless USB transceiver.

Another friend asked what I would recommend, and I told him tablets
were becoming popular and were light, but afaik they wouldn't use
full-sized keyboards, but then I started to wonder why they didn't.

Some will dock with a keyboard. The ones that I've seen like this have
larger screens. When plugged together, they look like a toy computer:
screen (tablet) and keyboard. You can undock the tablet and wander
around with it sans the keyboard.

With laptops, you can connect a full-sized keyboard, a regular mouse
(not those small portable/laptop models), and either have them wired or
wireless. They also have a VGA port so you can connect them to a full-
sized monitor. You can turn a laptop into a weak desktop but that may
all you need for a laptop-as-desktop setup. Some laptops even have
docking stations so all you have to do is push the laptop into the
docking station to start using the full setup. If the laptop doesn't
move around much, like only during vacations, then the cost of a docking
station isn't needed and you can just leave the wired stuff and wireless
transceivers plugged into the laptop while is it stationary. When my
desktop died and before I replaced it, I used my laptop this way with a
full monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and powered speakers for several
months. It was usable for most everything except video games.

As for tablets, I don't recall seeing one with a VGA port so you can't
quite frakenjob it into a limp desktop. As big as is the tablet's
screen is as big a screen as you'll get. You can get laptops that are
pretty small and besides the USB ports for connecting keyboard and mouse
they also have a VGA port to use with a full monitor. However,
considering the cost, trying to setup a frakenjob of making a laptop
into a desktop would only make sense if you really have a need to have
it portable at times.

 

[micky]

Yep, some do. Those devices draw power and the batteries for tablets
aren't very big. A powered hub lets you plug in multiple devices but
has the powered from an external source (i.e., wall outlet).

Just remember that all devices plugged into the same hub or port have to
share that USB controller. If you hookup a printer (if that's even
supported) then a print job's traffic could make jerky the mouse or

On that Nexus 7 tablet whose manual you pointed me to, the words print
and printer appear not once. I have a wireless printer on my WAN.
There must be a way to print to it, and without going though the cloud.

Like copying to LPT1? Or printing to a file on my desktop and printing
it to paper later.

keyboard attached to the same USB port.

If you use a wireless mouse and keyboard that are paired (use the same
transceiver plugged into the USB port) then you could probably get away
from having to use a powered USB hub. There would be just the one USB
transceiver used by both the wireless mouse and wireless keyboard. That
transceiver will still suck up some power and drain the tablet's
battery. If the tablet uses a separate charging port, like for a wall
adapter, then you could leave the tablet plugged into power and not be
concerned about the power draw of the wireless USB transceiver.

Well, it turns out on the Nexus 7, that there is only one USB port**,
used both for charging and for the mouse and keyboard, but I was
thinking, if the mouse, keyboard, and charger were plugged into a
NON-powered hub, wouldn't the tablet still get charged, while at the
same time the mouse and KB would be connected directly to its USB port.
Would that work?

Would there be a risk of overpowering and damaging the KB or mouse by
connecting them straight to the power source. I would think a KB or
mouse is pretty sturdy, since they don't do that much.

**My cellphone only has one USB port too, for charging, but there is no
way to use an external keyboard with the cell phone. I wish there were.

Some will dock with a keyboard. The ones that I've seen like this have
larger screens. When plugged together, they look like a toy computer:
screen (tablet) and keyboard. You can undock the tablet and wander
around with it sans the keyboard.

With laptops, you can connect a full-sized keyboard, a regular mouse
(not those small portable/laptop models),

Yes, that's what I do when I have to write more than a few words.
Travel mice are barely any smaller than full size mice, and though they
must weigh less, I can't tell.

and either have them wired or
wireless. They also have a VGA port so you can connect them to a full-
sized monitor.

I was at a woman's house yesterday, and that's what she does. She was
giving me her broken thin screen monitor and I helped her plug in her
new one. For some reason she only wants a square monitor, and she had
to buy one used in order to get that. 50 dollars including shipping.

Laptop screens used to be crummy, but they're so good now I don't miss a
full size screen. At least my Acer Aspire netbook

You can turn a laptop into a weak desktop but that may
all you need for a laptop-as-desktop setup. Some laptops even have
docking stations so all you have to do is push the laptop into the
docking station to start using the full setup.

That would be nice.

If the laptop doesn't
move around much, like only during vacations, then the cost of a docking
station isn't needed and you can just leave the wired stuff and wireless
transceivers plugged into the laptop while is it stationary. When my
desktop died and before I replaced it, I used my laptop this way with a
full monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and powered speakers for several
months. It was usable for most everything except video games.

As for tablets, I don't recall seeing one with a VGA port so you can't

The Nexus, again, has a slimport. I'd never heard of that but wikip
says "SlimPort products support seamless connectivity to DisplayPort,
HDMI and VGA displays.....SlimPort does not require external power or
extra cables, and draws no power from the source to operate." Darn.
Instead of goofing off last year, I wish I'd invented that.

 

[VanguardLH]

On that Nexus 7 tablet whose manual you pointed me to, the words print
and printer appear not once. I have a wireless printer on my WAN.
There must be a way to print to it, and without going though the cloud.

I would think you could use a wifi router to interconnect the devices.

Well, it turns out on the Nexus 7, that there is only one USB port**,
used both for charging and for the mouse and keyboard, but I was
thinking, if the mouse, keyboard, and charger were plugged into a
NON-powered hub, wouldn't the tablet still get charged, while at the
same time the mouse and KB would be connected directly to its USB port.
Would that work?

Don't know. Could be the load of the keyboard and mouse (or a wireless
transceiver) could lower the voltage to the tablet. While less voltage
means the tablet's battery would charge slower, it could also mean more
current has to be delivered. I wouldn't mix the charging function with
the device function unless the manual indicated they could be mixed.
They do mention using a powered hub so the USB port to the tablet would
also be powered.

Make sure you get a powered USB hub that can deliver FULL power to each
port. If, say, it had 4 ports but only a 1A power adapter then that 1A
gets shared across the ports. For a 4-port powered hub, you'd want a 2A
power adapter to make sure each port could get its .5A rated load.

I don't know that the tablet would know it was getting the 5V power from
the USB port on another computer or from a USB port on a powered hub.
Either probably works.

**My cellphone only has one USB port too, for charging, but there is no
way to use an external keyboard with the cell phone. I wish there were.

Some cell phones even have the data function disabled. All you can use
the miniUSB port for is to charge. You can't use it to transfer files
to a computer. That way they get their customers to use up minutes by
sending the pics on the cell phone via e-mail.

 

[Paul]

On that Nexus 7 tablet whose manual you pointed me to, the words print
and printer appear not once. I have a wireless printer on my WAN.
There must be a way to print to it, and without going though the cloud.

Like copying to LPT1? Or printing to a file on my desktop and printing
it to paper later.


Well, it turns out on the Nexus 7, that there is only one USB port**,
used both for charging and for the mouse and keyboard, but I was
thinking, if the mouse, keyboard, and charger were plugged into a
NON-powered hub, wouldn't the tablet still get charged, while at the
same time the mouse and KB would be connected directly to its USB port.
Would that work?

Would there be a risk of overpowering and damaging the KB or mouse by
connecting them straight to the power source. I would think a KB or
mouse is pretty sturdy, since they don't do that much.

**My cellphone only has one USB port too, for charging, but there is no
way to use an external keyboard with the cell phone. I wish there were.


Yes, that's what I do when I have to write more than a few words.
Travel mice are barely any smaller than full size mice, and though they
must weigh less, I can't tell.


I was at a woman's house yesterday, and that's what she does. She was
giving me her broken thin screen monitor and I helped her plug in her
new one. For some reason she only wants a square monitor, and she had
to buy one used in order to get that. 50 dollars including shipping.

Laptop screens used to be crummy, but they're so good now I don't miss a
full size screen. At least my Acer Aspire netbook


That would be nice.


The Nexus, again, has a slimport. I'd never heard of that but wikip
says "SlimPort products support seamless connectivity to DisplayPort,
HDMI and VGA displays.....SlimPort does not require external power or
extra cables, and draws no power from the source to operate." Darn.
Instead of goofing off last year, I wish I'd invented that.

Charging and the OTG protocol is addressed in the Wikipedia article.

A lot of these OTG hubs, there is no external power
input to the hub. If external power was applied to the
hub, chances are it would be prevented from flowing
backwards into the OTG port. (At least, as long as
charging is not supported.)

https://brando.com/prod_img/zoom/SUBAD004500_01_L.jpg

In the case of the Nexus 7, there's some hacker activity
out there, to do both.

http://mehrvarz.github.io/usb-host-mode-power-management-nexus7/

https://sites.google.com/site/sonic...9582/my-projects/otg-diagrams/Y_OTG_CABLE.png

From a hardware perspective, you'd hope, eventually, a USB
hub product would have the appropriate logic (presentation
of the right sense resistor value), to solve the hardware
end without using that Y cable.

But the other part, is the behavior of the Nexus when presented
with varying power information. It's basically some level of
conflict between OTG sensing and battery charging. The software
plays a part too, as otherwise, an attempt to charge might be
ignored.

There's probably a thousand pages of USB standards information
now, and not something you'd wade through for fun. Constant
retrofitting to the specs, means the standard never sits still,
and the chip designed yesterday always needs some slight tweak
to satisfy requirements it was never intended for. (OTG as
complicated extension for things missing from tablet SOC).

They could easily put a few more microUSB ocnnectors on
a tablet, to allow more flexibility in these things. Or,
for example, a barrel connector would allow powering without
a lot of side-effects. But they'd never consider doing
such a thing, because it's too simple. Instead, all the
functions will be rammed through one tiny five pin plug.
A thousand pages of USB standards, and kernel software
support. And then the end user will be left wondering,
why his tablet didn't charge last night, like it was
supposed to.

Paul

 

[Norm X]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

A lot of these things seem to take a couple years. Do you think
someone will make one soon or eventually?

Thanks.

I think you'd find that a Bluetooth keyboard is more convenient and will not
deplete your battery. If you have an Android tablet it should be easy. That
is what I do with my Android "PC on a stick".

 

[Norm X]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

A lot of these things seem to take a couple years. Do you think
someone will make one soon or eventually?

Thanks.

I think you'd find that a Bluetooth keyboard is more convenient and will not
deplete your battery. If you have an Android tablet it should be easy. That
is what I do with my Android "PC on a stick".

 

[Norm X]

One big reason I wouldn't want a tablet is that aiui they have no jack
into which a full sized keyboard can be plugged.

But they do have jacks. Is there an adapter that will allow a USB
keyboard to plug into a tablet. Or perhaps a PS2 Keyboard.

A lot of these things seem to take a couple years. Do you think
someone will make one soon or eventually?

Thanks.

I think you'd find that a Bluetooth keyboard is more convenient and will not
deplete your battery. If you have an Android tablet it should be easy. That
is what I do with my Android "PC on a stick".

 

[micky]

I think you'd find that a Bluetooth keyboard is more convenient and will not
deplete your battery. If you have an Android tablet it should be easy. That
is what I do with my Android "PC on a stick".

That's a good idea. I googled and they're not expensive.

Do you think I could find a PS2 Bluetooth keyboard for my win95 laptop?

Thanks, and thanks Paul and Vanguard.

 

[Anssi Saari]

On that Nexus 7 tablet whose manual you pointed me to, the words print
and printer appear not once. I have a wireless printer on my WAN.
There must be a way to print to it, and without going though the cloud.

The reason is simple. Printing support was added in Android 4.4 last
fall so without updating the OS there's no printing support... Except
with maybe with a printer manufacturer's app.

 

[micky]

Thanks Paul and Vanguard.

The reason is simple. Printing support was added in Android 4.4 last
fall so without updating the OS there's no printing support... Except
with maybe with a printer manufacturer's app.

Okay, I see. So can the OS be updated?

Thanks