I just bought a mega ADK board on impulse, and hours later I'm already suffering from buyer's remorse. I had no idea it would be so hard to find any kind of support for getting started using it. Is there some hidden ADK forum that I'm not finding? I don't mean to sound rude, but it looks like somebody threw a usb host on a mega 2560, labeled it "for android" on the box, and now expect me to write all of my own libraries to make it function. I'd have done just as well to buy a cheap bluetooth shield for my old mega(at least there is documentation for that). Is there anyone that can get me pointed in the right direction?
I too have the same problem. Why is it so hard to find ADK documentation, tutorials, and examples? Google search shows items under "Labs" but clicking there redirects to an obscure website. Are there regrets with ADK?
Hi,
Did you check this Android developer resource: Periféricos y accesorios de Android | Android Open Source Project?
Kind regards,
Jape
(Update) Ok, so I read the 2011 version and it does provide more insight on how acc works- assuming it is the same in 2012 (as most android is backwards compatible). It would still be nice to have a prescriptive tutorial from plugging in to pressing a button on Android to LED on Arduino. Maybe I'll do that once I get it working.
(Original) Yes (and that is the old link to 2011, there's a newer one to 2012). I am Android develop so I'm not worried about that; I'd like more info on setup of Mega 2560 ADK board and Arduino ACC software librabries. There is numerous documentation on this website for the various other boards and libraries. It just seems odd that there is such scant information on the ADK and it's potentially powerful features. Cheers.
Hi,
Mega ADK is 2011 version. Here's a pic of 2012 version Google gave away: Is Google Finally Getting That Design Matters? First Look at the 2012 Android Development Kit | WIRED.
With regards,
Jape
I am in having similar issues with ADK. Up until now, most of my tinkering with the Arduino has been very easy and pleasant. But I took out a Seeeduino ADK kit I purchased a while ago and attempted to make it work with my Samsung Tab 2 running Android 4.1.1. It has been anything but simple. I've run into the issue mentioned by another poster where a lot of the ADK/Arduino information is on a site (labs.arduino.cc) that appears to be down.
There is also some fragmentation in the ADK community with the Seeeduino wiki example of a working project that is built upon ADB (Android Debug Bridge by Neils Brouwers) which has some similarities with ADK, but is a different code base. They have libraries with similar names (Max3421e and Usb vs max3421e and usb) but different code with different authors. And ADK Android code has changed in the past few years so you have to be cognizant of those changes too or it won't compile.
I did manage to get the Seeeduino ADK wiki project working. It is based on the ADB code which just measured a pot and turned an LED on and off, but then it suddenly stopped working. I am afraid the Max3421 chip is no longer operational because no matter what I try, I cannot reproduce that success. Then I switched over to the ADK library. The headers have some information about how the Usb and Max3421 code is no longer being maintained by its author (Oleg Mazurov from circuitsathome.com ). I got the code bases to compile and they are running on their respective platforms, but the Android cannot see the Seeeduino and vice versa.
When I first heard of this ADK effort a few years ago, I had great hope for it, but I can see that it's a long way from maturity and I worry that it may become one of those clever ideas that just never got enough momentum behind it. Learning the Android SDK has taken considerable effort and I did it with the hope that I'd be able to interface Android devices with physical devices, and I'm hoping that there must be a better way because this ADK is not very easy. I've been reading about the Amarino (Android/Arduino with a BT interface) and thought maybe it would be easier.
I've ordered a USB shield (hoping to see if I can get the ADK working with an Uno) and a Bluesmirf serial board to try my luck with the Amarino.
-Lee
I believe the mega adk is able to interface with this: http://handbagdevices.com/
This is a really simple way to interface arduino with an android without having to write a line on android code.
There are tons of tutorials on using handbag as well such as
http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-handbag/
Using Handbag with the USBDroid and Android | Freetronics (this one uses a usbdroid but it should be the same)
Hope this helps
-Luke
Downloaded 'ADK DemoKit' app from Google Play. It seems to work with 'demo kit_20' sketch on Mega ADK board. 'Demokit_20' is in 'USB_Host_Shield_20' library. My tablet is Nexus 7 which is apparently quite developer-friendly, though. Source code for 'ADK DemoKit' is available in GitHub. Provides at least a starting point.
The only things active in the demo kit sketch are the first led slider, and one button. They are connected to digital pins 2 and 3 on the ADK board. But yes, it is definitely a starting point. I'm glad that library got somebody else connected too.
Thank you, Shadowsfall! Good info.
Regards,
Jape
l3gendluk3:
I believe the mega adk is able to interface with this: http://handbagdevices.com/
This is a really simple way to interface arduino with an android without having to write a line on android code.
There are tons of tutorials on using handbag as well such as
http://rancidbacon.com/p/android-arduino-handbag/
Using Handbag with the USBDroid and Android | Freetronics (this one uses a usbdroid but it should be the same)Hope this helps
-Luke
Sorry, maybe I miss something, but where are "tons of tutorials", as you marked here? Can't find more than two. Thanks for your reply.
That's awesome. I posted a solution in this topic, and for some reason, it's been deleted. No notification, no reason, just a missing post that contained what is probably the most relevant information to this topic floating around this forum. Anyway, if anyone should stumble across this post via a search, the basic gist of achieving the communication I talked about is in this topic:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=161152.msg1223476#msg1223476