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In the docs regarding custom accessories, there is a link to what it claims is the firmware source code but this link only points back to the top page for the Android Peripherals and Accessories (no source code). All the pages under "Custom Accessories" give vague instructions on how to connect but no API, libraries or examples. For example, under the Determine accessory mode support section, it claims:

During the initial connection, the accessory should check the version, vendor ID, and product ID of the connected device's USB device descriptor.

How do I initialize a connection and what methods or what libraries would I call to get the version and other info?

No amount of googling has enabled me to find the source code, libraries or examples to anything related to this "ADK" other than a few outdated Arduino pages that also point to bad links. The closest SO question I've found is here and answers also contain broken or piped links.

Is this project dead or something? What is the standard way of communicating with IO via Android these days?

topher217
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1 Answers1

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Just following up here as I found what I was after, though not terribly pleased with the result.

The demo code linked in the docs points to an "adk" which appears to be a demo of the Android Open Accessory protocol developed for use on the Arduino ADK board which was intended to interact with Android. The source code can be found here:

https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/accessory/

though it is terribly out of date. You'll have a terrible time trying to get that to compile with modern gradle.

There are a couple of more active communities working with USB and Android:

This one being great, but only for Host Mode (not accessory mode):

https://github.com/mik3y/usb-serial-for-android

There was another slightly less outdated example of how to implement the AOA between two android phones, which I refactored and got working using modern gradle build tools:

https://github.com/topherbuckley/USB-accessory-sample

After seeing how abandoned the project was for so long, I instead focused my efforts on using Android in Host Mode only, but implementing USB Power Delivery on any hardware such that I can use the Android phone in Host Mode and swap the Power Role via USB-PD after initializing the connection. In this way I can avoid the AOA and still get the same end result using modern software/hardware/firmware.

topher217
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