Android Serial and Photon problem

[DRCO]

Hi particles,
Really strange problem with serial and Android. I have for months been using my Nexus 7 tablet and OnePlus Android phone as serial monitors for my Photon. The physical interface is a USB A to mini, an OTG adaptor and an Android program called Serial Monitor Lite. It has just stopped working with the Photon, but works fine with Arduino. I have changed all components, reloaded the Android app and tried a different Photon - same result. I have also tried different Android apps. I have connected the photon to a PC and have no problem reading serial with the Arduino IDE setial monitor, or realTerm. Anyone got any ideas, or advice as to why the Android interface suddenly stopped working?

[kennethlimcp]

Is your Photon serial port listed in your tablet?

[DRCO]

I’m not sure how to find out. I’ve done some googling on how to identify serial devices on Android but nothing useful. Is there a simple way to find out?

[kennethlimcp]

Don’t you need to select a device for the serial monitor? Sorry im not familiar with using Android to view serial monitor.

[DRCO]

No, with android you use an adaptor called OTG, once inserted in the micro USB port of your tablet Android recognises it as a device. Its mostly used for USB memory, mouse or keyboard interface. This guy did exactly what I was doing USB Android Serial and until recently it worked fine

[Mjones]

@DRCO did you recently update your Android version? In the thread you linked the OP talks about it working with 4.4 (KitKat), but not on Lollipop.

[DRCO]

I’m running marshmallow 6.0.1 on both phone and tablet and have been for months, during that time serial monitor lite worked fine .that’s why I am trying the particle forum - thinking maybe something has changed in the photon firmware. I always flash using latest build. Maybe I should try going back a few versions?
***************update
I tried flashing my photon with build 4.7 and 5.1 - no change. I guess that rules out the problem being with Photon. Android regularly has security updates without changing the OS version so I guess that’s the most likely place to look.

[rocksetta]

@DRCO I haven’t tested mine for a while, but you could look at this and see if things have changed. This App tells a bit about the serial connection.

play.google.com

USB Device Info

Alexandros Schillings

Android 3.1 introduced USB hostmode which allows the user to plug USB devices to your Android tablet in the same way as a Desktop PC and extend its functionality (if the tablet has the correct drivers of course).This application will provide information about almost all currently plugged-in USB device (see below for more info about the 'almost'). Information includes:•The Device class•The USB device path•The Vendor ID (VID) and the Product ID (PID).•A List of all interfaces and their endpoints.I...

Free

When I did it the photon settings were
vid: ‘2b04’,
pid: ‘c006’

I also had problems above Android version 4.4. It is worth looking into a fix since the photon as a dongle is a fairly powerful combination since it still has it’s wifi capabilities and the Android device can also be a hotspot!

[DRCO]

OK, now this is strange but suggests something has happened on the Android side. I had a recent update on a security patch for both devices. I had a little time and decided to revisit this problem, starting with @rocksetta 's advice to test the device information. Anyway, long story short - when I hooked up my Nexus device and checked Android Serial Monitor lite - it worked fine. Not so on the OnePlus One device.

So the good news is, if you want to use this pretty handy Android app - it works, on some devices.

Thanks to anyone who responded.