USB OTG is the short form of USB On-The-Go that helps connecting peripheral devices to each other. It has been around since quite a while but many people have never heard about it. You can do some really clever things using USB OTG . In this article I will let you know what USB OTG is and how you can use it.
USB OTG grew from the increasing need for portable devices to be able to communicate with each other as the culture of technology moves away from a PC-centric world.If you remember the old method, how mobile devices could only connect to a Mac/PC by USB but now you don’t have to worry anymore. USB OTG makes it possible for devices to connect directly to each other anywhere anytime. You may be wondering, if your Android phone supports USB OTG or not. Well to know that you have to see your device’s packaging, there you can find the USB OTG Logo but incase you don’t have the original packaging then you can just Google it. However, if your Android phone was released within the last two years, you can almost guarantee it will support it.
[quote bcolor=”blue” arrow=”yes”]How to know if an Android device support OTG or Not [/quote]
One of the important features of USB OTG is that the standard does not require a host PC in order for the devices to communicate. USB OTG devices, known as dual-role peripherals, can act as limited hosts or peripherals themselves depending on how the cables are connected to the devices, and they also can connect to a host PC.
Uses of USB OTG
As USB OTG connects peripheral devices to each other we can use the devices as per our use and convenience. First we need to get OTG cable then we have to connect the cable to our Android phone where Android phone works as host and other devices that we connect to the OTG cable works as client.
Some of the uses of USB OTG are listed below:
Pendrive: You can connect your pendrive to your Android device using OTG cable and access the content, i.e you can directly send anything like photo, document, music, movie and many more to your pendrive.
Keyboard: Yes, you can connect the keyboard to your Android device using OTG cable which will help you to type long document or even write a long email. It will save your time.
Card Reader: You can connect cardreader to you device using OTG cable and can do whatever you want to do with the content of SD card or other memory card like copy, paste, edit, delete etc.
Game Controller: You can even play games on your Android Devices using game controller but all key may not be working, it depends upon the game you are playing. So, you have to check the compatibility of the game with you game controller before playing the game.
Lancable: You can even connect lancable to your Android phone. It is more helpful when you don’t have wifi but you need to have broadband cable so that you connect the cable to lancable device and then simply connect to your phone. It will start working.
Control DSLR: You can even control your DSLR with you Android phone. You just need to connect using OTG cable but you need to install an app called DSLR dashboard or any other app related to it on your Android phone and you can easily control the DSLR.
Charge another phone: You can even charge your friend’s phone with your phone. Just connect the OTG cable to your phone and then connect the normal USB that is connected to your friend’s phone. It will start charging.
The use of the USB OTG doesn’t limit here. You can use Mouse to control your device, USB fan to cool your device, USB sound card to connect earphone and loudspeaker. You can use your Harddrive for direct storage or access the content and even you can use USB light in the dark or according the your purpose as USB light is way more brighter than your flash light using USB OTG.
You can use any devices as long as all the devices are USB OTG-compatible.
So, these are some of the uses of USB OTG. Which one do you use most? Share with us in the comments.
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