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S6 VR USB input ideas

SkydivingVR
Honored Guest
So with the S6 VR having a USB input for you to charge the phone while you play the thing, I'm wondering what ideas people might have that this USB input could also be used for.

The S6 does not come with a removable battery or a SDcard slot, which takes away the ability to change batteries which probably means if it is constantly charging while being used it will have major heat problems, plus the battery will die over the long run and you cant just load different memory cards up with films, as you need to load everything onto the phone.

This suggests to me that they will start using cloud based servers for storage soon, but in the meantime i can see people plugging in a thumb drive to the usb with films etc. I can also see people charging while playing but al;so plugging a fan into the usb port and external hard drives.

Im wondering what other ideas out there that this USB input could be used for and if it will better the device.

I think it is going backwatrds that they bring out this phone with a VR system and then do not let you remove the battery or add a lmeon xl battery to it while using it, and they remove the sd card. Seems backwards to me.
I am a professional skydiving Freefall Cinematographer of over 20 years. Lover of Air Jordan's and the future of what VR can become. Let me know if you need a fan for inside and outside of your mask to eliminate fogging. Free you cant pay $15
14 REPLIES 14

nickos
Honored Guest
You are assuming that the port will have full functionality pass through - that would be some fancy dock setup they would need to build into Gear.
Come on, this is Samsung. If they said it will charge, it will only charge.

SkydivingVR
Honored Guest
I do not think I have ever seen a USB port that only does one thing and that be charging. The great thing about a USB port is it has the ability to do everything does it not?

The USB port will lead to the Samsung phone which maybe the way samsung software is set up that it will only be set to charge the phone, but as soon as a developer or someone who builds a ROM for the phone gets their hands on it, I am sure they could make next to anything impossible.

How many things have you ever seen in the tech world not have someone come along and unlock everything so it can be used to it's full potential. The thing I love most about Android and the awesomness of Samsung phones is that as soon as something is released, some tech geek comes along and changes the ROM so you go from using 10% of the device to being able to use 100% of it's capabilities.

If that USB port leads to the phone, which it will because it is to charge it, then it also leads to everything else that can be plugged into the samsung phone's USB. It's not as though the phone is going to differentiate between what the USB input can and can not be used for. It is USB. it is used for everything. There is no fancy dock set up about it, it is exactly what you mentioned, it is a pass through. It is to give a second way to reach the USB.

I saw a bloke who made a dual connection inside his VR so that he had a lead coming from the VR usb and out a hole in the plastic so that he could plug his note 4 into the gear vr and then plug his charger into the additional lead he wired up to the usb thing on the VR. I'd do the same to mine if this new one was not coming out with a charging port built in. I'm really suprised that someone thinks the USB input through the VR to the S6 will have some sort of software on it not allowing you to use that to plug a small fan in to be operated by by USB power. Surfely they would not go to the trouble of designing software from stopping that to happen, and even if they did, someone would come along and build a rom that would allow it to work
I am a professional skydiving Freefall Cinematographer of over 20 years. Lover of Air Jordan's and the future of what VR can become. Let me know if you need a fan for inside and outside of your mask to eliminate fogging. Free you cant pay $15

nickos
Honored Guest
It depends on what type of input Gear VR requires. If the sensors are working as simple USB input on 5-pin, OTG functions should work.
If Gear works as proprietary dock, using 11-pin, it likely switches Note into a mode where OTG is cut off. An example of this would be generic MHL adapter - it would have micro USB, but only to feed power, which is a simple wire hack. For MHL+OTG, you need adapter with extra circuitry, like the ones on multi-port docks.
If that's the case, it's not something you can hack into from custom ROMs (by the way, most people will avoid them because it complicates Gear updates). It would also require Samsung to think ahead and allow that specific function on USB port.

Again, you can be an optimist here, but let's see when it comes out. Or you could buy bunch of USB adapters and rig pass-through with USB hub on our Gear edition, I haven't seen anyone try it yet.

AceHighness
Honored Guest
USb cannot be connected in HOST and OTG mode at the same time. If you plug anything in and make the software recognize it .. your Gear Vr itself would disconnect.
That's my guess anyway ... and I'm pretty sure it was clearly stated somewhere it would only work for charging.

SkydivingVR
Honored Guest
Thanks for those explanations. 🙂
I am a professional skydiving Freefall Cinematographer of over 20 years. Lover of Air Jordan's and the future of what VR can become. Let me know if you need a fan for inside and outside of your mask to eliminate fogging. Free you cant pay $15

techie0000
Honored Guest
I would assume that full function passthrough would be available for the fact that the S6 doesn't have a microsd slot.

I went through my 32gb SD on my note4 pretty quick with the stuff I'm building. They also didn't let apps stream for a prolong period of time (without some jery rigging) , because having the wifi streaming and all that processing makes the phone get pretty hot. Using chromecast as a video out, while running it causes some heating issues to the point that the processor clocks back, after like about 15 minutes.

I took apart my gearvr just to see how hard it would be to build a passthrough for it. The ribbon cable is too fiddlely to work with and just said it wasn't worth it, and put it back together.

trybal057
Honored Guest
"SkydivingVR" wrote:
I do not think I have ever seen a USB port that only does one thing and that be charging. The great thing about a USB port is it has the ability to do everything does it not?

The USB port will lead to the Samsung phone which maybe the way samsung software is set up that it will only be set to charge the phone, but as soon as a developer or someone who builds a ROM for the phone gets their hands on it, I am sure they could make next to anything impossible.

How many things have you ever seen in the tech world not have someone come along and unlock everything so it can be used to it's full potential. The thing I love most about Android and the awesomness of Samsung phones is that as soon as something is released, some tech geek comes along and changes the ROM so you go from using 10% of the device to being able to use 100% of it's capabilities.

If that USB port leads to the phone, which it will because it is to charge it, then it also leads to everything else that can be plugged into the samsung phone's USB. It's not as though the phone is going to differentiate between what the USB input can and can not be used for. It is USB. it is used for everything. There is no fancy dock set up about it, it is exactly what you mentioned, it is a pass through. It is to give a second way to reach the USB.

I saw a bloke who made a dual connection inside his VR so that he had a lead coming from the VR usb and out a hole in the plastic so that he could plug his note 4 into the gear vr and then plug his charger into the additional lead he wired up to the usb thing on the VR. I'd do the same to mine if this new one was not coming out with a charging port built in. I'm really suprised that someone thinks the USB input through the VR to the S6 will have some sort of software on it not allowing you to use that to plug a small fan in to be operated by by USB power. Surfely they would not go to the trouble of designing software from stopping that to happen, and even if they did, someone would come along and build a rom that would allow it to work



can you provide a link to that bloke who made a dual connection?

mosley
Honored Guest
well, a huge kickass mobile battery (which would undoubtly work, since that would appear to the gear VR as just another USB charger) would be ONE thing that makes sense to use, especially when travelling (which is where i use my gear VR the most).

SamsungDTL
Explorer
GearVR S6 USB port can be used with a wired usb mouse, wired USB keyboard ( good for print screening screenshots in VR ), and other usb hid devices. The USB device has to be plugged into the GearVR before putting the phone in.