Communicating with serial USB device over Android

Question

I have one custom made device for measuring current. This device can be connected to PC and communication is done over USB. It is based on FTDI chip. I have application written in Java and that application is using rxtxSerial.dll library and gnu.io.rxtx_2.1.7.4.jar. Now I want to port this application on my android device and I'm litte bit confused what to do that? All I have is android tablet (os version 4.1.1), OTG cable and this measuring device.

Should my device be rooted? Is there any kind of library that I can simply add to my Java Android application and read data over USB? Where to start?

I have tried to port existing application for PC using same library, but rxtxSerial.dll is missing and I can't transfer it to my android device.

possible duplicate of [Android USB host-to-serial connection?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6928306/android-usb-host-to-serial-connection) — Bergi, Jul 20 '15 at 10:25

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 02 '15 at 14:00

16

I can really recommend the USB-Serial-For-Android library, it supports multiple popular usb-to-serial chips (also FTDI) and there is no rooting required. Check out the GitHub project here.

answered Jun 02 '15 at 14:00

Frank D.

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Another much better library, IMHO, is https://github.com/felHR85/UsbSerial - It handles perfectly simultaneous (non-blocking) reads and writes to the underlying serial USB port. – jose.angel.jimenez Aug 06 '15 at 23:08
@jose.angel.jimenez unless you want to communicate with your Arduino at baud rate over over 9600: https://github.com/felHR85/UsbSerial/issues/91 – Jaroslav Záruba Apr 21 '17 at 20:23
Note that USB-Serial-For-Android library is LGPL. – satur9nine Nov 20 '19 at 01:25

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '14 at 19:11

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There is a project dedicated to serial communication on Android. android-serialport-api. I think, it is a good resource to start with.

FTDI also provides Android related resources.

answered Feb 15 '14 at 19:11

yegorich

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Just to add, I believe the serialport-api link mentioned requires the device to be rooted to access the USB port. The FTDI application however doesn't, so I would vote for that. – Single Entity Mar 23 '15 at 13:33

Jakub Turcovsky · Answer 3 · 2019-10-31T11:58:24.730

I think there's currently only one properly maintained library for serial USB communication and it's felHR85/UsbSerial. It supports several USB chips including FTDI (see Devices Supported).

Unfortunately mik3y/usb-serial-for-android seems to be dead.

And no, you don't need to root your device for connecting to and communicating with a USB device.

EDIT: We have a maintained fork of mik3y's library. See kai-morich/usb-serial-for-android

EDIT2: It seems that all of these libraries are maintained again, mik3y joined forces with kai-morich and they are working together.

Communicating with serial USB device over Android

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