Serial port on an APAD - where to discuss this?

I've got an application that is written in Java and which talks to a device using virtual serial port (ie a USB CDC ACM device). Currently it runs an a PC (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X), but it would be a perfect match to be able to port this to a cheap tablet PC to create a stand alone system.

I've been googling for hours now and it seems quite a lot of people are interested in this sort o开发者_如何学编程f thin (no surprise there) and some have managed, but I've not found a good match for what I'm looking for or a good place to discuss this.

I'm looking at something like this:

http://www.prlog.org/10776061-101-inch-android-ipad-android-google-mid-tablet-pc.html

I would like to discuss the following:

This says that it supports USB host so it should be doable, eh?

Android is a kind of Linux so I should be able to use a serial dongle there, right?

Has Android got drivers so that I could just plug in a serial port dongle and open it as /dev/tty?

Would the above quoted APAD be usable as a development platform ?

So where would be a best place to discuss this?

br Kusti

To keep this at least partly programming-related: If your application has a GUI, moving to Android is not going to be a load-it-and-go effort. Android has a very different application structure that you're used to and doesn't have Swing (if that's what you're using) or any GUI toolkits other than its own.

On your USB problem: There is support for a few USB-to-RS232C adapters in the stock kernel, but there are a bunch of practical reasons not to use it. Most involve limiting yourself to devices that support host mode, cabling and powering the Android device and the serial adapter. You might be better off using a Bluetooth-to-RS232 adapter on your serial device, which would allow your app to run on a wider variety of devices and gets you the bonus feature of being wireless to put in your marketing material.

I just ported the RXTX library to the Android. Unfortunately I had to fork it to accomodate for different layout of the android projects. More details are here http://v-lad.org/projects/gnu.io.android/

You need to have a device that supports host USB mode. Also the kernel on the device has to support the USB to Serial converter or you have to recompile the kernel yourslef.