The Avolites Discussion Forum

There is a USB port on newer Pearls.
Please let me know when it will be used and why a cable is necessary.

There are currently no plans to use the USB Port. It is provided in the desk so that it is present if required in the future.

How can we connect the USB stick to the USB port?
It does not fit.

Do we have to use a cable?

Sorry for kicking this post... I'm new here with one reason: the USB port I don't really see why this isn't used for storing shows. I really hate floppy disks, those things never seem to work.
I was really planning on throwing the console through the window yesterday (and I was working on a boat... not a good idea) cause it didn't liked my floppy disks. Finally the last one I tried seemed to work, but still... annoying stuff. Why fit in hardware which doens't get used, that's a waste of money and time.

I doubt it costs much to provide a simply USB port and controller, on a desk costing a few thousand. All they are saying is that there are other priorities for the software development at the moment. When and if they see fit to add supoprt for USB, they will!

You are no worse off than if it came with a little square hole.

James

The USB port on the Pearl is a device port and not a host port. That means that it is totally usless when trying to connect a USB Memory Stick to it, as this is also a device. You would need a host port. It is like trying to plug a 16 Amp plug into another 16 Amp plug, they just do not go together.

So that leaves the question what is it for? Well you can use it to connect the desk to a standard PC. However we have not yet found a reason to implement this given all the other really good features people require in the desk.

Please also be assured that if would could implement support for USB memory sticks we would!

Out of interest, does the pearl run on top of something, or is the entire software entirely bespoke?

Entirely bespoke!

Excellent. Glad it doesnt run on windows XP media embedded edition, or whatever the hell that mess is called.

And there's no way of converting a device port into a host port? Even my MP3 player has a host port, so it can't be such a big deal. Maybe users could fit in a cable containing some hardware to make this possible? The end of the cable would feature a normal female USB connector for fitting in flash drives?

I am guessing here but I suspect that the electronics in your MP3 player where designed and built in the last three years. The electronics in the Pearl 2004 are getting on for 6 years old.

A cable is not suficient to convert a device USB port to a host port. That is why you will find that the host port on your MP3 player is a seperate socket.

You're absolute right, it is fairly new. Didn't now the 2004 Pearl was around for that long (where did the "2004" come from? ). Oh well too bad, but now at least I know it's not going to happen.