devices/accessories/aoa2.jd

page.title=Android Open Accessory Protocol 2.0
@jd:body

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<p>This document describes changes in the Android Open Accessory (AOA) protocol
since its initial release and supplements
<a href="aoa.html">AOA 1.0 documentation</a>. AOAv2
adds the following features:</p>

<ul>
<li>Audio output (from the Android device to the accessory).</li>
<li>Support for the accessory acting as one or more Human Interface Devices
(HID) to the Android device.</li>
</ul>

<p>Android SDK APIs available to Android application developers are unchanged.
</p>


<h2 id="detecting-android-open-accessory-20-support">Detecting AOAv2 support</h2>

<p>To determine if a connected Android device supports accessories and the
supported protocol version, an accessory must send a <code>getProtocol()</code>
command and check the result. Android devices that support only the feautures
in AOAv1 must return <code>1</code> as the protocol version; devices that
support the additional feautres in AOAv2 must return <code>2</code> as the
protocol version. AOAv2 is backward-compatible with AOAv1, so accessories
designed for the original accessory protocol continue to work with newer Android
devices.</p>

<p>The following example from the Accessory Development Kit 2011
<a href="http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/adk2.html#src-download">source code</a>
(<code>&lt;adk-src&gt;/adk1/board/AndroidAccessory/AndroidAccessory.cpp</code>)
library demonstrates this protocol check:</p>

<pre><code>bool AndroidAccessory::switchDevice(byte addr)
{
    int protocol = getProtocol(addr);
    if (protocol &gt;= 1) {
        Serial.print("device supports protocol 1 or higher\n");
    } else {
        Serial.print("could not read device protocol version\n");
        return false;
    }

    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_MANUFACTURER, manufacturer);
    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_MODEL, model);
    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_DESCRIPTION, description);
    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_VERSION, version);
    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_URI, uri);
    sendString(addr, ACCESSORY_STRING_SERIAL, serial);

    usb.ctrlReq(addr, 0, USB_SETUP_HOST_TO_DEVICE | USB_SETUP_TYPE_VENDOR |
                USB_SETUP_RECIPIENT_DEVICE, ACCESSORY_START, 0, 0, 0, 0, NULL);
    return true;
}
</code></pre>

<p>AOAv2 includes new USB product IDs for each combination of USB interfaces
available in accessory mode:</p>

<table id="AOA-version-comparison">
<tbody>

<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Product ID</th>
<th>Communication</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>

<tr>
<td rowspan="2">AOAv1</td>
<td><code>0x2D00</code></td>
<td>accessory</td>
<td>Provides two bulk endpoints for communicating with an Android
application.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>0x2D01</code></td>
<td>accessory + adb</td>
<td>For debugging purposes during accessory development. Available only if the
user has enabled <em>USB Debugging</em> in the Android device settings.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td rowspan="4">AOAv2</td>
<td><code>0x2D02</code></td>
<td>audio</td>
<td>For streaming audio from an Android device to an accessory.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>0x2D03</code></td>
<td>audio + adb</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>0x2D04</code></td>
<td>accessory + audio</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>0x2D05</code></td>
<td>accessory + audio + adb</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

</tbody>
</table>


<p>Product IDs used in AOAv1 (<code>0x2D00</code> and <code>0x2D01</code>)
continue to be supported in AOAv2.</p>

<h2 id="audio-support">Audio support</h2>

<p>AOAv2 includes support for audio output from an Android device to an
accessory via a standard USB audio class interface capable of 2 channel, 16-bit
PCM audio with a bit rate of 44100 Khz (additional audio modes may be added in
the future).</p>

<p>To enable audio support, the accessory must send a new USB control request:
</p>

<pre><code>**SET_AUDIO_MODE**
requestType:    USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR
request:        58
value:          0 for no audio (default),
                1 for 2 channel, 16-bit PCM at 44100 KHz
index:          0
data            none
</code></pre>

<p>This command must be sent <em>before</em> sending the
<code>ACCESSORY_START</code> command for entering accessory mode.</p>

<h2 id="hid-support">HID support</h2>

<p>AOAv2 allows accessories to register one or more USB Human Interface
Devices (HID) with an Android device. This approach reverses the direction of
communication for typical USB HID devices such as USB mice and keyboards.
Normally, the HID device is a peripheral connected to a USB host (i.e. a
personal computer), but in AOA the USB host can act as one or more input
devices to a USB peripheral.</p>

<p>HID support is a proxy for standard HID events; the
implementation makes no assumptions about the content or type of events and
simply passes it through to the input system, enabling an AOAv2 accessory to
act as any HID device (mouse, keyboard, game controller, etc.). You can use HID
support to provide basic functionality, such as a play/pause button on a media
dock, or for advanced functionality such as a docking station with a mouse and
full QWERTY keyboard.</p>

<p>AOAv2 adds new USB control requests that allow the accessory to act as
one or more HID input devices to the Android device. HID support is handled
entirely through control requests on endpoint zero, so no new USB interface is
needed. The four new control requests are:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>ACCESSORY_REGISTER_HID</strong> registers a new HID device with the
Android device. The accessory provides an ID used to identify the HID device for
the other three calls. This ID is valid until USB disconnects or until the
accessory sends <code>ACCESSORY_UNREGISTER_HID</code> to unregister the HID
device.</li>
<li><strong>ACCESSORY_UNREGISTER_HID</strong> unregisters a HID device
previously registered with <code>ACCESSORY_REGISTER_HID</code>.</li>
<li><strong>ACCESSORY_SET_HID_REPORT_DESC</strong> sends a report descriptor for
a HID device to the Android device. This request is used to describe the
capabilities of the HID device and must be sent before reporting any HID events
to the Android device. If the report descriptor is larger than the maximum
packet size for endpoint zero, multiple
<code>ACCESSORY_SET_HID_REPORT_DESC</code> commands are sent to transfer the
entire descriptor.</li>
<li><strong>ACCESSORY_SEND_HID_EVENT</strong> sends input events from the
accessory to the Android device.</li>
</ul>

<p>The code definitions for the new control requests are:</p>

<pre><code>/* Control request for registering a HID device.
 * Upon registering, a unique ID is sent by the accessory in the
 * value parameter. This ID will be used for future commands for
 * the device
 *
 *  requestType:    USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR
 *  request:        ACCESSORY_REGISTER_HID_DEVICE
 *  value:          Accessory assigned ID for the HID device
 *  index:          total length of the HID report descriptor
 *  data            none
 */
#define ACCESSORY_REGISTER_HID         54

/* Control request for unregistering a HID device.
 *
 *  requestType:    USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR
 *  request:        ACCESSORY_REGISTER_HID
 *  value:          Accessory assigned ID for the HID device
 *  index:          0
 *  data            none
 */
#define ACCESSORY_UNREGISTER_HID         55

/* Control request for sending the HID report descriptor.
 * If the HID descriptor is longer than the endpoint zero max packet size,
 * the descriptor will be sent in multiple ACCESSORY_SET_HID_REPORT_DESC
 * commands. The data for the descriptor must be sent sequentially
 * if multiple packets are needed.
 *
 *  requestType:    USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR
 *  request:        ACCESSORY_SET_HID_REPORT_DESC
 *  value:          Accessory assigned ID for the HID device
 *  index:          offset of data in descriptor
 *                      (needed when HID descriptor is too big for one packet)
 *  data            the HID report descriptor
 */
#define ACCESSORY_SET_HID_REPORT_DESC         56

/* Control request for sending HID events.
 *
 *  requestType:    USB_DIR_OUT | USB_TYPE_VENDOR
 *  request:        ACCESSORY_SEND_HID_EVENT
 *  value:          Accessory assigned ID for the HID device
 *  index:          0
 *  data            the HID report for the event
 */
#define ACCESSORY_SEND_HID_EVENT         57
</code></pre>

<h2 id="interoperability-with-aoa-10-features">Interoperability with AOAv1</h2>

<p>The original protocol (<a href="aoa.html">AOAv1</a>)
provides support for an Android application to communicate directly with a USB
host (accessory) over USB. AOAv2 continues this support and adds new features
to allow the accessory to communicate with the Android operating system itself
(specifically the audio and input systems). The design of AOAv2 makes it
possible to build an accessory that uses the new audio and HID support
in addition to the original feature set. Simply use the new features along with
the original features.</p>

<h2 id="connecting-aoa-20-without-an-android-app">Connecting AOAv2 without an
Android app</h2>

<p>You can design an accessory (such as an audio dock) that uses audio and HID
support but does not communicate with an application on the Android device. For
these accessories, users do not need to receive dialog prompts for finding and
associating the newly attached accessory with an Android application that can
communicate with it.</p>

<p>To suppress such dialogs after an accessory connects, the
accessory can choose not to send the manufacturer and model names to the Android
device. When these strings are not provided to the Android device:</p>

<ul>
<li>The system does not attempt to find an application to communicate with the
accessory.</li>
<li>The accessory USB interface is not present in the Android device USB
configuration after the device enters accessory mode.</li>
</ul>