Charging and communicating at the same time? --> research application

[hydrocynus]

Hello all,

I currently run a weather station that has an Asus eee 900 laptop in it with windows 7. This laptop communicates with the weather console, stores the data, download them on the cloud and broadcast these data live on the net for people to download them or convenient live viewing.

The problem is that the laptop needs to run on a 12 volts deep cycle battery and this battery is recharged with a solar panel. I need to change the battery right now and this comes as a cost.

So, since this phone runs windows 8, I would like to know if I can charge the phone and at the same time communicate with it with a usb cable? Would a USB splitter or hub do the job?

Thank you very much if you can answer. I always find annoying that all phones and most tablets use the usb port to charge and communicate.

Cheers and thanks again for reading.

Hydro.

 

[jojoe42]

Hello all,

I currently run a weather station that has an Asus eee 900 laptop in it with windows 7. This laptop communicates with the weather console, stores the data, download them on the cloud and broadcast these data live on the net for people to download them or convenient live viewing.

The problem is that the laptop needs to run on a 12 volts deep cycle battery and this battery is recharged with a solar panel. I need to change the battery right now and this comes as a cost.

So, since this phone runs windows 8, I would like to know if I can charge the phone and at the same time communicate with it with a usb cable? Would a USB splitter or hub do the job?

Thank you very much if you can answer. I always find annoying that all phones and most tablets use the usb port to charge and communicate.

Cheers and thanks again for reading.

Hydro.

Basically, yes you can use the phone whilst it's charging.

 

[hydrocynus]

Thanks for the answer. The phone needs to be able to charge AND to communicate via USB port to the Weather station console. From what I have read thus far, this Windows phone 8.1 does not have the capability to run OTG USB (on the go USB). Can someone else confirm this?

If this phone cannot run OTG USB, then can I just get the windows 10 upgrade (which is free, I am running the beta windows 10 on my PC right now) and get OTG support for this phone?

Thanks again for looking.
Hydro

 

[jojoe42]

Thanks for the answer. The phone needs to be able to charge AND to communicate via USB port to the Weather station console. From what I have read thus far, this Windows phone 8.1 does not have the capability to run OTG USB (on the go USB). Can someone else confirm this?

If this phone cannot run OTG USB, then can I just get the windows 10 upgrade (which is free, I am running the beta windows 10 on my PC right now) and get OTG support for this phone?

Thanks again for looking.
Hydro

Hi Hydro,

I'm running the latest Windows 10 for Mobile build on my 1020 and unfortunately I don't see an OTG option YET, BUT there seem to be hints of it throughout the OS so keep your eyes peeled! Is there an option to communicate with your base station wirelessly?

 

[jojoe42]

Also I might add that if you can afford it, what seems to be the better option for what you're doing is to buy a cheap Windows tablet - something like the HP Stream 7 or the DVP8 that DOES support OTG - that weather data might be more useful on a larger screen.