This hack, which adds outside flipper controls to Android pinball, is a excellent method to cut your teeth at Android hardware hacking.

[Ruben] chose to choose the TI Launchpad for this project. The MSP430 dev board provides serial communications through a USB connection, however it’s not rather as simple as just discovering the best cable. His tablet does support USB on the go (OTG), however the board determines itself as an ACM gadget which needs to be handled differently. In purchase to get the tablet speaking to the Launchpad he compiled a CDC_ACM module for the Linux underpinnings that comprise every Android OS. In this situation the module is tailored for the Allwinner A10 chip inside his design of tablet, however it shouldn’t be as well difficult to adapt his guide for other processors.

Of program you might go a different path as well as utilize Bluetooth for connectivity. We’ve seen a number of gaming peripherals that utilize this method with Android devices.