Communicating between and android and a serial device via usb

Question

I have been doing a lot of reading and searching of where to start, I have seen that some people have accomplished it.

1. Can i do this? can i plug in a cable from my android tablet and into a hardware devices serial port (with a usb to serial converter) ?

2. Can i do it without rooting the device?

3. If i can do it what are the steps that i have to do?

Does androids have an api to access the serial port on its usb ?

Answer 1

I have accomplished this on my rooted Nexus 7 and with the help of this API: http://code.google.com/p/android-serialport-api/ It took me a bit of time to build my own app with api. but it also comes with already working app (incl source code).