[shadow]

I just bought a Pi and it is being currently shipped so I don't have it yet. But it is going to be for use at my work during lunch break no network exists wired or wireless.

I don't want to carry around a keyboard.

Has anyone had success getting a Android phone (Yatse) to control it via some ad-hoc network either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

[thesuffering]

For something just to use for work on break, wouldn't xbmc on your cell be much easier and more convenient

[shadow]

That will not work since my phone only has HDMI output. The Pi will be used with composite output. To a old cheap TV.

It is replacing my old dvd player that does avi's from a SD card (sd NOT even sdhc so I max out at 2GB cards)
This way I get a cheap device that plays newer files and is capable of being connected to old TVs.

[Ned Scott]

There are Android apps that will make the phone appear as a normal bluetooth keyboard, so that might be an option.

You should also be able to get the Pi to connect to the Android phone by turning on something like a wifi hotspot feature, and getting the Pi to automatically connect to that when it sees it. That should be enough to allow a remote control app on Android to talk to XBMC on the Pi.

There's probably some el-chepo remotes that will work too, but I don't know of any off hand. I'm sure others will be able to recommend some specific ones.

[shadow]

Thanks for the suggestion, I should of thought of the tethering.
I just tested it by connecting my laptop to my phones WiFi hotspot and then I got Yatse to control the XBMC install on it.

As long as I disable Raspbmc's auto updates and most of the media I take comes with nfo and artwork from my good HTPC which I regularly output the library as separate files it should not hit my phones data allotment to bad.