Introduction: DIY Micro USB to Lightning Cable Adapter

By Youtube
About: I am an electrical repair tech by day and an engineer by night, after work or free time.

It seems like I was fixing my girlfriends ipod charger every other day and when I wasn't fixing it she was out buying a new one that would live a short life. The reason she was going through so many cables was because she bought the cheapest ones and over strained them. Cheap usb cords are a gamble. I have found several really well made micro usb cables for under 5 dollars at the same place she was buying the apples lightning cable. The price was the same but the quality was far from similar. All usb cables eventually run their life and what determines how long they live is the wire used and the adapters. Usb cables fail due to strain on the adapters. They are bent back and forth when used and this is what causes strain which leads to the wires/solderjoints breaking or shorting which causes them to fail. After seeing how many cheap apple cords my girlfriend ended up buying I decided to see if there was anything I could do. I wanted to get rid of the need to ever buy an apple cord again and after some thought I figured I could make an adapter that would couple another usb cord to the apples 8-pin adapter. Since micro usb cables are cheap, made very well and are everywhere I set out to make a female micro usb to lightning cable adapter. Doing this eliminates the need to buy another apple cord and allows you to use awesomely made indestructable abundent micro usb cables that are made to last to charge your apple product.

Step 1: Things Needed

For this you will need a cheap apple cord for the adapter and a micro usb female adapter. I found a perfect female adapter within my junk drawer. salvaging componets pays off! Micro usb adapters have very small pins that are really close together so hand soldering them are a challenge. The female adapter I found had extended solder pads for the four pins used. This really helped. Aside from the female usb and apple adapter you will also need a soldering iron, wire and super glue.

Step 2: Extracting the Apple Adapter

This is the only time where buying a cheap apple cable has and will ever pay off long run. We need a cheap cable so we can easily extract the adapter. The cable is made cheap but the adapter is promised to last awhile. This is the same cable my girlfriend bought on repeat. Simply find a seam and carefully pull back the plastic that is housing the adapter. I used a hobby knife and needle nose pliers for this step. Once you have the adapter exposed you can remove the wires.

Step 3: Soldering the Apple Adapter to the Female Micro Usb Adapter.

We have to join both adapters now. This means soldering the voltage, data-, data + and ground from the apple adapter to the micro usb adapter. Luckily all the connections were across from one another. I wanted to eliminate loose wires so I soldered them as close as possible so there would be no movement or strain within the DIY adapter. I stripped some insulation away from stranded wire and tinned all the exposed copper then jumped each connection.

Step 4: Make a Case

This part requires some thought. You can leave the adapter as is if desired or you can put it in a case of some sorts which adds strength. I had a small plastic usb case lying around and I shaped it to size then used some super glue to hold it forever shut! That is all it takes to make a DIY apple adapter that uses micro usb to charge your 8-pin apple devices! Thanks for viewing!

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