Introduction: Broken USB Hub Fix, Battery Not Charging

By John Anderson
About: I'm a programmer who plays around with electronics from Vermont.

Well don't you hate it when the battery on your cell phone dies and you can't get the phone started back up to make calls, send texts, or access contacts in your phone until you get a replacement USB hub. In order to get the phone started or charge the battery.

Well instead of having to wait to get a new phone or if we are brave enough to take the phone apart and replace the micro usb hub without doing further damage to the phone.

Well lucky for you I am going to show you how to take apart a usb cable and use the power lines to turn your phone on and charge your battery.

Step 1: Gather What You Will Need

In this instructable I am using the following items.

1) Micro USB Cable - this can be a data cable or not doesn't matter

2) A pair of wire cutters and strippers

3) A digital multimeter - this is optional but recommend

4) You will need a cell phone with a broken USB hub

Step 2: Prepare the Cable

Now I want you to cut the mirco usb adapter off the cable. It's important to note that this is the small end, not the end that plugs into the computer. Cut the end off that plugs into the phone.

Than about 3 inches from the end of the wire where you just made a cut. Strip off the black outer coating wire. The wire I stripped here had stranded threads that were wrapped around a foil core where contained more stranded wire in the center of 3 wires. Peal off all of the stranded wire and foil so that the 3 colored cables are the only thing sticking out. So it looks like what I have on the cable in the picture.

Step 3: Check the Polarity

Now you will need to plug the usb cable into a power source.

Now you want to use your multimeter to figure which cables are which. Attach the White wire to the positive proble and the red wire to the negative probe. This could be in reverse on your wire touch the probes until you have 5 volts going through on your multimeter.

If you do not have a multimeter you can go onto step 2 and alternate between the wire until you have juice

Step 4: Set Up the Target Cell Phone

Now take the device that you are trying to power up. I just realized that I can't take a picture of my cell phone with my cell phone so I am going to describe how to do this as best I can with words. I will put a picture up once I go and take one.

Take the back cover off your cell phone and take out the battery.

Look on your battery for the battery terminals. There should be 2 that we are looking for label + and -

These are the positive and negative terminals of the battery.

Now very carefully take the USB cable and find the Positive and Negative wires.

Place your batter partially into the compartment where it belongs so that the terminals haven't snapped in.

Very carely insert the positive wire between the positive terminal on the battery and the positive terminal on the phone. Than do the same thing on the negative side. The goal is to get the wires between the + and - terminals on the battery and the terminal contacts on the phone.

Be very careful to make sure that the wires and between the correct contacts and aren't touching each other or any other contacts. Than you can push the battery into place and you will have power to your phone.

If you have any questions please visit my website at http://www.vermontinternetdesign.com
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