Hack a Female USB Port to a Motorola Phone Charger

I needed a wall charger for my iPod, but I didnt want to fork over 30 bucks for the Apple wall charger. I had a extra Motorola USB charger, which would work nicely except it had a miniusb jack at the end. I looked for a mini usb to regular usb converter but came up empty. The only option left was to take the charger under the knife.

This Instructable will show you how to take a USB Motorola Phone Charger and stick a female usb charger for charging USB devices, which in this case is an iPod.

Step 1: Disassembly

The case is superglued together, so you need to forcefully open the case.

I first put the charger in vice (as pictured). I then cut the cord as close to the case as possible. After that I stuck a pair of needle nosed pliers in the hole that the cord comes out of. Then using good ol' brute strength, I pulled the pliers apart until the case broke open. The case broke very cleanly using this method.

Comments

[wwejason]

You could just by a charger from eforcity.com for like $5 and save the trouble.

[joeyisadog]

this is an instructable... so yeah you could buy more cheap chinese crap online, or... just hack it yourself... free+satisfaction :)

[bowlofpudding]

they don't make a usb mini to regular usb adaptor, however what I used to do was plug the mini end into the usb input of a usb hub. then you can charge 4 things at once. Great idea though, takes up less room when unplugged.

[jrodenbaugh]

Just made one myself, thanks for the instructions. I used an old phone charger that was 5V 1000mA. As some have mentioned I had to connect the data pins to the 5V pin in order to get ipods to charge. I simply ran one 100k ohm resister from the two center pins to the 5V pin and that seems to be working so far. It's worked with a Nano 3rd gen and a shuffle 2nd gen. There wasn't quite enough room with the way the charger was set up inside to get the USB plug inset all the way so it kind of sticks out a bit and doesn't look quite as clean. Oh well, I made up for it with some strategic branding. An official Apple USB charger for way less than $30.

[macmaniac]

With the 4th and 5th gen nanos (touches and iphones I think as well) you don't have to tie the data pins to +5V but you do need to tie them together through a 10KOhm resistor. Amusingly I did almost exactly this (except I had the USB port on the end of the cable in a small enclosure) completely independently to this instructable.

[some114]

I tried. I failed miserably

[kimball100]

Where can I get a Female USB port

[daiatlus79]

easy way is to buy a usb extension at a dollar store and then clip the end

[sk8er6]

best way

[CavanhaMan]

Excelent! I put 2 leds in mine... Congrats!

[mitchell931993]

you're awesome- you never throw anything away

[abadfart]

that is a good thing i have boxes of spare parts in my office

[Foaly7]

You can use the wall plugin for a DS for this, right?

[daiatlus79]

lol i got one of these with my chipod off ebay last year. its identicle to the moto charger but it has a circle instead of the actual moto logo. and it has two leds, red and green, in front.

[mitchell931993]

mine looks a lil different- still its a motorola charger tho any ideas

[CalcProgrammer1]

Pretty sure the "charging circuit" is just jumping the Data + and - lines. From what I've read, those two pins need to be jumped to make some devices charge. I'd check it with a multimeter to make sure, as I don't think a true "circuit" (something capable of transmitting a specific signal) would fit in that tiny plug.

[LegendofPedro]

The data lines are pulled to ground through a 15K resistor. These resistors should be added so your USB devices can draw 500ma. Without them, they won't draw more than 100ma, so will take longer to charge.

[LegendofPedro]

Sorry, that's pulled to +5V.

[klee27x]

Can you clarify what you posted here? Are you saying that pulling up the data lines tell the MOTHERBOARD of the computer to allow 500mA draw? Or are you saying that it tells some DEVICES to draw 500mA?

[LegendofPedro]

There is no motherboard involved. Which is what this solves. A USB device (phone, iPod etc.) will not draw the maximum amount of current before the host (normally the motherboard) tells it that it can. The resistors just send this signal, so they allow the device to draw more current. So they cause it to charge faster.

[mitchell931993]

a resitor is only complised of an element inside a casing- no data flow involved

[LegendofPedro]

Do you know how digital signals are sent? You either pull a data line momentarily high (to a +Vref) or low (to Gnd). The resistor limits the current provided to the data input on the IC.

[blowfish23]

Would it be possible to put in 2 or even 3 usb female ports and have them all work simultaneously?

[rbhays]

Possibly. There is enough current to power two ports, but I'm not sure what kind of circuitry would make that work safely. For instance, if you just used a simple parallel circuit, would the plugging and unplugging of devices ( and the subsequent fluctuations in current) affect the other plugged in device?

[Cartermarquis]

There is no charging "circuit" within the mini USB plug. The only charging circuit it inside of the wallwart adapter _{which turns wall power into +5v DC, which is USB spec voltage. This allows you you charge USB items through the USB port in the charger. Please don't mess around with electronics that you don't completely understand. Wall voltage can kill.}

[F-zero]

Where would i go about getting a female usb jack and how do i know which "pins" are which

[shamanwhitewolf]

Digi Key is probably my favorite place to get electronics parts, but you have to learn how to look through the web site (not hard). try this link to see some USB ports: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=1442532;keywords=usb%20jack

To see the pin-outs for USB, see this wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Types_of_USB_connector

[BigD145]

Just a little added info. I've seen USB extension cables (male on one end and female on the other) at Dollar stores like Dollar Tree.

[rbhays]

Female ports can be salvaged from old motherboards or USB extension cables. They can also be found from electronic components suppliers online. For the pinout, just google USB pinout. If I remember correctly pin 1 is 5 VDC and pin 4 is ground.

[F-zero]

how do i go about wiring positive and negative? Can I have a link to where I can buy one.

[rkr]

I think your date might be off but I'll reply to this anyway. First, from what I know it's positive and ground since it's direct current. Also, to find which pin is which, you can Wiki 'usb'.

This might be a good place to find a usb extension cable: EMTC
They're relatively cheap, I bought a cell phone battery from there once.

[maito]

european version

[rkr]

Hey I was wondering, since you people seem to know what you're talking about... Is it possible to charge an ipod with a power adapter that isn't exactly 5 volts? e.g. 4.1 volts? Also, I spliced my extra ipod cable open. The red wire is for +5V, and the black one is ground right? Apple didn't, like, switch colors around with the data wires or something... did they?

[rkr]

Oh, and also, great instructable, I just don't want to use my phone charger for this.

[CalcProgrammer1]

Wow, this hack looks a lot like a cheap fake iPod charger that I got (got it really cheap). It came with a charger that is essentially what you built.

[mutantxgene]

I have a newbie question based on what you did. Most of the diy solar projects I've seen you have to make sure that regulators, diodes etc. are used and that you cut off one end of a phone charger and solder everything together. Instead of cutting off the wires from a charger, couldn't I just hook the solar cells directly to the charger? I figured that the charger has all of the necessary electronics already. I would then make the USB connection you did in this Instructable. I'm new to soldering and electronics so forgive my lack of knowledge.

[rbhays]

I'm not really sure what you are trying to do, but if I understand you correctly you are looking to regulate the voltage from a solar panel. This wouldn't work because the charger is made up basically of an inverter (converts AC to DC) then a transformer (120 volts to 5 volts). There are ICs that regulate voltage (voltage regulators) which is what I think you are looking for. They aren't expensive from what I remember.

[zootboy]

A small correction: An inverter changes DC to AC with some oscillation circuitry. To convert AC to DC, all you need is a diode, or if you want the full AC wave, a full-wave bridge rectifier (which is 4 diodes in a special arrangement). Also, the transformer goes before the diode because transformers do not work with DC. It goes from 120v AC -> [TRANSFORMER] -> 5v AC -> [DIODE] -> 5v DC.

[Lancealator]

I made one its really cool but for some reason my creative zen vision m doesnt reconize it and my kodak camera wont charge but it works on like my usb light awesome!!

[grahamslawson]

I could not charge my zen vision M over USB without connecting it to a computer. I think it needs some signal to send it into charge mode. Instead get a cable like this