USB LG Phone Charger

This instructable tells you how to make your LG phone charge from a USB port using a spare wall charger.

Step 1 Getting Started

Look at the lable on your AC charger to make sure that the output is the same as a USB port(5v, 500mA). Take your wall charger and cut off the plug that goes into your phone. Then cut the USB cable to the desired length.

Comments

[nodoubtman]

I tried with this site : http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/icharge.html
scrool down at the end of the page... i tried with 5 V DC 500 mA, doesnt work, only give me 600 mA of intensity, i think i should try 5 V DC 1 A, what do you think?

thank you!
marC:)

[Gizmodan923]

What if the plug is 5.2v, 800mA Will it still be able to work??

[nodoubtman]

yes, any 5 V will fit no more than 1 A !

thank you!

[strcrusher]

yes

[Gizmodan923]

thanks it did.

[Zrowny]

hmm, I have a purple, white, black, and clear wire (so i can see the copper underneath). Im pretty sure the black is ground but which one is power? they are aligned like this: -:- and black and white are across and clear and purple are across from each other. Any help?

[rayfalcon]

will this also work with the LG model TFLG410GB?
My charger for that Phone is model STA-P53WD
input 100-240V 50/60Hz 0.2A
output 5.6V  0.4A
[e-mail]

[waffleman]

i bought an env touch in late july and the charger was a usb that plugged into the wall thing. its kind of hard to explain.......

[kiwiboy1964]

what if theres a red , purple , white , green and no black , which one would be ground ?

[Haruofwater]

Technically it wouldn't matter as long as you have the right two connected where. Also power wires are usually thicker than data wires. Also it's 2 prong so there wouldn't be a ground.

[Rectifier]

Kind of related, is the phone really crappy? My girlfriend has an LG phone. It's absolute garbage. Whenever we meet someone with the same phone, we ask them "Is your phone garbage too, or did we get a bad one?" - they almost always agree, it's a POS. Battery lasts a day. Drops calls like mad. Gets hot and burns your ear. 2 warranty returns and it's still not any better - luckily the contract expires in a few months. Between that phone, the fridge at my old apartment that only could maintain a temperature below 0C, and another LG product I can't remember now (but it was crappy too), I think I am through with LG. Never could say I had a positive experience with a single one of their products - just seeing the charger was enough to get me pissed off and make me write this post!

[fjkl;]

my lg glance works great too!

[santy22]

hey! if you want a good lg phone, get a kp110! it's great! battery lasts a week, it never shorts, and mine has survived 3 toilets!

[Grey_Wolfe]

Wife's got the envy 2, works great. What service does your girl have, it's possible that the phone is not the problem. Or she got unlucky with that particular phone. If she's got insurance, she can get it replaced.

[Rectifier]

Telus, worst service ever. It and the phone are both in the trash bin now. She has a nice Nokia bar phone these days, fully unlocked at home with just a $5 cable and software, working GPS, MSN/Gchat, Opera browser... and unlimited data with free email->text for $5 from Superstore's pay as you go service makes it one of the most functional things on the market, short of a "real" smartphone. I have a nokia flip phone, not as nice as hers, but also unlocked and with unlimited data/email. We text via google chat for free, i get/send my email from work with it. Our phone bills are each $12/month, no contract. Her old bill was over $50 with telus, and gave a lot less functionality... they wouldn't even fix that phone...

[Grey_Wolfe]

Where are you at? Never heard of that service. US here. If that's in the US, it must not be too widespread. Just curious.

[Rectifier]

Telus is the monopoly land-line service in western Canada. They also rip people off on cell service, but not many are better. You have a choice of 3 providers, each as bad as the other. However, some supermarkets and such now have their own service, reselling minutes pay as you go, which is a lot better deal. Superstore/Extra Foods is a large Canadian chain with a particularly good deal on mobile data. It was reported awhile ago that Canadians pay the second most in the world for mobile phone service, short of Italy I believe.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Are monopolies not illegal in Canada? Here in the states, when AT&T got too big, the federal government forced them to split into smaller companies. That's the problem with them though, when you're the only one with a product, you can charge what you want.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Also, have them try to update the programming, my father's phone was crap for 6 months before he took if to the store, come to find out, his model had a software issue that they'd solved.

[sojakai]

I use to work for sprint as a rep at a costco. We had an LG phone, but I never sold any. The damn things had a 1-1 turnaround. Because of it, costco demanded another phone in place of it.... And from what I heard from from some of the other reps, their returns went down by 80% on average. I refuse to by ANY LG product. It seems to stand for "Low Grade".

[georgejim64]

my charger is 5V and 850mA will that work?

[santy22]

yes.

[Pie Ninja]

I'm doing something similar with a Motorola charger, but i need to know how to determine which wire leads to the positive terminal and which one leads to the negative, the insulation of both wires is black, but one has a white/grey stripe along it, can anyone help?

[santy22]

i think the white stripe would be the positive. because black is always negative.

[pancho del rancho]

would a 4.5 volts at 600mA wrk

[conrad2468]

whats the output of a usb port? if more than 5 volts then how do i reduce it?

[Pie Ninja]

The output of a standard USB port is 5V at ~500 mA.

[DELETED_craz meanman]

(removed by author or community request)

[Crusty_07]

USB is made up of 4 wires, as above. They are 5v, Ground and two data transfer wires.

Read more at this site

[ryukyu]

I have 2 phones that I would like to connect via one charger, whether it is this USB version or the wall wart. Can I splice a second connector? Would I need diodes to isolate each phone? Thx

[Cloudffvii2696]

can i use this to make a data transfer cable for my phone? i would buy one, but they're like 40 dollars...

[gomezr1]

Wow, I've thinking about taking on this exact same project for a long time except I was worried about compatibility issues between the amperage of the 5V-500mA usb and my 5V-0.7A phone charger. Do you think I can finally do this project despite the fact that my phone charger puts out 0.7A?

[hazlett]

Solder Circuit Board All such easy words.

[Sgt.Waffles]

I have a wall chager that looks just like yours, but mine is 4.2 volts and .6 a. Would it still work?

[LasVegas]

All you need to do is get about a 1.5 ohm resistor and a 4.2 volt zener diode. Put the resistor from the +5 source to the +4.2v output, the zener from the +4.2v out to ground (line on +4.2v side) and the ground in to ground out. This should give you a safe output voltage but should be removed from the USB port when not using it.

BTW: It will charge at about 500ma as opposed to the rated 600ma, but it should work fine.

|------/\/\/\/\/\/-------|-------Z<---------|
5v . . . 1.5 . . . . 4.2v. . zener. . . GND

[DeusXMachina]

Excellent point, and a very useful instructable. I was wondering if anyone knew if the anti-overcurrenting circuitry to keep the LiIon battery from getting charged too much (causes hydrogen gas to leak out) was encased in the cell phone itself or the charger... I.e. would this run the risk of overcharging a cell phone?

[binarycow]

I have a KVM switch I'd like to power using a USB port. However, it is 1V, 500mA. I understand the process of Zener Diodes, I'm just looking for a little bit of help getting the numbers down. Also, the device must be on full-time.

[dannydutton]

your pic says 1A. Now if I know about USB devices , which I do, I'd say that you need 500mA not 1A. I have had 1A fry a mp3 player when hooked up thru USB. You have to convert the 1A to 500mA somehow.

[dannydutton]

Nevermind, forgot about how some devices, not all, need 1 amp. Sorry for sounding like a jackass...

[Weissensteinburg]

Just so you know, "soder" is spelled "solder" Otherwise, great instructable!