How to Make USB OTG Cable

Did you forgot to put an important file on your USB key or you want to type faster on your smart phone? If your one of those watch this tutorial where I build nice and compact USB OTG 'On-The-Go' cable from an old Usb connectors.

Video:

Step 1: What You Will Need

-First thing you are going to need is a female standard USB connector and male USB micro B connector which you can get very cheap in your local electronic store.

-You will also need very thin isolated copper wire.

-Take your scissors and cut 4 pieces of wire the same length. I make them 10 cm long but it is your choice if you want to make them long or short.

-Also cut one very short piece which will enable our cable to act as in OTG mode

Step 2: Wires and Soldering

- Peal the ends of your wires and put a small amount of solder on so you can solder them on connector more easily

- Here is a simple schematic of a USB cable which shows you the correct order of the pins and the default color of each pin.

- Standard USB connector has 4 pins. Red and black are input voltage and ground, green and brown are data + and data -.

- I didn’t have the green one at home so I use yellow one instead.

- After you finish with soldering put a few heating tubes around the connections and make sure they fit tightly around the cable.

- Now solder the other ends of the wire on the micro USB connector. I made another schematic how you should wire things up so the USB will work as a host or OTG mode.

- A lot of people wonder why have micro USB 5 pins instead of 4. Actually the extra pin or pin 4 is typically not connected in the normal USB cable but If it is connected to ground pin the phone will turn in a host mode and will be able to read USB keys, webcams, mice and keyboards.

- Don’t forget to put the heatring tubes before you solder things up and our cable is basically finished.

Step 3: Isolation and Good Look

- The cable itself is pretty weak so we need to make it stronger.

- You can you electric tape but way better method is to use one large heatring tube that will make your cable look more awesome.

- I also try to do this with an old data cable but I find it more difficult and some cables especially cables for charging your phone don’t have the extra pin built-in.

Step 4: What You Can Do With OTG

- Now I will show you a few options how you can use your OTG cable.

- Here I have a keyboard which works very good on my nexus 5. I was able to type 2-3 times faster compared to the android keyboard

- The mouse is working fine as well but I personally haven’t found a practical use.

- For me the best benefit of OTG is that you can put file from your phone to your USB key or hard drive.

- For this part your phone must be rooted and you have to install an app called stickmount which will detect your usb drive and mount it to the path written on the screen.

Stickmount app on ggoogle play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.c...

Step 5: Thank You

Thank you guys for watching my tutorial. That really means something to me and it really keeps me motivated. I also made a video with better instructions on youtube so please subscribe, like and share it so other people can see it.

You can help and support me on patreon. With that money I will upgrade my tools and renovate my workshop. http://www.patreon.com/jakesworkshop

Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/jakesworkshop

Music by:

-Lensko - Let's Go

-Lensko - Cetus

Thank you all for support

Comments

[JonasC1]

Note that this will not work with all phones, and you must not attach an external hard drive, otherwise you might end up with a fried phone and/or hard drive

[HeshNeedsCandy]

Quote #1- JonasC1;
"Note that this will not work with all phones, ... "

If this is all you have to say about that then it's not very useful advice. Without supplemental information on why it wouldn't work on more specific devices, then the reader isn't any closer to knowing whether or not it will work for them.

Quote #2- JonasC1

"... you must not attach an external hard drive, otherwise you might end up with a fried phone and/or hard drive"

This is misleading but I can tell you had good intentions. Not all external drives, many, the vast majority work fine. But I think you are referring to the 2.5 inch laptop spinner hdd's with dual male USB A connectors.

[tplockett]

This is a very useful cord. I've made a few of these in the last past year. And you did a very good job I might try your method. So you are used to use it for was to hook it up to my playstation controller. And play games. But the best benefit is to use Google cardboard for virtual reality and hookup your controller and headphones makes a great 3d gaming experience. Good job keep up the good work

[wxmkmxw]

good

[Jakes workshop]

thanks I also usr it for uploading arduino sketch directly to arduino
You should chech that out

[smf.5253]

Can you post the article for iphone otg cables as well?

[evil.point]

I would like too.

[FreebiePlayz]

Hi
Mine doesn't work and I did exactly what you did,except for the two top wires.
Please help. Thanks.

[Jeffrey-CheyenneC]

thanks a lot had a blonde moment i only had 4 pins to solder to on the micro USB...couldn't find the fifth pin, i searched for quite a while trying to determine if the outside of the micro USB connector was indeed the fifth pin "ground" with no success. Then it dawned on me to check the continuity between the braided shield and the outside metal on the micro USB connector...voila .. man did I ever feel like a dumb a$#
so here is a photo that i wish i could have found lol

[Kiran Bkk]

I have an old otg cable but it is not properly get connected. When i connect my phone says usb unexpectedly removed and sometime shows transport end not connected. So what should i do now? Is it possible to fix or should i make a new one by opening it and take out the 2 ports?

[vtk7676]

Its vry easy yr :)

[crashzoom]

Perfect for uploading guides from my phone

[harley072782]

thank you for this post. I just got a hp stream7 tablet and wanted to hook up a mouse for playing games. I could have bought one on amazon but I hate waiting for delivery. It worked perfectly. I tried to add another standard usb to it hoping I could charge my device and use usb peripheral devices but it seems when in otg mode my tablet won't charge. I really enjoy DIY posts like this thanks again

[Jakes workshop]

I am glad you like it :)

[Jakes workshop]

maybe you could send me some pictures of your cable and I can help you find where your problem is

[camfi]

or you can just buy it on eBay for less than a buck.. plus free shipping ;-)

[wynrol]

In response to Camfi "or you can buy it on eBay...." Sure, I suspect you could buy 90% of everything made on instructables on eBay or on-line. But that's the whole point of the instructables web site so why make such a prattish comment?

[camfi]

I agree with you, this site should motivate people to build and create stuff themselves. But not everything is for everyone... for example guy asking why there are two Micro USB connectors on the pic abowe, or this one whom is unable to connect four wires correctly.. are you kidding me?
In general I'm getting sick of thees comments of stupid people around the internet without any knowleadge what they are even trying to make. ok sorry for offensive note of my post but for some people like that would be much cheaper to buy it, than destroy something for recieving parts for this project.

[gattler]

Your logic is sound.

[Jakes workshop]

I agree with you but general purpose of this is to make it by yourself.