How to Make USB OTG Cable
Intro: 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
46 Comments
JonasC1 9 years ago
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 2 years ago
"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 9 years ago
wxmkmxw 3 years ago
Jakes workshop 9 years ago
You should chech that out
smf.5253 3 years ago
evil.point 3 years ago
FreebiePlayz 4 years ago
Mine doesn't work and I did exactly what you did,except for the two top wires.
Please help. Thanks.
Jeffrey-CheyenneC 6 years ago
so here is a photo that i wish i could have found lol
Kiran Bkk 8 years ago
vtk7676 8 years ago
Its vry easy yr :)
crashzoom 9 years ago
harley072782 9 years ago
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 9 years ago
Jakes workshop 9 years ago
camfi 9 years ago
wynrol 9 years ago
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 9 years ago
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 9 years ago
Jakes workshop 9 years ago
I agree with you but general purpose of this is to make it by yourself.