[MOD] Android Charging Cable ★..:∞ Use Any USB Charger (Even Apple's) ∞:..★ - Nexus 7 Accessories

[MOD] Android Charging Cable ★..:∞ Use Any USB Charger (Even Apple's) ∞:..★
This thread is being created to summarize and condense all the knowledge on the interwebs about charging the Nexus 7 and various other Android Devices.
***I have been told this works for a variety of Nexus/Samsung Galaxy/Blackberry/General Android devices.***
The Google Nexus 7, 10 & 4 (Plus a myriad of other Micro USB devices) will charge from any USB, car or powerbug charger, including those designed for Apple products.
That being said, let's discuss why there are so may issues with chargers/charging with the N7. In order to do that, we need to look at the USB specifications. If you don't care about the technical aspects, feel free to skip ahead to Post #3 (I won't be offended) but please don't ask any questions that are clearly answered here as they tend to clog up a thread.
From Wikipedia:
The USB Battery Charging Specification of 2007 defines new types of USB ports, e.g., charging ports.[48] As compared to standard downstream ports, where a portable device can only draw more than 100 mA current after digital negotiation with the host or hub, charging ports can supply currents above 500 mA without digital negotiation. A charging port supplies up to 500 mA at 5 V, up to the rated current at 3.6 V or more, and drop its output voltage if the portable device attempts to draw more than the rated current. The charger port may shut down if the load is too high.
So basically, The Nexus 7 with a standard micro USB cable with the data (inner) pins not shorted will default to a 500mA charging status using a generic/Apple Charger. You still will NOT CHARGE properly even with a 2.1A generic/Apple USB charger. I discovered that even with the N7 powered off and plugged into a 2.1A car charger not only didn't it charge but I'm pretty sure it drained the battery somewhat too.
So What is the Solution? Create/Modify a standard USB cable to allow the N7 to charge from any USB port! Even one that supplies less than 2.1A.
The only downside is that this cable will be incapable of data transfer.
Some generic chargers will work, however, if it says designed for iPad/Apple, chances are you'll need the modded cable.
I have built some of these cables and will show you how to build one yourself using the wonderful tool that is digital photography... Please excuse my less than wonderful photographic skills. Read on for instructions and Photos!
UPDATE: Android 4.2's Kernel has enabled charging without these cables (&$^#&%*!). They still will be useful for other devices on older versions of Android.

The History
So, I looked forever to find a solution. The Targus Universal USB Car Charger (2.1A) has a small (3") adapter cable that comes with it, ostensibly for the Galaxy Tab. That little cable also allows the N7 to be charged from ANY 2A car charger. I was using the adapter with a Scosche reVOLT c2 - Dual 10 Watt (2.1A) USB Car Charger (low-profile) Model# USBC202M
This is the Targus adapter connected to the charger and a standard USB cable.
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After some research I discovered the information located in the OP and decided to modify some of my USB cables to work as charging only cables for the N7. This cuts down on the clutter on my dashboard and I don’t need to use an adapter to charge.:victory:​

The Method
The method is fairly simple assuming you have a basic working knowledge of wire stripping, soldering and such.
The Materials Required::
A Micro USB Cable
A Soldering Iron
Electrical Solder
14 & 28 AWG Stranded Wire (American Wire Gauge) Strippers (A really sharp pocket knife and steady hands can be used instead, but it's harder)
Electrical Tape -OR- Liquid Electrical Tape
Heat Shrink Tubing (1/4" to shrink to 1/8")
A Heat Gun (A lighter will work but this is very tricky and dangerous and NOT recommended, Try a very Hot Hairdryer instead)
ENSURE THE USB CABLE IS COMPLETELY UNPLUGGED PRIOR PERFORMING ANY WORK
• First cut the USB cable in two. I recommend cutting it about 3/4 the way down toward the micro (Device) end.
• Strip about 1 inch of both ends of the USB cable (usually 14 AWG Stranded). If the cable is good quality you may find both bare wire and foil shielding around the 4 wire bundle.
• If present, unwrap and cut off both foil and bare wire.
• On the charger ended cable, Strip a bit off of the Red and Black wires (see photos) and shorten but don’t strip the Green and White wires.
• If you are using Heat-Shrink (Highly Recommended) slide it over the USB cable before making any connections. A 3 inch piece should be more than sufficient. Just remember it needs to cover both the job and a bit of the unbroken cable on each end to ensure a good fit and protection.
• On the device ended cable (micro) Strip a bit of wire off the end of all four of the wires.
• On the device ended cable (micro) Twist and solder the GREEN and WHITE wires together.
• Reconnect the 2 cable halves as follows:
o Twist the Black wires together and solder. I prefer to do it straight as in the photo but side to side works too, it’s just bulkier.
o Twist the Red wires together and solder.
o REMEMBER: Only a small amount of solder is required. The bigger the blob, the worse the job.
• Now you have a choice: You can lightly coat the soldered joints in liquid electrical tape (recommended) or wrap them individually in standard electrical tape. Standard electrical tape is trickier to use since the wires are so small. Since it’s only 5V, not a lot is required. For the liquid (dries in 5 minutes) I did 2 light coats to ensure I coated all exposed wire.
• Now place the wires next to each other and either:
o Slide the Heat-Shrink over the entire break, ensuring you have covered some unbroken cable on each end and apply a heat with a heat gun or a hairdryer on hot. Don’t hold the heat source too close or you can melt either your USB cable or the heat shrink. Use a sweeping back and forth motion for best results. -OR-
o Wrap the entire job in electrical tape, ensuring to have covered at least ½ inch of cable on each end. Wrap with overlapping wraps (spiral like) from one end of the break to the other and then without cutting the tape, reverse and still using the overlapping wraps, wrap back to the starting point.
• That’s it! The completed cable should look like this

The Test
To test this I used a Belkin Surge Suppressor with 2 USB charging outlets. I believe the amperage rating of the charging ports is only 0.5A each.
As you can see, using an unmodified USB cable, The Nexus wouldn’t charge:
Using the Modified USB Cable, Viola!
REMEMBER: Even though the Nexus 7 will draw current from less than 2.1A chargers, They may not provide sufficient current to charge your Nexus while in use. I used the 0.5A charger as an example. I created this cable for use in my car on the 2.1A cigarette lighter plug-in.
I hope this has helped you

<Reserved>

and now the guide to make it for pogo pins!

pogo pins
Flowyk said:
and now the guide to make it for pogo pins!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on that one.

I am waiting on delivery of a batch of PCBs for a pogo pin charger based on the N7 dock.

Re: [MOD] Android Charging Cable ★..:∞ Use Any USB Charger (Even Apple's) ∞:..★
Prostheta said:
I am waiting on delivery of a batch of PCBs for a pogo pin charger based on the N7 dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oooh... from what source?
Sent from my Nexus 4 or 7

I ordered these at a Forum member suggestion, from Monoprice dot com. They work perfect either with the factory charger or a Nook Color charger:
5457 3ft USB 2.0 A Male to Micro 5pin Male 28/24AWG Cable w/ Ferrite Core (Gold Plated) $1.10. I bought 3 @1.10 each and $3.30 shipping for total of 6.95. They also worked with my Samsung phone.
..

Re: [MOD] Android Charging Cable ★..:∞ Use Any USB Charger (Even Apple's) ∞:..★
2kst said:
I ordered these at a Forum member suggestion, from Monoprice dot com. They work perfect either with the factory charger or a Nook Color charger:
5457 3ft USB 2.0 A Male to Micro 5pin Male 28/24AWG Cable w/ Ferrite Core (Gold Plated) $1.10. I bought 3 @1.10 each and $3.30 shipping for total of 6.95. They also worked with my Samsung phone.
..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not bad!
Sent from my Nexus 4 or 7

TheByteSmasher said:
Oooh... from what source?
Sent from my Nexus 4 or 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom fab. It's basically an N7 dock circuit but slimmed down so it can be used in thin frames. I have a few designs I want to try out for custom wooden docks.

Re: [MOD] Android Charging Cable ★..:∞ Use Any USB Charger (Even Apple's) ∞:..★
Prostheta said:
Custom fab. It's basically an N7 dock circuit but slimmed down so it can be used in thin frames. I have a few designs I want to try out for custom wooden docks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar idea.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I don't get something. Maybe I'm missing something but wouldn't it be a lot easier to just solder the two pins inside the USB connector head?

ineedaname said:
I don't get something. Maybe I'm missing something but wouldn't it be a lot easier to just solder the two pins inside the USB connector head?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on what you find easy... I think that working with wires is easier and neater when done... It's harder to cut open the USB head and then uglier when done and you need to be MORE careful when you solder and you're working with smaller bits... Your choice though...

Question.
Would there be any problems with me shorting the two data pin outs on the charger side?

ineedaname said:
Question.
Would there be any problems with me shorting the two data pin outs on the charger side?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, no.

TheByteSmasher said:
Depends on what you find easy... I think that working with wires is easier and neater when done... It's harder to cut open the USB head and then uglier when done and you need to be MORE careful when you solder and you're working with smaller bits... Your choice though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyway I took a pic of a plug to show u what i meant by shorting the plug because I don't think u knew what I meant. Basically soldering where the red line is. I think it would probably easier this way than cutting up the wire.

ineedaname said:
Anyway I took a pic of a plug to show u what i meant by shorting the plug because I don't think u knew what I meant. Basically soldering where the red line is. I think it would probably easier this way than cutting up the wire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to me you stand the chance of damaging your USB outlet this way...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Not pretty but easy and works great. Thanks for the information.

Related

[MOD] microUSB to Tab dock adapter (one of a kind!)

I finally received my spare Tab usb cable and a few microUSB SMD sockets and have successfully hacked them together to make a very portable adapter so that all of my existing microUSB cables work on the Tab as well. No more having to carry a different cable with me!
Nice work. How did you mount the female micro so neatly?
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App
A video of it functioning would be awesome. I am interested in making this as well. I actually want to create a full USB adapter. I know there is a schematic of the cable and what each one does. Its just a matter of wiring it up right. Perhaps you can make a how-to? what if you plug a USB thumb drive using a USB to micro USB adapter. Would that work?
From the Tab.
www.twitter.com/ayman07
I don't know if it would do anything with a thumb drive or anything else that requires a host port. For a microUSB socket, there are 5 pins, of which 1 is unused when you wire it to a regular usb dock connector like this one. I haven't looked at the pinout posted, but it's possible that 5th connection is to toggle/enable host mode on the Tab. If I get a chance I'll plug in an external drive and see what happens.
As to how I shoehorned the micro socket into the dock port connector, it just required an X-acto knife and some super glue. Soldering on those tiny smd pins is a pain, so if I make another, I'll etch a small pcb and mount it that way.
Great work! Do you have any pictures of the inside of the adapter?
Unfortunately no. I will take pics of the inside of my next project, which is to make a dock connector adapter that'll break out into a microUSB port alongside of a miniHDMI (kind of how Samsung should've done it to begin with). I'll definitely snap some pics then, and post up the Eagle files if anyone's interested.
EDIT: Looking at the pinout thread, it looks like the HDMI dock has all sorts of stuff in there that I had assumed were inside the Tab. I'll probably make another microUSB adapter so I can prototype the pcbs.
EDIT2: For USB On-The-Go, it looks like the unused pin 4 (ID) just needs to be grounded to pin 5. I'll test that too.
Wow, this looks great. Have you thought about making a few spares and offering them up for sale? I would definitely be interested. Let me know
I'm currently trying to track down a supplier of the 30-pin connectors. Seems a very daunting task at this point, since I can't speak Chinese, and the majority of the component suppliers do. It wouldn't be cost-effective to purchase full usb cables with the connectors just to harvest the connector off of them. Also, to even test the OTG functionality would require a dock connector with all the pins (or at least pin 13 + the usb ones); most of the usb charging/sync cables only have 7 of the 30 pins. The only connector I know of that has pin 13 is from the HDMI dock, and that's an expensive way to test.
So once these connectors are more readily available, I'll look into making a batch.

Special USB charging adapter project

Actually, I made 3 draft units and they all work.
What you need:
miniUSB breakout board or female USB-B jack (PCB mount) or male USB plug (PCB mount)
a multi-purpose PCB (you can buy it from ratshak, 2 square units and cut it into 4)
a 10k ohm resistor
a 33k ohm resistor
a female USB-A jack
#22 copper wire or leftover wire cutoff from resistors (for reinforcement)
a thin jump cable
soldering kit with solder (rosin is optional)
multi-tester (to verify polarity and check for short circuit)
a miniUSB cable to power source
Solder the plug and jack first. You have to use multi-tester to verify polarity and check for short circuit.
Short the DATA connectors on USB-A female jack, then solder 33k resistor to VCC+ and 10k resistor to VCC- (use your multi-tester to find out), and connect VCC+ and VCC- to both ends.
finally you have to use multi-tester to verify the polarity and make sure there's NO short circuit between VCC+ and VCC-.
Now you can use some cheap electronics to test out. Once you found out it is working, you can charge your Galaxy Tab (the battery should show "charging")
Completed.
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2 resistors are covered by tape.
Hi, Thanks for your post and could you please upload the circuit diagram also? I can't understanding which data pine will connect to VCC+ and VCC-. Is the below correct?
Code:
5V+ ----------- VCC+
10K |
+- D+
+- D-
33K |
GND ----------- VCC-
Hi, now that it shows "CHARGING" even when plugged into less than 2A ports, i.e. notebook, desktop.
Has anyone verify how fast it takes to charge from 10% to 100%?
There should only be 2 choices: -
A) 4 hours
B) 10 hours
+/- a bit
Because if it shows "CHARGING" but still takes 10 hours then there's no point!!! we could continue with the old method which is 10 hours.
Awesome! Thanks very much.
Thanks!!!
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
naneuri said:
Hi, Thanks for your post and could you please upload the circuit diagram also? I can't understanding which data pine will connect to VCC+ and VCC-. Is the below correct?
Code:
5V+ ----------- VCC+
10K |
+- D+
+- D-
33K |
GND ----------- VCC-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think you are NOT right.
it should be
Code:
5V+ ---------------------- VCC+
33K |
+----- D-
+----- D+ female
10K |
GND ---------------------- VCC-
Hello.
Doesn't work for me.
I try both schematic.
I check my original 230v wallet USB charger , values is : 8K and 7,7K.
But i haven't in my stock , need to buy.
Sorry, it works
Resistors must be 1%
Resistor value is really critical, so you better chose 1% metal film resistors. Just modded a usb wall charger and the dynamo powered charger on m bike this way. works good, though neither of them provides the full 2A
usb charger
i am assuming that usb charging doesnt really happen
and you need this gadget
can anyone make one for me?
gladly pay for your time
bw
Try
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180741526815
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190522553195
Just thought I'd try to clarify the schematic a little to show that D+ and D- are connected (shorted) together. You can buy adapters as noted above but this mod can be done in a data/charging cable. There are some 2100 mA chargers on eBay that are less than $5/shipped for the charger and cable, listed as being for the Galaxy Tab but will not work properly unless modified. You can remove a small section of the outer jacket on the cable, cut the green & white data lines, solder the red & black wires to ends of the resistors (without cutting the wires, just use your soldering iron to remove a tiny bit of insulation), solder the green & white wires on the 30 pin connector side to the junction of the two resistors, then use some 5 minute epoxy to seal everything up, working the epoxy with your fingers into a smooth football shaped glob as it begins to harden.
Code:
5V+ ──────────────┬────── VCC+
33K ▒
D- ──────// ├────── D-
D+ ──────// ├────── D+ female
10K ▒
GND ──────────────┴────── VCC-
...Or spend £5 on a proper, ready made adaptor.
https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/spares/ptgalaxytabcable/
Is this just a "because I can" project, or is there some obvious benefit that I am missing?
Sent from my Galaxy Cubed tab using Tapatalk.
This sucks
Just got the Sprint GTab and it came with a car charger and dead. None of my USB chargers are working on it except a HTC one (barely) that has a red X over the battery icon when plugged in. It does trickle charge it barely. Probably just let it charge over night and try to order the official kit from Amazon for $15...
I can't find those little USB adapter kits anymore that aren't listed for $900+ :\
That one mini cable was like $3. But who knows if it'd work. My findings say that it only requires 500ma, but needs those special resistors in the line for it to "officially" charge.
Stupid Samsung and their iCrap methods.
Help!!!! Making a 5V 4.5A simple charger into a USB charger for P3100
Hi,
You have given very good information .But I have a problem. Will you please help me.
I have a high quality 5V 4.5A simple adapter(with round pin as in Laptop charger) . I want to convert it into a Galaxy tab 2 (P3100) USB charger(5V 2A).
Should I connect +5V and GND of my adapter with +5V and GND of USB?
What should I do to the D+ and D- pins?
If I short circuit them using resisters will my tablet charge as well as its own charger?
Do Reply.
Thanks

Stock Samsung Galaxy S3/Note 2/S4 Micro USB Cable Modification

Since the plastic housing in the micro USB end of my USB cable was falling apart, I decided to open it up to see what's inside. The following will be half a recount of what I did and half instructional directions.
The cable actually uses a very surprising design. The wires aren't soldered onto the micro USB receptacle, but instead there are vampire teeth (because they puncture two holes into the wire) like contacts on the plug that pierce into the wire through the insulation.
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The wires are threaded into this green plastic retainer through each of the 4 holes. Directly above each hole, there is a letter in the recessed triangle area shown below but they are so small that they are invisible to my Note 2's camera.
The letters read from left to right as follows: R W G B - corresponding to Red, White, Green and Black respectively as shown in the above picture.
And here is a closeup of the vampire teeth contacts:
Note that there are only 4 contacts - there isn't one for pin 5 ID, meaning you can't make it an OTG plug.
What I did was ditch the original cable for a 3 metre long one. I just so happened to have a broken 3m Apple Lightning Cable lying around, so I cut the Lightning connector and stripped the white cable by about 1 cm, leaving the individual coloured cables unstripped.
In order to remove the cable anchor, I had to strip it off the original cable like you would with a regular wire (without cutting through the core and pulling the insulation off), cut it lengthwise (horizontally/inline with the micro USB connector) then remove the twisted wire and foil shielding. Then from the inside of the anchor I also had to remove the remnant cable insulation to accommodate for the new cable.
Then in the correct order, I insert the four wires into the green plastic retainer and snap it back against the vampire teeth contacts. To ensure they make good contact, I used a pair of pliers to clamp the green plastic retainer into the dark grey vampire teeth holder with just enough force to not break the plastic (if that made sense). At this stage, plug the cable into the phone and then to a computer to make sure it is making good contact to avoid having to open it up again.
I then re-assembled the metal case (noting the up/down orientation) and crimped the wire anchor securely onto the new cable.
To re-install the two halves of the cable anchor, I used a generous amount of brush-on super glue on anything that needed it, also noting the up/down orientation of the parts. If unsure, assemble the connector without any glue to ensure the correct orientation.
And this is the finished product! It is as close to original as I could make it without using the "traditional cut-both-cables-and-reconnect-Frankestine-style-using-heatshrink" method. As seen here, the cut made to the cable anchor is visible but it seems like a very stable bond.
The plastic casing is almost as if it hadn't been opened before.
Now I have a custom-made 3m micro USB cable that looks like the stock one, but with much more flexibility!
Wow! Thanks for the very informative post. I've been staring at a pile of near dead cables wondering if it would be easy to revive them.
Are you getting a full charge strength through it (using something like GCC to measure)? All the microusb cables I've bought thus far won't carry but maybe 700, if I'm lucky; generally about 400.
-----
I would love to help you, but help yourself first: ask a better question
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
spycedtx said:
Wow! Thanks for the very informative post. I've been staring at a pile of near dead cables wondering if it would be easy to revive them.
Are you getting a full charge strength through it (using something like GCC to measure)? All the microusb cables I've bought thus far won't carry but maybe 700, if I'm lucky; generally about 400.
-----
I would love to help you, but help yourself first: ask a better question
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose I am getting a full charge current. It's the same reading as the stock cable, anyway. 1698 mA is about 1.7 A.
Update: Realistically though, I think it only charges at around 300 mA, which leads to my Note 2 to charge to only 80% in 8 hours. How disappointing. I should've known better than to use a cheap generic cable that was obviously too thin.
Good looking job anyway!
Do you suppose this plug could survive another operation?
looks very good
vantt1 said:
Update: Realistically though, I think it only charges at around 300 mA, which leads to my Note 2 to charge to only 80% in 8 hours. How disappointing. I should've known better than to use a cheap generic cable that was obviously too thin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ONLY cable I trust is from monoprice: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=5457&seq=1&format=2 (you can also find it on amazon).
They clearly specify 24AWG rating for power wires (max 3.5A), and 28AWG rating for signal. Plus you get ferrite core filter, which I suspect only wrapped around power wires to filter out any high current spikes and to keep EMI away from signal wires, and gold plated connectors. I have been using these wires at home and in my car for years. For $1.20 (for 3ft) and also in black or white and 1.5ft, 3ft, 6ft, 10ft, and 15ft variation you can't beat it.
vectron said:
The ONLY cable I trust is from monoprice: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=5457&seq=1&format=2 (you can also find it on amazon).
They clearly specify 24AWG rating for power wires (max 3.5A), and 28AWG rating for signal. Plus you get ferrite core filter, which I suspect only wrapped around power wires to filter out any high current spikes and to keep EMI away from signal wires, and gold plated connectors. I have been using these wires at home and in my car for years. For $1.20 (for 3ft) and also in black or white and 1.5ft, 3ft, 6ft, 10ft, and 15ft variation you can't beat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried the 10 or 15ft version?
vantt1 said:
Have you tried the 10 or 15ft version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, only have 6ft version; found it to be the most ideal length in the car and also at home/work.
With a wire that thick, 15ft will not be a problem since you will have a very small voltage drop.
The problem with ebay and some other cheap amazon cables, they use pc usb wires intended for 500 mA standard.
I was looking for a high quality USB cord. All of them have been pos (plural form) I just ordered 3...for that price you can't beat it.... Just need a spare charger that gives me a rated 1.8 minimum. I see it's an ongoing problem with the cords and or chargers when it comes to these phones. This really helped. Thanks
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
It might be possible for me to go down to an electronics shop, buy a long 4 core 24-ish AWG cable and make my own high-current USB cable from my existing cable.
Nice work!
I just don't see how in the world you got the white cover off.
My phone slid onto the floor while charging and I guess landed just right. It bent the end of my oem cable (the only freaking cable I had that would charge "quickly")
It is bent at about a 45 degree angle. It also pulled the white casing apart a little.
Since the cable is pretty much useless now, I decided to try to pry that piece open so I could look inside and see if there was anything I could do to "fix"it.
I have been trying for 30 minutes and I cant get it apart. It won't budge except that it is starting to crack.
I guess I'm just not capable of doing these things.
Sent From My Ginormous Note 2
planetbeen said:
I just don't see how in the world you got the white cover off.
My phone slid onto the floor while charging and I guess landed just right. It bent the end of my oem cable (the only freaking cable I had that would charge "quickly")
It is bent at about a 45 degree angle. It also pulled the white casing apart a little.
Since the cable is pretty much useless now, I decided to try to pry that piece open so I could look inside and see if there was anything I could do to "fix"it.
I have been trying for 30 minutes and I cant get it apart. It won't budge except that it is starting to crack.
I guess I'm just not capable of doing these things.
Sent From My Ginormous Note 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine just so happened to conveniently break along the seam on one side, so I just needed to lift it up. Also, I'd consider myself to be pretty good at taking things apart without breaking them, then reassembling it to look like it hasn't been opened before.

DIY Wireless charger for Droid4

Hi!
First, I'm sorry for English, I'm not professional.
A few days ago I made a working wireless charger for Motorola Droid 4.
What are the benefits?
People says, the original inductive charging cover is not compatible with most of cases.
Who live away from USA, can't use a wireless charger, becouse it is only available (officially) in the US. It is very hard to find on eBay or any other site. Almost impossible.
Very cheap. The original charging cover at US, Verzion is $29.99. (+ shipping, and need a person who ship it to me) It is only a cover, and we still need a charger as well.
So, I found a charging pad with and without receivers. There was a small problem. The receivers are only for Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and Note. Their connectors aren't compatible with Droid 4, but the charging voltage is OK.
We need to take it to compatible with Droid 4. I looking for a long time, which one can I choose. Fortunately I made the right decision.
I bought that: Qi Inductive Wireless Charging Upgrade Kit for Samsung Galaxy S3
Link here
That is only for $30.10 with EU plug. The package include charging pad, usb cable, 1500mAh charger and S3 compatible receiver, and worldwide free shipping.
The size of receiver unit is compatible with free space of phone. We need some cutting but it isn't horrible.
First, I recommend you try, how fits the module in your phone.
Then mark with a felt.
The electrical connector pins are big, (and incompatible) we need to remove it carefully. I used a rework station with hot air (360°C) but you can use a medium sized soldering iron. I think, about 50-60W of power is enough. It took for about 30 secs per pin.
It is important, you need to place the receiver in such a manner, if you remove the back cover, the S3 and some other text need to be visible! Otherwise it will not work!
You see backside of the phone, and the camera is on top. Removed cover. In the right side, you can see four copper pins. The top row is irrelevant. We need tha bottom row. In the bottom row, on the left tere is the +5 V pin. On the right, there is a Ground pin.
We need to make contact between +5V pin of the phone and the +5V charging pin of the receiver unit.
Place the receiver unit to the phone, and see what size of copper wire you need. The lower pin of receiver unit is the +5V. We need to connect it.
I used a wire,1 mm in diameter. It is lacquered, I cycled down it from an electrical part (coil).
I think, that half millimeter in diameter is enough, but a found that, and it is recommended due to the relative high current (about 1A).
When you use thinner wire, you can easier take the cover to the phone.
So you need to solder wire to receiver's +5V pin. Please use the minimum quantity of soldering wire, becouse if you make a big knot there, you will have not enough place to take cover back.
When it is done, you can see how can you bend (or cut) the wire for best connectivity with phone's 5V pin.
Now you need to solder a wire to ground, like the previovus one, but not sure, that the two wore have enough space, and we can make easily short corcuit.
For this reason, we will use the iron cover of the SD card slot. This is a very good ground point.
So, one cable will go down, other is go up. They can fit and the soldering is more easy.
PLEASE BE CAREFUL! I recommend, before you make any electrical or hot operating you need to put an aluminium foil or an iron plate to top of the battery. I think to taking out battery and then in, is not easily possible, becouse after soldering there are the receiver. The battery can damage and explosive! The plastic parts of pohone can tolerate the heat for sort time! If you can not solder succesfuly, you need to wait while the parts cooling down! I recommend, use flux and/or high quality of soldering tin. Take out the SD Card! Please don't make short circuit!
It is not too difficult, but you need to be careful and attentive.
When the soldering done, you can try the charger.
Before you can take cover to phone, you need to cut the lower center of receiver. (you can see on the cover, exactly where. There are a claw and on the phone there ara a hole) Important! We need all of holes on phone, so the wires must not hang in to holes.
I cut the piece of receiver unit from lower left side, at the speaker.
Thats all. We are done. I think it longer to read than make :cyclops:
I made some pictures, I will mark these and upload in short time.
I'm going to measure the charging time with:
1,5A USB charger (direct cable)
1,5A USB charger with wireless charging pad
1,5A USB charger with wireless charging pad (phone in a 1 mm thickness of Trident case)
0,5A standard laptop USB (direct cable)
0,5A standard laptop USB with wireless charging pad
0,5A standard laptop USB with wireless charging pad (phone in a 1 mm thickness of Trident case)
I use that from 3 days ago. It works correctly. By the factory, the charging current is 1000mA with the 1,5A charger. About 66% of efficiency.
The USB charger's stand by consumption is 0,4W.
When the charging pad is connected and it is in stand by mode, the consumption is 0,98W
I'm going to bring images, and refresh the post, but here (Hungary, GMT +1) the time is am 2:31.
Good luck guys!
---------------------------------
Uploaded images,
here are the original, better quality images. (11.5MB zip)
That great way to charge the phone. i know that my usb plugin is getting a little wore out.......glad to know that there another way to charge up the phone in case of emergency. Congrats.
Hi,
thanks, it works for me
My IQ receiver was a bit higher, or the battery, so I had troubles to fit it in. My solution was to cut every superfluous piece and pull the uper layer of slide away. Additionally, I put it a bit nearer to the camera, The last thing was to horizontally cut the gold contacts and solder the wire directly on them.
During charging, the usb charger+pad+droid 4 use 7W, without the droid 4 the pad+charger draw 0,4W, both measured at the primary side ot the charger.
Best regards,
mifritscher
Thanks for the info, looks promising I love your using Micro SD casing as GND
BTW the pad + receiver can be found at eBay for as low as US $12 Gonna try out for myself soon.
Did you get to measure the charge times?
LuH said:
Thanks for the info, looks promising I love your using Micro SD casing as GND
BTW the pad + receiver can be found at eBay for as low as US $12 Gonna try out for myself soon.
Did you get to measure the charge times?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Charging times are about equivalent
Different approach, same result
Hi, thanx 4 the great idea.
I took a different approach to install the charging pad. I felt not comfortable to solder directly to the phone, so I used copper-tape, capton-tape and some short wires I took from old headphones to mod the pad directly into the back cover of my phone. it got a little bit bumpier (half a mm), but it charges perfectly.
I applied some solder to the ends which connect to the pins, so the copper wont oxidize and the connection has more pressure.
The pictures in better quality:
View attachment goodquality.zip
zuloo.de said:
Hi, thanx 4 the great idea.
I took a different approach to install the charging pad. I felt not comfortable to solder directly to the phone, so I used copper-tape, capton-tape and some short wires I took from old headphones to mod the pad directly into the back cover of my phone. it got a little bit bumpier (half a mm), but it charges perfectly.
I applied some solder to the ends which connect to the pins, so the copper wont oxidize and the connection has more pressure.
View attachment 2842634
View attachment 2842635
View attachment 2842636
The pictures in better quality:
View attachment 2842637
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a nice solution, and pretty much how the "real thing" was probably set up. I noticed that the back has an internal indentation where the pins are to accommodate the connector, and I had experimented with how I might fit a charging pad in there (actually, it was the connectors that I saw as the biggest challenge), but didn't manage to get anything that I thought was robust enough (I was using cut down parts of a SIM card for the pins to make contact with - you look to have done a better job with the copper tape.
I'm really surprised that we can't buy a new back with all of this gubbins already installed - perhaps you should manufacture a few?
mugen 3800mAh inductive charging cover required!!!
i'm tempted to try this myself. the droid4 keeps getting better.
i just experimented with cardboard, seems to have plenty of room between the cover and the battery. i definitely need inductive charging.
Update 2016
@zuloo.de
Hi! I copied your method for wireless charging but I was too lazy for soldering. That is why I used only copper tape. I ordered under 5$ charging pad and receiver for Galaxy S3 (cheap from China) and it is working good. My receiver says that it can output only 0.8A so I guess it is little bit slow. Can you tell your feelings about the heat? I think that my Droid 4 is pretty hot but I never used wireless charging on other phones so I don't know if it is normal. But thanks anyway posting your method :good:
Here is pictures. I tried to take picture about the bump. It is not bad but you can feel it.

Wireless charging solution by Nillkin

anyone already try new wireless charging solution by Nillkin?
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seems very good to me :good:
http://nillkin.org/accessories/chargers/nillkin-magic-tags-type-c-wireless-charging-receiver
If you have to connect something to charge, what's the difference between this and just connecting it normally without losing DASH charging?
maybe you just come home and put your phone on to wireless charging dock instead desk. And you dont care how long it will take to charge. I was on wireless charging on my previos phone (Nexus5) and it was perfect for me it feels good forget about charging.
I thought that I'd miss wireless charging, especially since I invested in Qi chargers in the house and cars but I found dash charge to be a LOT more convenient.
Same here. I thought I would miss qi charging, but I've been okay without it. I bought a couple USB-C docks for my nightstand and work desk. I'm not using dash charge on them but it charges quickly enough without it.
Purchased one of these and it arrived today. It's a bit picky with detection on my two upright wireless charging docks requiring it be sat at an angle, but it does work. Flat docks may work better. Charging time is assumed slower but I don't have an exact number. Last thing to note is the angled USB-C plug, you won't be able to pull it out without giving the ribbon cable some slack by moving the pad downward, so if you're using a case over the pad you may need to remove it on occasion as needed.
Azbulldog said:
Purchased one of these and it arrived today. It's a bit picky with detection on my two upright wireless charging docks requiring it be sat at an angle, but it does work. Flat docks may work better. Charging time is assumed slower but I don't have an exact number. Last thing to note is the angled USB-C plug, you won't be able to pull it out without giving the ribbon cable some slack by moving the pad downward, so if you're using a case over the pad you may need to remove it on occasion as needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
want to order one tonight. i noticed the tag has adhesive. is it strong? id hate to gunk up the back of my phone.
cameron1292 said:
want to order one tonight. i noticed the tag has adhesive. is it strong? id hate to gunk up the back of my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is only one small strip (2cm x 0.5cm) of some sort of 3M adhesive. I haven't bothered taking the protective layer off to try it since it will be underneath a case and I anticipate having to move it to access the USB port anyways as I mentioned.
Azbulldog said:
There is only one small strip (2cm x 0.5cm) of some sort of 3M adhesive. I haven't bothered taking the protective layer off to try it since it will be underneath a case and I anticipate having to move it to access the USB port anyways as I mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok cool so it stays stable under the case without the adhesive. just ordered one. dash is great but the convenience of dropping my phone on a pad at night is great
Usability
Could you put this inside a case, and leave it in? Theoretically leaving the phone as a wireless charging device.
The question is: Would this work through a case? Would efficiency be decreased?
adiwakar said:
Could you put this inside a case, and leave it in? Theoretically leaving the phone as a wireless charging device.
The question is: Would this work through a case? Would efficiency be decreased?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on the case.I'll be putting mine between the phone and case. Its trial and error with thickness .though the manufacturer says i think like .2mm I'll leave it in all the time.kind of like a dust cover too
Azbulldog said:
Purchased one of these and it arrived today. It's a bit picky with detection on my two upright wireless charging docks requiring it be sat at an angle, but it does work. Flat docks may work better. Charging time is assumed slower but I don't have an exact number. Last thing to note is the angled USB-C plug, you won't be able to pull it out without giving the ribbon cable some slack by moving the pad downward, so if you're using a case over the pad you may need to remove it on occasion as needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my hands on an ordinary flat charging pad and the phone properly charges positioned pretty much anywhere on the pad.
adiwakar said:
Could you put this inside a case, and leave it in? Theoretically leaving the phone as a wireless charging device.
The question is: Would this work through a case? Would efficiency be decreased?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cases typically aren't thick enough to prevent the system from charging unless the distance and position of the coils is already at its limit, like with my upright charging docks which were made with smaller phones in mind. Nicer and newer chargers will have multiple coils for better coverage. Case materials like metal however will prevent all charging through them, which is why wireless charging and NFC has been excluded from many recent phones. Increasing distance does decrease the efficiency but probably not to a significant amount in this scenario.
Certain cases will have tighter tolerances for fitting this device underneath than others. I would say the pad gets about as thick as a US quarter in the middle. You also need enough space around the USB port for the plug and ribbon cable. I will try the stock OnePlus 3 sandstone case once it arrives, but my current $3 clear vinyl case is fine, just a bit wobbly when laying on a flat surface.
Are you able to use the USB type c cable when you have the adapter installed?
borijess said:
Are you able to use the USB type c cable when you have the adapter installed?
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Click to collapse
You'll have to unplug it
got my adapter on Thursday.Got married Sunday and was out of town and in hotels for a few days so i got some good testing time with this. it works great. im using it with an anker qi charger. i have it behind a rubber case and i have no problems with it. it charges slow obviously but its stupid easy and at least with the anker qi charger there is a big sweet spot.
I must be missing something but this thing seems to me to be a power pack that you plug in via the sub port, however small.
Eggstones said:
I must be missing something but this thing seems to me to be a power pack that you plug in via the sub port, however small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a Qi compliant inductive coil for wireless charging
Ahhh. I though this small metal strip was all you needed. Should have paid more attention to it.
Just wanted to confirm that this wireless charging pad fits fine underneath the official Sandstone case from OnePlus. You will still have to remove the case to remove the plug to access the USB C slot, but other than that it works just fine.
Complete utter rubbish based on what it actually does:
1. Charges at only ~650 mAh rate (slow to hell, my USB PC & Laptop & Tiny client is faster then this, I can get up to 1400mAh with my set up(s) if not using DASH charge).
2. Can not plug OTG-USB, connect to a PC at will or use DASH charge if not removed.
3. Not all protective cases are ok with this external QI pad.
Based only on these 3, it's a complete fail...... and so on... until it is a complete and utter fail yet again.
Verdict: a total waste of money.

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