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NookColor USB cable disected

Today I managed to get my NookColor cable caught in my car door while I was getting in my car to head to work. This mangled the cable up pretty good. After much swearing and a trip to Barnes and Nobles I purchased a replacement cable. With the new cable in hand I figured I might as well take the end apart on the broken one to see how it was wired up. Using a pocket knife I forced the joint where the two pieced of plastic are joined together apart. The end result is rather interesting.
The first image is of the top side of the connector. This is where the little LED is located. The second image is of the bottom side of the connector. The third is of the bottom side of the connector with the shield removed.
The interesting thing is that the connector does not actually have the four standard pads for connecting to the normal USB pins in the NC's socket. It only connects to the twelve extra pins at the back of the NC's socket. Two of those extra pins must be for the standard USB communications. At least two more are used for the power connection to the NC. That leaves eight unknown pins. One or two of which probably controls the LED on the cable. As soon as I can find my multimeter, I plan on doing a continuity check between the USB cable wires and the pins in the connector. Any other suggestions of things I should be looking for?

I read in passing that the deeper socket on the nc, that makes regular microUSB cables not charge the nc, relates to the extra contacts needed to charge the bigger battery more quickly. Will try to find the reference-

Regular cables DO charge... At 500mha, the stock rom does not she charging but it does around 10%/hr if idle.

There are certainly several ground pins which should be ready to find. finding those will help narrow it down.
Sent from my NookColor using XDA App

Khaytsus: i stand corrected. Found the reference: barnes& noble 'book clubs' (ie forums) thread on "things that you should know about the NookCOLOR." A non nook color USB won't charge it when in a wall socket, but may keep the battery from at least going down.
Even a NC branded USB isn't officially expected to charge a NC, if plugged into a pc USB port. Neverrtheless, some say it trickle charges when left atrached to a computer all night (like 8hrs). In a wall socket it supposed to charge in 4 -5 hours.
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.

The same thing happened with me too(my cable also broke, and i decided to experiment with it). Here's what i found out.
1. Three wires in the usb cables are solely meant for charging.
2. If only two (ground an one live) wires are connected, the stock cable charges nook like a ordinary usb cable(very slow).
3. The nooks usb cable tip had 3-4 more outputs which were not connected to any wires in the usb cable(they could be anything from mic input to video output).
I was trying to get more info on these extra outputs by soldering some wires to them but it needs very fine soldering, i couldn't achieve that and i broke mine entirely.
That reminds me can anyone send me a extra cable as am not in U.S(so B&N won't send me one) and am sick of waiting for 10 hours before i can play with my nook again.

mjf0000000 said:
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uummm... Don't think this is true as I charged my Nook just last night with it turned off.

I'm sure you have this, but for anyone else who would like to look at the standard USB pinouts.
While I'm on the topic, did the Nova disection help in determining the Nook end of the connections?

the last time i looked, Nova hadn't really looked that close at the USB...they were focusing on the wifi/BT chip.
very nice was planning on doing this myself one day soon...any chance you can go in a bit closer and get clearer pics of the traces on the pcb? Would really help to decipher it.

Interested to see a breakdown of a standard micro usb vs nooks for comparisons sake

A couple of things:
-The NC connector has a row of 12 pins, but does not have any pins that match with the "legacy" microusb pins. At least 4 of the signals on that connector duplicate the microusb pins (gnd, d+, d-, +5). IIRC there are two +5 pins on that row and three grounded pins.
-Hooking only +5 and gnd to the USB end of the stock cable causes the NC to charge at max current draw. I made a short USB interposer that does this. I suppose you could put some carefully applied tape over the middle pins if you wanted to try. Here are some measurements I did of various ways of powering the NC a while back:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9410625&postcount=243

mjf0000000 said:
Khaytsus: i stand corrected. Found the reference: barnes& noble 'book clubs' (ie forums) thread on "things that you should know about the NookCOLOR." A non nook color USB won't charge it when in a wall socket, but may keep the battery from at least going down.
Even a NC branded USB isn't officially expected to charge a NC, if plugged into a pc USB port. Neverrtheless, some say it trickle charges when left atrached to a computer all night (like 8hrs). In a wall socket it supposed to charge in 4 -5 hours.
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one interesting finding to note. Most USB wall adapters are 500mA. I happened to have a USB wall adapter that is 1A. With my 1A, I was able not only able to keep the battery from draining, but I was able to replenish it (although it was very slow) As a comparison, the USB adapter from B&N is capable of 2A.

I will try and get closer pics of the PCB when I get home from work. I just need to get better lighting than my dark home office.

[Q] difference between usb power and normal power supply

Hi!
I am building a special car charger for my galaxy s.
I put the 5V to MicroUSB VCC and also GND...
The phone is charging.
Here the problem:
I'm using tasker app to detect many phone states and automatically switch some features when pluging in some devices. I noticed that the normal galaxy s charger is detected as normal power supply. My method with just VCC=5V makes the phone think that there is a usb cable on it. So it says: Charging with USB power.
I started thinking about how the normal power supply tells the phone that it is no USB. First I thought of the 5th pin (pin 4: ID) on the micro USB connector. Later I noticed that it seems that the normal charger does not has this pin. So it should be open circuit like I have on my charger...
Does anybody know what the normal charger does to tell the phone it is a normal charger?
Additional story:
I found another usb device with micro usb which is charging with the normal charger only! With normal usb cable it is not possible to charge it. Right now I can't charge this device with my car adaptor.

What sets the charging type is the resistance between the data pins. USB charging will be limited to about 500mA, a plain charger can deliver more current, thus reducing charge time. Somewhere on XDA resistor values are listed for various modes but this site has a really bad search engine.

rogem_kk said:
... but this site has a really bad search engine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are right!
normally nobody dares to say something bad about this site. Don't get me wrong... The information and the community is awesome but the search engine is awful.

But google works still OK
Refer to the thread: Click and look for post 60 to start from there are some interesting conclusions, e.g. in post 71 as well...

[Q] Soldering pins in car charger.

Hello everybody, I read in a few post some time ago that if I have a 1000mah car charger and i solder something inside it, ti ahould make the phone read that I'M CONNECTED TO a wall charger instead of a car charger, so I can charge up to 1a...now I can't find any pictures or tutorial regarding this procedure, maybe somebody can help me?
Thank you

Basically data- & data+ pins need to be bridged together
pins 2 3 in diagram (4 pin female A)
You can also just mod a lead if you do not want to dissemble the car charger.

Mister B said:
Basically data- & data+ pins need to be bridged together
pins 2 3 in diagram (4 pin female A)
You can also just mod a lead if you do not want to dissemble the car charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you...what do you mean by: "You can also just mod a lead if you do not want to dissemble the car charger"
any pciture of a car charger modified?
thanks

materoprodutions said:
thank you...what do you mean by: "You can also just mod a lead if you do not want to dissemble the car charger"
any pciture of a car charger modified?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bridge cable data pins rather than charger pins is what I meant.
I prefer internal mod of charge units. Some charge units have data pins soldered into board some don't, easier on those with data pins left loose & you can bend them closer together & bridge them together with just solder or if gap too large a bridging wire or off-cut from a resistor leg or similar ...

i didn't feel confindent modifying the charger so I modified the cable joining the green and the white cable. After a while it worked showing "charging AC" insted of USB. thank you!!

Generic USB cable won't charge Nook HD, how to modify it ?

Hi,
i bought used Nook HD with generic ac<>usb charger + generic usb cable.
And i notice that using that generic usb cable does not charge the device, and
only lights up to green led indicator [ and stay that way].
Searched forum found out that on original cable B&N there is somewhere set
resistor that make nook take charge.
I am ready to modify that generic usb cable when i know what exact thing
i need to do.
Thanks for the help.

I think you can just connect/short the two data wires.

twiztid_ said:
I think you can just connect/short the two data wires.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Showrted D+ and D- on the Nook HD side and didn't work.
Thanks.

Charging problem partially solved
I was able to get the nook to start the charger light on with a hardware modification.
I used two pull down resistors of 15k on D+ and D- lines of usb. This made the charging light go to red instead of green. Red indicates charging.
( Note : Later I found out that only one resistor on D+ to ground is sufficient to do slow charging. Finally i resorted to shorting D+ and D- and pull down with a 15k resistor )
This is the basic specification of USB host.
When i connected the nook to pc and powered on the pc , nook instantly started to charge with red led before os started. and during the pc boot there will definitely never be a
usb bus remuneration. This prompted me to put the pull down resistors.
I believe that there may be some other value resistor to be placed on d+ or d- line for the software to detect nook is charging as this are the only pins available in charger cable other than power pins.
But the software still does not recognizes the charging state. The software still says it is discharging the battery. But the battery is charging slowly.I still have to resolve the issue.
I am using a 3A charger with LM2577 chip based board adjusted to provide 5V @ 3A.
Any comments.

purenoise said:
Hi,
i bought used Nook HD with generic ac<>usb charger + generic usb cable.
And i notice that using that generic usb cable does not charge the device, and
only lights up to green led indicator [ and stay that way].
Searched forum found out that on original cable B&N there is somewhere set
resistor that make nook take charge.
I am ready to modify that generic usb cable when i know what exact thing
i need to do.
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming that the charger will charge other Android tablets and phones then the fault is in the cable. If not then the fault is in the charger and you could spend a while with resistors and what not, or you can buy a cheap Anker or other compatible charger that does the job properly.
If its is the cable at fault its usually really simple to fix the cable. If you look really closely at the 30-pin connector you'll see that some pins are shorter than others. The Data pins and Earth are ever so slightly longer than the charging power pin by a fraction of a mm. If that charging pin doesn't make good contact it won't charge the Nook.
Unlike the original B&N cables the generic cable casing isn't moulded to the cable's data pin carrier, and it has two slots in thye outer connector housing into which the pin carrier will sit. If the housing gets twisted slightly you can usually hear a creaking sound from the connector and if you are pushing it home at this point there is a very high chance of the pin carrier dropping back a tiny fraction. In this lower position the cable will only show a green light, never a charging light.
If you pop open the generic cables connector using the two lugs on its edge you will see the two ridges that I refer to on the inside of the moulding. To confirm that nothing else is broken you can now connect the pin carrier directly to the Nook and wait a few seconds for the lamp to light green, then drop to orange to indicate charging.
Now you know the cable is sound you can glue the pin carrier to the upper slot in the connector and it will never drop down again. Clip the connector housing together again and you should be good to go.
We have three original cables and 4 generic cables. All 4 of these have needed glueing into place due to them not charging the Nooks.
---------- Post added 6th March 2016 at 12:04 AM ---------- Previous post was 5th March 2016 at 11:59 PM ----------
mailads said:
I was able to get the nook to start the charger light on with a hardware modification.
I used two pull down resistors of 15k on D+ and D- lines of usb. This made the charging light go to red instead of green. Red indicates charging.
( Note : Later I found out that only one resistor on D+ to ground is sufficient to do slow charging. Finally i resorted to shorting D+ and D- and pull down with a 15k resistor )
This is the basic specification of USB host.
When i connected the nook to pc and powered on the pc , nook instantly started to charge with red led before os started. and during the pc boot there will definitely never be a
usb bus remuneration. This prompted me to put the pull down resistors.
I believe that there may be some other value resistor to be placed on d+ or d- line for the software to detect nook is charging as this are the only pins available in charger cable other than power pins.
But the software still does not recognizes the charging state. The software still says it is discharging the battery. But the battery is charging slowly.I still have to resolve the issue.
I am using a 3A charger with LM2577 chip based board adjusted to provide 5V @ 3A.
Any comments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just noticed the last post. That charger just wasn't built for Android charging. Any charger that copes with a Samsung Galaxy Tab or a Nexus Tablet will charge the NookHD and NookHD+ with no need to resort to modifying the cable.
The Anker IO range works very well.
I suggest you use one of the compatible chargers and make life a bit easier.

simon-edwards said:
Assuming that the charger will charge other Android tablets and phones then the fault is in the cable. If not then the fault is in the charger and you could spend a while with resistors and what not, or you can buy a cheap Anker or other compatible charger that does the job properly.
If its is the cable at fault its usually really simple to fix the cable. If you look really closely at the 30-pin connector you'll see that some pins are shorter than others. The Data pins and Earth are ever so slightly longer than the charging power pin by a fraction of a mm. If that charging pin doesn't make good contact it won't charge the Nook.
Unlike the original B&N cables the generic cable casing isn't moulded to the cable's data pin carrier, and it has two slots in thye outer connector housing into which the pin carrier will sit. If the housing gets twisted slightly you can usually hear a creaking sound from the connector and if you are pushing it home at this point there is a very high chance of the pin carrier dropping back a tiny fraction. In this lower position the cable will only show a green light, never a charging light.
If you pop open the generic cables connector using the two lugs on its edge you will see the two ridges that I refer to on the inside of the moulding. To confirm that nothing else is broken you can now connect the pin carrier directly to the Nook and wait a few seconds for the lamp to light green, then drop to orange to indicate charging.
Now you know the cable is sound you can glue the pin carrier to the upper slot in the connector and it will never drop down again. Clip the connector housing together again and you should be good to go.
We have three original cables and 4 generic cables. All 4 of these have needed glueing into place due to them not charging the Nooks.
---------- Post added 6th March 2016 at 12:04 AM ---------- Previous post was 5th March 2016 at 11:59 PM ----------
I've just noticed the last post. That charger just wasn't built for Android charging. Any charger that copes with a Samsung Galaxy Tab or a Nexus Tablet will charge the NookHD and NookHD+ with no need to resort to modifying the cable.
The Anker IO range works very well.
I suggest you use one of the compatible chargers and make life a bit easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opened connector casing, and even removed metallic holder,
connected to the device - still just green.
Connector made solid, and nothing cracking.

mailads said:
I was able to get the nook to start the charger light on with a hardware modification.
I used two pull down resistors of 15k on D+ and D- lines of usb. This made the charging light go to red instead of green. Red indicates charging.
( Note : Later I found out that only one resistor on D+ to ground is sufficient to do slow charging. Finally i resorted to shorting D+ and D- and pull down with a 15k resistor )
Any comments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
can you point me to the pics/specs of that resistors,
would like to try, but
not sure how that resistors looks like.
Thanks.

Galaxy tab S5e pogo connector pinout

Dear all,
Just wanted to avoid spending some cash on Galaxy tab S5e stand. So short research on net show some pinouts of pogo connectors, and seems that Galaxy tab S5e uses USB pins .
So took multimeter, and found that first pin (counting from USB socket side) is GND.
Number 4 is 5V . Middle two I guessed are USB D+ and D-. But whatever combination (#2D+ or opposite D-) no success. Tablet is charging but in slow charging mode (seems to be 0,5A) . That is not so bad for me , as night is long enough to charge full easily. But anyway I would like to know what middle two pins can do. I saw on net some suggestions to use resistors, so tablet would try to charge at 2A , but none diagram works. To clarify , I have official charger and via USB cable , it charges fast.
So finally question... Do you know how to make USB connection via pogo connectors (so tablet could recognize charger, and maybe use for other USB devices)?
Or what are two middle pins for?
Here photo of my Poor's man dock. During photo there was no middle pins connected, but believe me , tried many options.
Edit, as I am new user , I can not paste links, but after 10 posts , I will update.
Edit 2 as I can not paste links, but if someone interested in photo , add http by yourself...
m.imgur.com/a/rPTQCYA

After one month of testing , I cat tell you that it is not necessary to figure out middle pins.
The device charges slowly (somewhere was written that it is limited to 0,5Ampere), but it is ok for me as during night it will be charged full anyway.
Device also activates nicely "daily board"with clock and looks nice.
I recommend this DIY stand. Made of old ethernet socket for pins, and USB printer cable.
Below link to photo how it looks like. I plan to paint it.... someday
m.imgur.com/a/jCGKCZX

Shame about the slow charging limited to 500mA. I've been looking at various tablets to potentially replace my 2019 Galaxy Tab A 10.1 in the car dash. Currently (no joke intended) having a fight with things to do with hub passthrough charging and the tablet taking over the role of power supplier when the car powers down....having pogo pins as an alternate charging method might present something useful as a fix, but 500mA doesn't exceed battery usage when powered up. Have you asked anybody that owns one of the docks to crack it open and see what's inside? Back when I had a Nexus 7, the four pogo pins on the dock corresponded to power and audio out via a 3.5mm jack in the dock.

One thing to keep in mind here that Samsung supports - and requires - QC3.0 for fast charge. So, you would need a source with that standard and if you want to verify (altghough the remaining time would immediately tell you) a suitable in line power trap.