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Build a charger for your Touch 3G

Hey guys. I have had a few PPCs in the past but the Jade is my first SmartPhone. I like to charge my PPCs in the car as I use them for navigating. I use a universal holder plus I dismantle one of these
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as they are easier to wiggle into any dashboard gaps you might have. They are pretty readily available on eBay, but note that they tend to have pretty low guage wire and aren't configured as twisted pairs so it is pretty hit and miss using it to transmit data but it seems to have no problem transmitting DC current. I have used this for very long trips using devices that pull about 1A of current and the cable doesn't warm up so I presume the resistance must be low enough for charging purposes.
Simply connect the other end to a USB Car Charger and you are nearly ready to go. Connecting it up this way will trigger charging but I suspect the device assumes it is connected to a PC as it turns the screen on when you connect it this way as apposed to the Wall Charger where the screen remains off. Careful using USB Chargers designed for other devices (Ipod etc) as they have configurations which may confuse / damage your device. I found this out the hard way when I connected my Jade to an Ipod USB Car Charger which caused all sorts of grief with an undetectable microSD card, the device refusing to turn off which although is now resolved, I am still uncertain whether I haven't caused some damage
So how do you convince the Jade to charge from your Car Charger like a Wall Charger? Well first thing to be aware of is that devices that implement USB charging have various methods of detecting a connection to a Wall Charger as apposed to a computer. As I have mentioned, the iPod (and my old iPaq) uses a resistor configuration between the Ground, 5V and Data Pins to tell the device that it is connected. Fortunately the Jade is much simpler. I have determined from searching the web plus attacking my Wall Charger with a multimeter that all that is required is that the Data Pins are bridged and that the Metal Socket Surround is connected to the Ground Pin (which it is anyway in most Generic Chargers). All that was involved in mine was opening the Charger, finding the middle data pins on the circuit board and dropping a solder bridge between them. Make sure you buy a good quality USB Car Charger that is easy to dismantle (mine was held together by screws) and can provide at least 1A.
Enjoy

My previous phone was a palm treo pro (htc panther), for which i bought a sprint car charger (micro usb). The first charger that was sent to me was heavily used, so i complained and got a new one. After i returned my treo, i got the jade and decided to sell the new charger and modify the old one (which was working fine, except the connector didnt connect properly) to charge the jade. So i opened it up and soldered the two (+ & -) wires to an old usb extension cable, so that now i have a car plug with and usb(-a) socket slightly standing out. When i connect my mini-usb cable for the jade only the charging led lights up.

What did you do with Data Wires? If you joined them together then you have achieved the same outcome as a solder bridge.

Nothing, i just cut them as short as i could. They dont connect to each other...the outer ground isnt connected, too...

Car charging with Ignition off, any suggestions?

I have a Nexus 7 installed in-dash, but I've already read everyone else's builds and I would really hate to install an inverter just to charge my car entertainment. So what I do is I use a 2.1A car charger that somehow isn't able to charge to Nexus 7 while the screen is on, it merely just keeps the power constant so it doesn't drain, and is just an indicator of whether to turn on or not. I constantly have to deal with recharging it by AC power in the garage and that's getting tiring.
So here's my schematic,
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When the car is shut off, the ignition switch would be set to open, and then from there I can set the mechanical switch to close so it can charge my Nexus 7 while I'm out of the car, of course I would turn the screen off. I did the math, and this shouldn't be able to kill a whole car battery in a week, I'm just worried about fire or something that may or may not work or any fire hazards, does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!

Rule #1: Never connect power sources directly in parallel. They will fight.
It's not clear from your explanation if the problem is with your charger or the Nexus' reluctance to accept a lot of current.
You may have to short or bias the data lines on the USB to make the Nexus use all the current available.
I'd be interested to know some actual current measurements, peak internal current demand on the Nexus, peak charging current.
If I were making a permanently installed tablet, I think that I would just buy a buck converter from ebay, set it on 4V and wire it directly into where the battery was.

So the wiring schematic is bad news?
Well that's a shame, I'll take amp readings tomorrow, I'll grab an amp meter and cut up the USB extension.
You see here's how the power goes:
Indicator mode: Monoprice 2.1A Charger -> USB Ext 3ft -> Original Nexus 7 cable -> Angle Connector USB extension -> Nexus 7
Charge Mode: Original Nexus 7 Charger 2.0A -> USB Ext 3ft. -> Original Nexus 7 cable -> Angle Connector USB extension -> Nexus 7.
Test 1: Indicator Mode
Test 2: Charge Mode
Test 3: Indicator Mode with Data Wires shortened at the 3ft USB ext
Test 4: Charge Mode with Data Wires shortened at the 3ft USB ext.
You just want amperage readings on these right?
I know the set up for the wiring is ridiculous and may cause a lot of resistance, but it charges up just fine with the original AC charger, and even an iPad's AC charger. I'm not sure what the problem is but I'll come back on Thursday afternoon with my results.

There's nothing special about the AC charger.
The reason that the AC charger can charge is because the display is off.
With all systems running full tilt the charger may not be able to keep up.
Measurements on this can be difficult.
The problem is, from the outside you are getting a limited view.
Let's say you plug a cell phone into a charger and measure 500 mA.
You could turn on the display, GPS and the most processor intensive thing and the current might still read 500 mA.
You don't really know how much slack the battery is taking up.
Is this a dedicated, hard-wired thing for your car?

Yes, it's a dedicated set up for my car.
Well you see here's the thing, I've tested it a long time ago, and charging by the AC charger for the Nexus or the iPad under full load of processor intensive task + screen on full brightness on the display it still charged a little, yes the wiring was the same extended wiring. From this data I assumed that using any 2.1A car charger would do the same, but I was wrong, none of the car chargers even put a single percentage of charge on the tablet even when all it was doing is standing by with the screen on.

Not exactly sure what you are trying to do with the diagram in the OP. If this is a hard wired installation you could just grab a 12v to 5v converter module that puts out enough current. I'd suggest using Battery Monitor Widget or something similar while testing since that can show the current draw/charge on your device so you can see what its charging at. Or better yet a ammeter/multimeter that can measure current to see what its drawing. You may have to short the data pins on your microUSB cable to get it charging at a higher rate.
As far as it killing your car battery the device won't be drawing much current once its charged. Personally I'd be more worried about keeping it in a hot car for the sake of the tablet battery.

spunker88 said:
Not exactly sure what you are trying to do with the diagram in the OP. If this is a hard wired installation you could just grab a 12v to 5v converter module that puts out enough current. I'd suggest using Battery Monitor Widget or something similar while testing since that can show the current draw/charge on your device so you can see what its charging at. Or better yet a ammeter/multimeter that can measure current to see what its drawing. You may have to short the data pins on your microUSB cable to get it charging at a higher rate.
As far as it killing your car battery the device won't be drawing much current once its charged. Personally I'd be more worried about keeping it in a hot car for the sake of the tablet battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any suggestions for the 12v to 5v converter module?
I'm willing to cut up one of the USB extensions to see the amperage tonight, so I'll post my findings then.
I live in Texas, and the heat's been up to 115 F at one point in the summer. I've had it installed in my car before summer started this year and there hasn't been any damage at all to the tablet. Maybe the occasional hiccup when the tablet doesn't want to turn the screen on when it realizes it has power, but other than that, it's been fully operational.

[Q] Slow charging with usb extender

Hey guys.
I take a usb extender cable with me to the university.
it looks like this one:
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unfortunately, it charges really slow when I use it.
anyone knows the reason?
there are some guides on turning a usb cable to "charge only" cable.
it just doesn't make sense that a cable that IS capable of transferring data (like the stock N4 cable) performs normally, while this one needs to have the data pins shorted to charge normally.
I am running OmniROM with Hellscore kernel and use fast charge without a difference in charging speed.

how long is the cable and what is the ac current on the adapter?, the longer the cable the more resistance (the cable obviously wont be past 1m to matter), you should be using a stronger ac adapter.
if your charging from pc then its going to be worse,

Like the poster above mentioned it's probably due to the extended length causing a higher resistance. I have lots of different ac chargers in my house including one from a Samsung wave 2. It has a pretty long and very thin cable and charging speeds are noticeable slower in comparison to my other ones.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

thanks for your replies.
I use the stock charger so it's 1.2a 5v.
the extender is 1.5x the size of the stock cable, and it connects to a samsung micro usb cable (which charges just fine on its own) which is 2/3 the size of the stock cable.
doesn't seem like it's too long to me, it's just ~2 times the length of the original cable and it can't handle it?
what am I suppose to do? I need it that long.. should I follow the "charge only usb cable" guide for the extender? or purchase a single longer cable (shouldn't make a difference according to your remarks about resistance).

Well, I'm a carpenter not an electrician but I think you can compensate with a charger with higher output. I don't know what the max is the n4 can handle, though.
Generally this could have different reasons to begin with. For instance there are cables that just suck. Another point is, using your extender you have an extra connection on the way from the charger to your device. Plug connections are often known to cause a loss. And then there's the fact that most extender cables aren't made for charging but for data.
So you see not every USB cable is the same. I have a HTC car charger working really good with all my devices while a no name one I had couldn't even hold up with the drain caused by GPS/BT/display when mounted in my car even though both were specifically made for charging through the car ac.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

Being data cables they fit the requirements, the nexus 4 charges under 1amp while the phone its based off is higher that explains the charger,
Usb3 cables allow more current upto 900mah apposed to usb2 at 500mah so it should take twice as long to charge or longer if it doesnt break 500mah barrier
Also the wire gauge, cheaper brands will use thinner wires,so a 24gauge will be able to handle 2amps for tablets etc.
A usb3 cable will be better, you can find thin flexible cables that do meet the requirements
http://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Super-Extension-Surrounded-Connector/dp/B00A5321MW

[Q] Broken microUSB port, not charging or data working.

Hi,
I don't know if I'm posting in the right section, but here is the thing. I've got GeeksPhone Keon Developer Preview, It's a Firefox OS phone, but I've flashed an Android version on it. Everything worked great for about 6 months, and then the phone stopped charging, and it was also not detected by PC. When I plug it to a PC the phone does not detect it's plugged in also the PC does not detect the phone. I tried other microUSB cables and it's the same. I also tried flashing the Android again as I thought maybe it's software related but the problem still exists. Hopefully I installed recovery on it. I currently charge the battery externally, everything else works as expected.
Yesterday I decided to mess with the phone, as I don't have the warranty. I opened it up and checked if the phone actually has power when plugged to the charger. I noticed that the battery is powered so It is charging but the Android OS does not detect that, and decreases the battery via software. I think that the D+ or D- pins are broken, and I'm not sure if they are used for the phone to know if it's charging.
Here is the picture of the circuit board and my findings. Camera is not great so the picture is not that great also.
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0. Is the microUSB port, and I guess there is a problem with it, maybe D+ or D- pins got broken.
1. Those are D+ and D- resistors they are good I've tested them.
2. Those are battery pins. When I probed them when micro USB is plugged in they have power.
3. It's some kind of a IC for power, I think it's used to switch power to the battery from microUSB.
I don't have that good soldering skills so I couldn't resolder the microUSB port, so I'm asking if someone knows another approach to enable the charging via software, as software does not detect that battery is charging, when actually power from microUSB comes to the battery, and because of that it decreases the battery status on Android.
So I'm thinking if I can execute some command so I can trick the phone to believe it's charging, so the battery will charge and when I plug it out I execute the second command to turn off fake charging?
Thanks in advance!

Funny that you have this problem, I just fixed mine today that had the same problem. Basically the micro usb port stopped working because the parts soldered on the motherboard were loose after too much wiggling (cheap mtk phone I guess). I tried resoldering but its just too small, I could not event test the connexions with a multimeter. So I went to one of the million of asian cell phone shops in indonesia where I'm actually travelling and paid 5$ for a guy to fix it. They do it all the time and have expert fingers. Not my phone plugs perfectly, try to find one near your place, wherever that is
Sent from my P5 using XDA Free mobile app

vita94 said:
Yesterday I decided to mess with the phone, as I don't have the warranty. I opened it up and checked if the phone actually has power when plugged to the charger. I noticed that the battery is powered so It is charging but the Android OS does not detect that, and decreases the battery via software. I think that the D+ or D- pins are broken, and I'm not sure if they are used for the phone to know if it's charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What happens if you put a charge over those connections? It won't accept any? Or does it charge but the software isn't detecting it? Another way of fixing it would be making a separate charger for your battery only, of course that would mean that your phone is useless while charging. I'm pretty sure if you force a charge over it it will absorb it, but I wouldn't exactly know how you could check the battery status so that you don't overcharge it this way.

Samsung s5 wont charge. Pleease hulp

I Have a problem with my phone which is turning me crazy.
The battery wont charge while turned on, while turned off it is constantly starting up to show the battery load picture, then i shuts down again and the battery charging picture pops up again. This happens all the time. I cant do anything about it. It does not matter if i plug it into a wall or into my pc. Also its not the cable or the adapter. I really dont know what to do. So far, ive come to the conclusion, It does recognize that its charging whilest being off, so its not some thing that has to do with a hardware issue. It must be software. The only thing I have used is an app called rootbooster. It changes some settings in the root of the phone for longer battery and ever since i have this issue.
In Recovery it does not charge as well.
I have already flashed my rom again and reset the phone.
Anyone knows anything about this?
Barend

Probably not software. Sounds like your micro USB port on your phone. Give it a good blow, might be lint or dirt stuck in your port. Especially if you've returned it to stock and its doing this while powered off. That or your charging port has developed a fault.

It is 99% likely to be the usb socket......
I've had 5 Galaxy devices, all of them use the same type of port, and 3 out of the 5 have failed.....
IMO, the USB port design is pathetically fragile for the job Samsung intends it to do.......
http://i.imgur.com/rVnFwJM.jpg

If It would be the usb socket, wouldnt the phone not even recognize the usb plug? Because now, it does now when I plug in an usb cable. After a few blwos it still does not work.

The usb socket has a number of connectors/pins that are used in various combinations for specific tasks.....
Charging, connecting to a pc, otg etc......
It *could* be that the pins responsible for charging are the only pins affected.....it doesn't even need to be both pins....just one broken pin would be enough to affect charging, but would leave the other functionality intact....
I wouldn't advise poking into the socket with anything in an attempt to repair it, that'll probably just make things worse.
http://i.imgur.com/rVnFwJM.jpg

barend777 said:
If It would be the usb socket, wouldnt the phone not even recognize the usb plug? Because now, it does now when I plug in an usb cable. After a few blwos it still does not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB has red wire (Positive - VCC - Power - PIN 1 ) and black wire (negative - GND - Ground - PIN 4 ).
Along with it has White Wire (Data+, Communication with PC - sending signals to PC - PIN 2 ) and green wire (Data-, Communication With PC - return to smartphone - PIN 3 ).
So it is possible that the "red wire" in this case PIN 1 and PIN 4 of USB, that developed a fault.
Meaning that you have only PIN 2 and 3 not being fault.
If it has Warranty and with Stock Rom, take it to the samsung authorized repair and they will change the usb port.

^^agreed.....
Replacing the USB 'daughterboard' involves removing the screen from the frame......very tricky to do with the potential to cause further, more expensive damage.
If, during rooting and flashing, you have tripped knox, Samsung may well argue that you have invalidated any warranty you may have had....so be aware that the offer of a warranty repair *may* be denied to you......that is, if knox *is* tripped and they check for it....
http://i.imgur.com/rVnFwJM.jpg

But isnt it weird that whilst off, the phone does know when it is connected to USB?
And another question, My computer does not connect with the phone at all. No charging and not reading its USB. Isnt there a possibillty that because of some root mistakes the phone wont charge anymore? Is there a possibillity that this is software related? Because I did not bump my phone to anything. I have just ran that app and ever since its not charging anymore or connecting to my PC.

barend777 said:
But isnt it weird that whilst off, the phone does know when it is connected to USB?
And another question, My computer does not connect with the phone at all. No charging and not reading its USB. Isnt there a possibillty that because of some root mistakes the phone wont charge anymore? Is there a possibillity that this is software related? Because I did not bump my phone to anything. I have just ran that app and ever since its not charging anymore or connecting to my PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well have you tried a factory reset?

It could be the soldering part which connects the port to the board maybe broken. Maybe it just slightly touch to your board, that's why it just pop up and show charging then it went away.

Unfortunately it is not a part you can hand re-solder with any degree of success.....The contacts are *way* too small.....
http://i.imgur.com/rVnFwJM.jpg

Solder tools has many sizes. You need expert to do it. Otherwise if you short each other,you will be in more trouble.

Mate...seriously? I've seen these usb ports off the boards....The connectors are tiny.....You'd need a needle point on a low powered soldering iron. You'd also need a lighted magnifying glass just to be able to see what you're doing.......
Oh, *and* a rock steady hand.....which is something that most humans don't have.
There is a reason why these microcircuitry boards are assembled by robots....it's because we would bork too many of them if we tried it......
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http://i.imgur.com/rVnFwJM.jpg

Yep, agreed ^^
The gf's Nintendo DS charging port broke, worked for a while by twisting the charger lead around until it made a connection, then stopped even doing that, so I thought I could just permanently solder the charger wires to the connectors in the port for her, so it would work at least while plugged in
Soon as I took the thing to bits I could see straight away there was no hope, even with a powerful magnifying glass and the smallest soldering bit I could think of, there was no chance at all, I would have soldered 2-3 pins together at once if I'd tried
Micro-Electronics need machines to solder them, not humans

Try official repairing centre, there might be chance for you.