Develop Bugs

2 USB into 1 mini USB charger cable?

Anybody tried charging their phone with one of these dual USB-A to one mini USB-B Y cables? They typically come with external 2.5" drive enclosures to provide enough power for the drive. It could be cool for a fast full 1 amp charge via USB when no better charging option is handy, and certainly better than the majority of crapola mis-labled under-powered chargers out there. I just can't afford to be the guinea pig if such a cable uses proprietary pinouts and will fry the phone.

amps are pulled not pushed
Ohm's law == (Amp == Volt / resistence (Ohm) )
so your charger could be 1MegaAmps and your device would only draw as much as
volt being 5volts and the resistence would be what the charging system inside
the phone is which is also a constant
all the wallchargers we use for these devices with usb connectors got plenty more juice then .5amps usb provide

Thanks for the detail. I've never been good at sorting out volts, watts, amps, etc. Regardless, I'm not concerned about it providing too much juice, mainly that it's a proprietary non-spec cable that may use a proprietary pinout. There's a guy on PPCGeeks who successfully & briefly tried a similar cable without ill effects. Waiting on a promised in-depth test to see if it actually charges faster, etc. I'm still a bit chicken to try it as I can't afford to be phoneless right now.

Well, I went ahead & tried it. I loaded nuePowerCPL which showed just under 500 mA, same as a good quality USB cable. Interestingly, a wimpy skinny USB cable delivered only 160 mA. Maybe other PCs will yield better results, but the 2 into 1 cable offers no improvement for me.

I stumbled across a product specifically designed to charge from 2 USB ports:
http://www.ppctechs.com/HTC-Touch-P...l-Sync-USB-Power-Adapter-Y-Cable_1300-440.htm
I doubt it's any different than the portable hard drive cable I tried. I also read that some newer USB implementations can supply more than 500 mA, so those with different/newer motherboards may still benefit from this charging technique. It would be great if others could load nuePowerCPL and report their results.

Have you used 5 in 1 USB cable? The USB cable can transfer data and recharge at same time. I have never used so I am looking for the highest quality possible. Also, I would like to thank you all suggestions.

Rudegar said:
the resistence would be what the charging system inside the phone is which is also a constant
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Click to collapse
That's not strictly true; at least some phones have two charging modes; slow (run from a USB port) and normal (when running from the wall). My Rhodium, for example, draws something like 2A when run from the wall charger. I understand that the wall charger has a slightly higher voltage than the 5v usually seen from a USB cable, and it is through this that the phone knows it can charge in "normal" mode.

Update: It works, just not enough of a difference to get super excited about:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1664169#post1664169

CDMA Touch Pro 2 - Charge from PC/Laptop?

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread, I searched quite a bit for a solution but only found stuff for the TP, not the TP2.
Ok, so I know with the original TP you could charge it from a computer, but it was not as fast as a wall charger unless you had the fix that allowed it to charger faster on the computer.
Well on my TP2, it really won't charge the phone, and if I am using something like wifi router that uses a lot of power, it will actually lose power while charging off my computer...
Is there a fix to bypass this so I can have my phone plugged into my computer and charge it???

make sure in your battery settings the box that says "when device is turned on, do not charge the battery when connected to the PC" is unchecked. meaning an empty box. if its checked off, uncheck it. also, this might help, when plugged up to ur computer, cut ur backlight all the way down or low. the phone will use less battery that way and will charge faster when hooked up. either way though, charging thru a pc is trickle charging, meaning its gonna b slower than wall charger anyways. i havent came across the fix u mentioned for the TP.

trickle charging is when battery is fully charged and is still pluged on charger, then charging change to trickle power charge, around 20mA+actual request of the phone. this way if you have phone/any electronic in general on charger for a month, it's still kept fully charged.
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htc have two modes of charging slow 500mA and fast 1A (1000mA)
to say to the phone that charger is fast, you need to have one pin on mini-USB connected to ground. this pin is unused by mini-usb specifications but htc is using it for this trigger.
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cut open mini usb connector on usb to mini usb cable and wire the unused PIN to power ground (get pinouts pics or use multimeter!!!!! don't guess try it)
then you still facing another problem, USB is strictly specified to not exceed 500mA (with 10% toleration) no trick to get more then this from one usb. some computers are not so precise with rules though and could give slightly over 550mA
to get 1A you need to use two usb ports in parallel. like some china made usb harddrives enclosures
get an additional USB connector and add it to your cable.
NOTE: DON'T CONNECT DATA LINES ON THIS SECOND CONNECTOR!!!!!
data = inner 2 pins
power = outer 2 pins
* you can get an USB extension cable, wire 2 power lines out of it, connect to your usb - miniusb cable... this way you still can use the other usb for other device
NOTE: this is not a standard though accepted solution. I haven't saw or heard of any burned computers cos of this but wouldn't be surprised to see one.
anyway if I had that need, I would go for it
when making this cable, be very sure 5v wire is not touching data lines!!! Test it properly before plugging to PC! I have brand new laptop now, the old one is lying with DEAD usb host below table just because I believed there have to be protection against this. There IS NOT.
NOTE: NEVER LAUGH ON MY PAINTINGS!!

Or you can buy one for $4
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Othe...medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase

actually NOT.
without grounding the special pin on mini USB side of the cable, mobile would charge by 500mA no matter if you put 100A charger in. or paralleling 20 USBs

Wow...I'm pretty tech savy but that was a bit confusing...so I get the gist of that, but how is it that all it takes is plugging the usb chord into the htc ac power supply will fix that? why isn't it required for all that jazz of rewiring crap on the ac adapter as well, since it comes from the same usb chord...?

eh, have mercy with that english slang we are mostly not englishers here
What you meant was, why htc AC (wall) charger charges on hi power without those tricks?
Because the connection is already made there.
That's not a hidden trick anyway. Not even trick. It's a standart feature.
HTC is, not like other manufacturers, sticking to specs and mobile would not demand more then 500mA from standart usb connection.
usb is defined to be max 500mA
if you want a connector which is based on standart (htc's usb-hub can use usb cables), and you want a fast charging without violating standarts than this was the best resolution, to use pin which is generaly unused to trigger-detect 1A charger.
But as htc didn't made computer fast-charge cables. A serious company will not release such a cable. Connecting power from two usb hosts together - I feel pain by doing it, but it proved computer stabilizators don't mind it and though I don't think it's giving really double, it's giving more then 500mA.
But here you have to "imitate" original htc AC charger by shortwiring that trigger pin the way as it is there.
hope this was your question about.
Just final note in red when making this cable, be very sure 5v wire is not touching data lines!!! Test it properly before plugging to PC! I have brand new laptop now, the old one is lying with DEAD usb host below table just because I believed there have to be protection against this. There IS NOT.

Combo USB wall receptacle, 700mA or 2.1mA?

I was thinking about putting a new receptacle with USB and one outlet somewhere on my kitchen counter. Problem is the two better companies have two very different amperage's. Cooper is .7a and Leviton is 2.1a, both have two USB ports and one outlet. The charger for our E4GT is 1a and I also have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 that would need the higher amp version, but many have said to NOT use a higher amp charger than the one our phones came with, which is 1.
So what do you think? Is it really that bad for our phones/battery to charge it using a higher amp source? I know our charger cube is small but I also need it in various locations at home or at the office so having an outlet like this in my kitchen would be awesome.
I hate how slow USB charges our phones, so I assume .7 would still be kinda slow and not charge my tablet either.
http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Wiring-Devices-TR7740W-K-Combination/dp/B007NC5GI4
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-T5630...F8&qid=1350409796&sr=1-1&keywords=leviton+usb

My vote is for the 700. It will be better for your batteries over time.

Interesting thing that I have learned is that the Leviton version only pushes the higher amps on one of the USB ports. There is no where that states how much the one that gets less does though and I have read that if you plug in a device that does not need the extra amps that USB somehow puts out less amps and it charges slower.
I need to do more investigating though.

revamper said:
My vote is for the 700. It will be better for your batteries over time.
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I agree to an extent.
I feel that it really depends on how long you keep your usb charged devices. Battery degradation may not be an issue if you upgrade often or are the type that never has anything older than the 2nd, sometimes 3rd, newest model device on the market. Also, a lot of the newer devices require higher amps to charge at a reasonable time. This transitions into charging habits. On the 0.7A charger, you may find yourself leaving devices on chargers over night potentially hours longer after fully charging. This is arguably also damaging to the battery.
Either way you go, you may find yourself with a bunch of 6' microUSB cables from devices taking forever to charge or battery degradation. :silly:

Your phone is only going to use as many amps as it can. Say a GS2 charges at 450ma USB and 650ma AC. The phone will recognize if its USB or ac and allow it to charge according to that. Its not going to charge faster on a 1a charger unless you root your phone and hack those parameters. Doing that is what will cause battery life problems, if not cause a complete failure of the battery and/or the device.. The higher you you set the charging amperage, the more likely you are to have problems.
And phones now (especially any model of GS2) have circuitry to prevent overcharging. Leaving your phone charging overnight is not going to cause any problems.
I don't know if USB wall outlets act like USB or a/c (think about a USB cable with a wall adapter) but plugging into the USB outlet and checking in the battery info in the settings menu or a battery app can tell you.
Sent from my SGH-I777

What's next wireless charger outlets?

Get the higher-amperage Leviton.
Your device will only draw the amps it needs. The GS2 will draw < 1amp. But if you have a big tablet, they can pull the full 2.1 amps.
Since you're doing a 'permanent' wall installation, you're somewhat future-proofing yourself.

Good info, thanks all. I did not know that our phone will only pull the amps it needs, so that is good to know. I may get the higher amp version because I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 that needs higher amperage.

Fast Charging USB Cable for Cars / laptop

Hey all,
The ONE gets too hot... Solved :good:
The ONE charges slowly... Solved :good:
My HTC ONE was charging very VERY slowly since I got it... And it was actually discharging slowly if plugged in and using navigation in the car..
Now, I don't have the original HTC car charger and its a stupid amount to pay for that...
I've used over a dozen of cables and chargers but none of them would charge properly...
Ordered this earlier this week and it got delivered today
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321159008835&ssPageName=ADME:L:eek:C:GB:3160
Looks decent, and I would highly recommend it for anyone having charging problems with universal USB chargers.
Just tested it, I fired up Waze (which I usually use), Mobile Data, GPS, Skype in background and anything that would run in the background using as much power as it can .... Streaming Music over Bluetooth.. Screen was ON all the time with MAX brightness
My ONE slowly (really slowly) went from 53% to 54% ..:laugh::laugh:
Regarding ROM etc (if it makes any difference) , I'm running Viper One with ElementalX Kernel. 384Mhz Min and 1674 Max. Undervolted to -50mV & Fastcharge ... plus an Air Vent mounted phone holder for cooling features .. The ONE gets too hot
I can finally use the ONE as a proper nav, without having to worry about switching the screen off every now and then...

Sounds good, and in what charger you use?

Yet again, I must explain that cables do not differ if they are similar quality wise. All certified cables should be 24+ AWG btw. Don't be fooled by things like "fast charging." It mostly depends on the charger you're using. (Unless of course, you bought a crappy cable). Also should add that a 4 pin vs a 5 pin cable also creates a difference in charging time.

Kraize said:
Yet again, I must explain that cables do not differ if they are similar quality wise. All certified cables should be 24+ AWG btw. Don't be fooled by things like "fast charging." It mostly depends on the charger you're using. (Unless of course, you bought a crappy cable). Also should add that a 4 pin vs a 5 pin cable also creates a difference in charging time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That cable shorts the data lines to trick the phone into thinking it is connecting to a compatible charger. Any charger that supply 5V and >=1A should be fine with that cable. I would NEVER use the cable on a computer as the phone will try to pull as much as if it was on a wall charger some where around 750mA - 1A.

rancor22 said:
That cable shorts the data lines to trick the phone into thinking it is connecting to a compatible charger. Any charger that supply 5V and >=1A should be fine with that cable. I would NEVER use the cable on a computer as the phone will try to pull as much as if it was on a wall charger some where around 750mA - 1A.
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Click to collapse
Which in turn would probably fry all your usb ports.

Kraize said:
Which in turn would probably fry all your usb ports.
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Click to collapse
Yep, might not fry a powered USB 3.0 port but don't try this.

Many people (inc me) do not know that there are 24 AWG cable, and would use a stupid standard micro usb cable in to charge the phone in vain ...
Mpro747 said:
Sounds good, and in what charger you use?
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Click to collapse
A standard USB port mounted on Cig lighter socket. It does the job right now
Kraize said:
Which in turn would probably fry all your usb ports.
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Click to collapse

Neelesh35 said:
Many people (inc me) do not know that there are 24 AWG cable, and would use a stupid standard micro usb cable in to charge the phone in vain ...
A standard USB port mounted on Cig lighter socket. It does the job right now
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Click to collapse
you guys might wanna look at this sweet babe, you will know exactly how many hours to fully charge ur HTC One :silly:
http://www.thepowerpot.com/solar-power-optimized-practical-meter

hmm interesting, but if the 24awg cable has a potential of frying your usb port, guess what this one will do
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

Neelesh35 said:
Many people (inc me) do not know that there are 24 AWG cable, and would use a stupid standard micro usb cable in to charge the phone in vain ...
A standard USB port mounted on Cig lighter socket. It does the job right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 24AWG wire used in the cable does nothing for helping your phone charge faster, its the fact that the two data lines are shorted in the cable. This tells the device that it is connected to a dedicated charger, even if it is not, and that it can pull however much current it needs.

Why would you buy a cable for this? Get the right charger in the first place and you wouldn't have this issue. Actual proper phone chargers already short the data pins (in fact, I'm surprised you found one that doesn't). Now you have a cable that cannot be used for anything other than charging.
Also, to whoever said this would fry USB ports: no, it wouldn't. Even with shorted data pins, the host machine still won't put any more power out than it is specified to. In fact, this means that using this cable, connected to a computer, would result in it charging SLOWER than if you allowed the phone to negotiate with the computer for faster charging.

Vincent Law said:
Why would you buy a cable for this? Get the right charger in the first place and you wouldn't have this issue. Actual proper phone chargers already short the data pins (in fact, I'm surprised you found one that doesn't). Now you have a cable that cannot be used for anything other than charging.
Also, to whoever said this would fry USB ports: no, it wouldn't. Even with shorted data pins, the host machine still won't put any more power out than it is specified to. In fact, this means that using this cable, connected to a computer, would result in it charging SLOWER than if you allowed the phone to negotiate with the computer for faster charging.
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Actual computers don't do a good job of limiting current they assume the device will satay within USB spec.

rancor22 said:
Actual computers don't do a good job of limiting current they assume the device will satay within USB spec.
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That couldn't be further from the truth. Windows even keeps track of the actual loads (it'll tell you when your USB host reports it cannot provide more power). The host decides how much power to provide the device anyway, it's not up to the device. If the device asks for 50 amps, the PC isn't going to try and serve that up. That would be insane and dangerous.
What it WILL do is start with an initial very low current (like 20mA IIRC). The device has its USB client chip powered by this, and uses it to negotiate. The device will then request however much current it needs. However, USB 2.0 spec states that the maximum is 500mA. The device can request more, but it by no means may expect to receive it. The PC may respond and say that it will only serve the maximum. Often it will respond by saying it will provide as much as it is capable (for some laptops and such, this could be as low as 500-600mA). The device must then deal with what it is given (it can use less, but it CANNOT draw more). Note that host devices can actually provide as little as 100mA if available power is limited.
However, many PCs nowadays are designed for charging, and provide over a full amp. They will do so during negotiation. If you use a charge only cable, you're gambling that the PC will go into a high current (AKA "take as much as we can offer") mode. Not all will do so. Some will follow the actual spec, and force the device into a lower power (100mA max, IIRC) current state, leaving you with basically no charging capability.

Vincent Law said:
That couldn't be further from the truth. Windows even keeps track of the actual loads (it'll tell you when your USB host reports it cannot provide more power). The host decides how much power to provide the device anyway, it's not up to the device. If the device asks for 50 amps, the PC isn't going to try and serve that up. That would be insane and dangerous.
What it WILL do is start with an initial very low current (like 20mA IIRC). The device has its USB client chip powered by this, and uses it to negotiate. The device will then request however much current it needs. However, USB 2.0 spec states that the maximum is 500mA. The device can request more, but it by no means may expect to receive it. The PC may respond and say that it will only serve the maximum. Often it will respond by saying it will provide as much as it is capable (for some laptops and such, this could be as low as 500-600mA). The device must then deal with what it is given (it can use less, but it CANNOT draw more). Note that host devices can actually provide as little as 100mA if available power is limited.
However, many PCs nowadays are designed for charging, and provide over a full amp. They will do so during negotiation. If you use a charge only cable, you're gambling that the PC will go into a high current (AKA "take as much as we can offer") mode. Not all will do so. Some will follow the actual spec, and force the device into a lower power (100mA max, IIRC) current state, leaving you with basically no charging capability.
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Windows keeps a record of what devices have requested, not what they are currently drawing. When you use the cable you are bypassing all if this( the software/embedded enumeration and negotiation for power) and then you are just relying on the hardware current limits. In an inexpensive system and possible even expensive ones the hardware probably only as one current limit if it has one at all. Lets say the USB protection IC as a current limit of 1A. A device that is connected with the charging cable is just going to pull current as if its hooked up to a wall adapter for this example let just say the phone draws 900mA. The dangerous part about this is that the computer has no idea this is going on, if the device doesn't enumerate the computer will never know its drawing current unless it trips an overcurrent limit.

rancor22 said:
Windows keeps a record of what devices have requested, not what they are currently drawing. When you use the cable you are bypassing all if this( the software/embedded enumeration and negotiation for power) and then you are just relying on the hardware current limits. In an inexpensive system and possible even expensive ones the hardware probably only as one current limit if it has one at all. Lets say the USB protection IC as a current limit of 1A. A device that is connected with the charging cable is just going to pull current as if its hooked up to a wall adapter for this example let just say the phone draws 900mA. The dangerous part about this is that the computer has no idea this is going on, if the device doesn't enumerate the computer will never know its drawing current unless it trips an overcurrent limit.
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Your entire post runs on the assumption that the USB host, for some reason, would have no way of controlling its power output other than an overcurrent limiter. Not only is this NOT what the USB spec states, but it's also so hilariously dangerous that if it were true, you'd be hearing about it all the time. It'd mean you could create a device that instantly pulls maximum current from the system, frying any system without an adequate overcurrent limiter.

Vincent Law said:
Your entire post runs on the assumption that the USB host, for some reason, would have no way of controlling its power output other than an overcurrent limiter. Not only is this NOT what the USB spec states, but it's also so hilariously dangerous that if it were true, you'd be hearing about it all the time. It'd mean you could create a device that instantly pulls maximum current from the system, frying any system without an adequate overcurrent limiter.
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I am not disagreeing with you that hosts can control and meter power but it does that by assuming the end device will also follow usb spec and is listening to what it is saying. So yes what I am saying is that for a device that does not follow USB spec and does not enumerate the only current control it receives is a hardware current limit. I don't know the whole usb spec well I know battery charging specifications so if this is completely wrong can you point me to the part of the USB specifications where it says the host must limit current draw. In a perfect system the hardware current limit will change as the host specifies how much power the device is allowed to draw, but more likely the protection IC(s) are just there in the case of a short, esd, or a device that is supplying power to the host (reverse current).

Bought a HTC CC-C200 some time ago for my HTC Desire where it did a nice job. Now with the One I encounter the problem that it discharges when being used (navi, scanning, ...).
Is there any newer original car charging cable that I can use? I do not want any 3rd party china cables

bliblablub said:
Bought a HTC CC-C200 some time ago for my HTC Desire where it did a nice job. Now with the One I encounter the problem that it discharges when being used (navi, scanning, ...).
Is there any newer original car charging cable that I can use? I do not want any 3rd party china cables
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought a RocketFish USB car charger and cable From BestBuy. It charges wicked fast, even when using navi and or streaming. I believe is is 10 watts and 2.1 amp output. That adapter will probably fix ya up, I used to have the same problem but not any more
Sent from my gimped not yet unlocked Verizon One

Zenfone 2 ZE550ML charging super slow via PC USB

Says it takes 7-8 hours sometimes even 10 hours to charge via USB from my PC and with its original charger it goes from 0%-100% in 3 hours, it doesn't have fast charge but it's an OK time to let it charge overnight, why isn't it as fast from PC, anyone else experiencing this?

KuGeL94 said:
Says it takes 7-8 hours sometimes even 10 hours to charge via USB from my PC and with its original charger it goes from 0%-100% in 3 hours, it doesn't have fast charge but it's an OK time to let it charge overnight, why isn't it as fast from PC, anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the USB standard requires it. Unless a PC/device supports CDP detection/negotiation (rare), no device is allowed to draw more than 500 mA from a USB port.
I'm wondering how you're surprised by this since it's been a requirement of the USB standard for over a decade.

Entropy512 said:
Because the USB standard requires it. Unless a PC/device supports CDP detection/negotiation (rare), no device is allowed to draw more than 500 mA from a USB port.
I'm wondering how you're surprised by this since it's been a requirement of the USB standard for over a decade.
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I owned a Moto G (1.st Gen) before and it charged exactly as it did from the wall adapter, never knew about that USB standard. At least I've learned something.
Someone told me you have to edit some settings from your device (Kernel Settings (ROOT)) to ''ask'' the PC drain more power from the USB Port.

Here in Japan the ¥100 shop (like a pound/dollar store) sells a little adapter that you put in the USB port that allows you to charge an iPad (normally you can't because 500 mA is insufficient) via a PC's USB port, presumably by increasing output to 1 amp. I suppose that would do the trick for the Zenfone too.

KuGeL94 said:
I owned a Moto G (1.st Gen) before and it charged exactly as it did from the wall adapter, never knew about that USB standard. At least I've learned something.
Someone told me you have to edit some settings from your device (Kernel Settings (ROOT)) to ''ask'' the PC drain more power from the USB Port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some PCs have what are defined as Charging Downstream Ports (CDPs). Some Android devices can detect these, some can't. Qualcomm's PMICs seem to be more featured in terms of detecting stuff - IIIRC, Qualcomm's PMICs also support detecting "nonstandard" (Apple) chargers.
A lot of developers hack up kernels on devices without CDP detection support to assume a CDP - this is dangerous since you might blow a fuse on a PC/hub that is just an SDP. For example, my monitor's USB ports are all dead thanks to a cheapo Chinese GPS that pulled way more than 500 mA.
For more - see the BC1.2 spec at http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/