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Old March 26th, 2015, 10:06 AM   #1
Ralgha
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DIY USB Cable with Voltage Converter

I mounted a camera on my bike and wanted to power it from the bike (via USB). Wanting to do somthing a little more sophisticated than putting a 12V plug under the cowling and plugging a USB adapter into it, I decided to do this:

Purchased a Castle Creations BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit). This is used in RC vehicles to remove the need for a second battery, but it's basically just a voltage converter that takes 12V in and puts out a configurable voltage that is set to 5.1V out of the box, perfect!



The bare wires are connected to the bike's power (battery or whatever you use, I have a PDM60), the other end goes to my USB cable. I shorted the wires, added some heatshrink to improve water resistance, and put connectors on both ends. The yellow wire on the output side is a signal wire used for changing the output voltage, and I just cut it off.



Next I created a splitter so I could plug two USB cables into it, I used the turn-signal type connectors to hopefully make it easier to crimp terminals onto the tiny USB wires (24 gauge if you get a good cable).



Next I chopped off the "A" end of the USB cable and exposed the wires.



The white and green wires are the data lines, I just cut them off, but you could short them together to ensure that whatever (non Apple) device you use it with sees it as a "charge only" cable.

Then I attached terminals to the power lines, even these small terminals are too big to properly crimp, but I made it work by putting the insulation crimp in the uninsulated crimping slot of the tool and using pliers on the uninsulated crimp to crush it down smaller.



Finally, added some heatshrink and popped on the connector.



Plugged them all together and ran the USB cable up to the camera in front, works like a charm!

Next project will be to build my own USB cable from scratch. Regular USB cables have far thicker PVC sheathing than needed for this use as well as metal sheathing for noise reduction, which isn't need for simple power supply. I'm going to build a custom USB cable with a mini-USB connector on one end, 20 gauge wires, thin PVC sheath, and turn-signal type connector on the other end. Also I'll short the data ports together for "charge only" functionality.
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Old March 26th, 2015, 11:41 AM   #2
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Old March 26th, 2015, 12:27 PM   #3
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Old March 26th, 2015, 01:06 PM   #4
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I will be doing something similar for my bike setup, but I don't have the technical know how to do it myself, so I'm having someone do it for me. I also have a PDM 60 and I'm going to run a camera on it so it runs continuously when the bike starts up. Nice write up, thanks for sharing. This will help explain what I want to do, to the person who is going to do the work for me.
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Old March 26th, 2015, 01:15 PM   #5
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I've been wanting to do this for a while having gone the cigarette lighter route prior...

I was thinking of working in a separate circuit from the battery with a power relay run through the ignition, mounting it all in a small Pelican with USB A female plugs soldered to a PCB... However, I can't think of a creative way to weather proof the wires that would passing across the seam of the Pelican...

http://www.pelicancases.com/1010-p/1010.htm

Ideas?
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Old March 26th, 2015, 02:41 PM   #6
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I'm curious, why didn't you just get one of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201317393601...601%26_rdc%3D1
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Old March 26th, 2015, 03:13 PM   #7
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Quote:
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@Ralgha

I'm curious, why didn't you just get one of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201317393601...601%26_rdc%3D1
Initially I was going to, until I found the BEC. I didn't want to use the socket if I could avoid it for a few reasons.

It's bulkier, the camera is under the headlight, so the socket would have had to go inside the cowling, doable but big.

It's extremely not water resistant when something is plugged into it.

It's not a secured connection, with the way I went, only the plug into the camera itself isn't secure, all the other connections are secured with a clip.
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Old March 26th, 2015, 05:07 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spooph View Post
I've been wanting to do this for a while having gone the cigarette lighter route prior...

I was thinking of working in a separate circuit from the battery with a power relay run through the ignition, mounting it all in a small Pelican with USB A female plugs soldered to a PCB... However, I can't think of a creative way to weather proof the wires that would passing across the seam of the Pelican...

http://www.pelicancases.com/1010-p/1010.htm

Ideas?
Not sure exactly how you're going to have the wires go, but either liquid electrical tape or silicone would probably work.
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Old March 27th, 2015, 01:42 AM   #9
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I'm curious, why didn't you just get one of these?
Why wait for the box to show up at the door when you can just make it yourself! Lol
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Old March 27th, 2015, 06:27 AM   #10
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Old March 27th, 2015, 07:11 AM   #11
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Old March 27th, 2015, 09:37 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralgha View Post
The white and green wires are the data lines, I just cut them off, but you could short them together to ensure that whatever (non Apple) device you use it with sees it as a "charge only" cable.
With the data wires missing, the device should limit itself to 500mA if it follows the USB spec. Shorting the data wires together tells the device it can pull up to 1A. Devices >1A use voltage divider circuits to give different (proprietary) voltages on the data lines to indicate what current level to use.


I have a USB power port like Ghostt linked installed on my 500. Some GPS units that use a standard USB port for charging have direct-wire 12V kits. It's a USB plug on one end, red and black wires on the other, and all the necessary magic in between to make it Just Work™. If you can find a GPS with a USB port matching the port and power draw of your camera (or other device), you can simply buy one of those. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ALTKBM/ is one example.
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Old March 27th, 2015, 10:28 AM   #13
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With the data wires missing, the device should limit itself to 500mA if it follows the USB spec. Shorting the data wires together tells the device it can pull up to 1A. Devices >1A use voltage divider circuits to give different (proprietary) voltages on the data lines to indicate what current level to use.
Apple devices use a proprietary voltage scheme on the data lines to indicate what current level to use. Devices that actually conform to the USB standard only need shorted data lines to draw up to 1.5A (per standard, though most can do 2A). USB 3 has an actual negotiation protocol on the data lines between the device and charger to go to higher currents and voltages, but that is way beyond what I did. The way I made this cable, the device won't pull more than 500milliamps since I left the data wires open.

Another factor in how fast your device will charge is the gauge of wires used in the USB cable. Most cheap cables use 28 gauge wire and you might not get more than 500 milliamps out of it anyway. Better ones use 24 gauge wire, which is generally sufficient for 2A draws. When I make my own I'm going to use 20 gauge wire, mostly because that's the smallest one I have.


Quote:
I have a USB power port like Ghostt linked installed on my 500. Some GPS units that use a standard USB port for charging have direct-wire 12V kits. It's a USB plug on one end, red and black wires on the other, and all the necessary magic in between to make it Just Work™. If you can find a GPS with a USB port matching the port and power draw of your camera (or other device), you can simply buy one of those. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ALTKBM/ is one example.
That is essentially what I built. One of those BECs I used is rated for 7 amps continuous, so you could connect a few devices to one of them.
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Old March 29th, 2015, 05:34 PM   #14
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Old March 31st, 2015, 09:21 PM   #15
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Apple devices use a proprietary voltage scheme on the data lines to indicate what current level to use.
So does HP, and I'm pretty sure a number of Android devices do as well (though not so proprietary).


Quote:
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Devices that actually conform to the USB standard only need shorted data lines to draw up to 1.5A (per standard, though most can do 2A).
That seems extremely dangerous. Older chargers used shorted data lines to indicate 1A rather than the standard 500mA. If new devices try pulling 1.5-2A on an older charger because the data lines are shorted, it could burn up the charger. USB's Battery Charging Standard mentions the voltage divider circuits, but I couldn't actually find values that correlated to various current ratings.
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Old April 2nd, 2015, 10:49 AM   #16
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So does HP, and I'm pretty sure a number of Android devices do as well (though not so proprietary).
The stock Android kernel follows USB spec, which says that if the data lines are shorted, you can draw up to 1.5A. Any Android device that doesn't do that has a modified kernel, which is unlikely. Try it. Open the battery settings when plugged in, if it says charging USB, then the data lines are not shorted. Short them together and it will say charging AC. It's that simple.



Quote:
Originally Posted by InvisiBill View Post
That seems extremely dangerous. Older chargers used shorted data lines to indicate 1A rather than the standard 500mA. If new devices try pulling 1.5-2A on an older charger because the data lines are shorted, it could burn up the charger. USB's Battery Charging Standard mentions the voltage divider circuits, but I couldn't actually find values that correlated to various current ratings.
The charger won't deliver more than it can, the voltage will drop instead. The danger is pulling more amps than a cable can safely carry, which could cause dangerously high temperatures in the cable (and excessive voltage drops). The USB Battery Charging Standard is what defines the shorted data lines (at less than 200 ohms). Version 1.2 eliminated allowance for resistive detection of power supply capabilities.

There's a new protocol called USB Power Delivery that dictates negotiation over the data lines to establish power draw, but that is part of USB 3, all these phones are USB 2.

Some devices have additional charging protocols, like Qualcomm Quick Charge, but they still work with standard USB too. Even the Nexus 6 (which I have) supports Quick Charge, if you plug it into a charger that supports Quick Charge then it charges at a higher voltage and amperage, but if you just plug it into a normal charger with shorted data lines it pulls about 1.5 amps.
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