NT's 12pin USB cable is unique?
- Thread starter ms2003
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The cable by itself is available in brick & mortar B&N stores for $15. Not as cheap as a generic USB cable, but not totally outrageous either.
File this under For What it's Worth...
I've had three tablets:
The first one was a Chinese, Inc., that would've been OK if it weren't for serious touch screen registration problems. I sent it back.
The second one was a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (What's in name, eh?) *IT* had touch screen registration problems. The build quality was only fair (it creaked). And it was thin and sharp at the edges. To read, I had to hold it upside-down so I wouldn't keep hitting the power button. I sent it back.
But before I sent the Samsung back,I bought a Certified Pre-owned (Whatever that means) 16GB Nook. The benefit of having both the Nook and the SGT 2-7.0 made it a no-brainer. The difference in build quality has to be seen to be appreciated. In comparison, the Nook looks and feels like it's MIL Spec.
Why am I posting all this dribble?
I just did a test. I have multiple USB chargers and multiple USB cables. I wanted to see what would charge the Nook and what wouldn't...
Cables:
-------
B&N OEM USB cable.
Motorola ECOMOTO USB Charge/Data cable.
Generic USB data cable
Chargers/adapters:
------------------
My PC.
B&N OEM 1800mA AC charger.
Motorola OEM 850mA AC charger.
Generic travel charger 650mA AC.
Motor vehicle accessory outlet USB charger with coiled cord and extra USB port (Rat Shack. Bought it for my phone).
Cute little thumb-sized Motor vehicle accessory outlet USB charger (Walgreens. $5 in a checkout-line sucker-bait bucket).
I tested every possible combination. Everything charges my Nook. Just as I expected.
What makes the B&N proprietary charger/cable special? Charge rate. The Nook can go from dead to fully charged in four hours. Is the proprietary nature of it a PIA? Not IMHO.
Any USB port should charge the Nook. It will just take much longer.
The proprietary Samsung cable was FAR worse. Paper thin and very difficult to insert. Even more difficult to remove.
Thinking of an iPhone 5? Not only is it proprietary, it's not even the same as the iPhone 4! The outcry was so loud, Apple ships the 5 with a cable adapter.
So if you have charger/cable problems with your Nook. Just deal with it and move on.
And if you have a bricked Nook, I'm interested. Keep in mind that a brand new 16GB is $200. $180 for a "Certified Pre-Owned." Whatever that means.
I've had three tablets:
The first one was a Chinese, Inc., that would've been OK if it weren't for serious touch screen registration problems. I sent it back.
The second one was a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (What's in name, eh?) *IT* had touch screen registration problems. The build quality was only fair (it creaked). And it was thin and sharp at the edges. To read, I had to hold it upside-down so I wouldn't keep hitting the power button. I sent it back.
But before I sent the Samsung back,I bought a Certified Pre-owned (Whatever that means) 16GB Nook. The benefit of having both the Nook and the SGT 2-7.0 made it a no-brainer. The difference in build quality has to be seen to be appreciated. In comparison, the Nook looks and feels like it's MIL Spec.
Why am I posting all this dribble?
I just did a test. I have multiple USB chargers and multiple USB cables. I wanted to see what would charge the Nook and what wouldn't...
Cables:
-------
B&N OEM USB cable.
Motorola ECOMOTO USB Charge/Data cable.
Generic USB data cable
Chargers/adapters:
------------------
My PC.
B&N OEM 1800mA AC charger.
Motorola OEM 850mA AC charger.
Generic travel charger 650mA AC.
Motor vehicle accessory outlet USB charger with coiled cord and extra USB port (Rat Shack. Bought it for my phone).
Cute little thumb-sized Motor vehicle accessory outlet USB charger (Walgreens. $5 in a checkout-line sucker-bait bucket).
I tested every possible combination. Everything charges my Nook. Just as I expected.
What makes the B&N proprietary charger/cable special? Charge rate. The Nook can go from dead to fully charged in four hours. Is the proprietary nature of it a PIA? Not IMHO.
Any USB port should charge the Nook. It will just take much longer.
The proprietary Samsung cable was FAR worse. Paper thin and very difficult to insert. Even more difficult to remove.
Thinking of an iPhone 5? Not only is it proprietary, it's not even the same as the iPhone 4! The outcry was so loud, Apple ships the 5 with a cable adapter.
So if you have charger/cable problems with your Nook. Just deal with it and move on.
And if you have a bricked Nook, I'm interested. Keep in mind that a brand new 16GB is $200. $180 for a "Certified Pre-Owned." Whatever that means.
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Now try this: hide your Nook's USB charging cable. Let the Nook's battery completely drain so that the Nook won't turn on.
Plug in a generic USB cable and charge all you like- hours, days, whatever. Try to turn the Nook on.
Plug in a generic USB cable and charge all you like- hours, days, whatever. Try to turn the Nook on.
OK. It's charging.
With the screen on full bright and the governor set to performance,I started up StabilityTest and let it run until the tablet turned itself off. When I tried to turn it on, it told me to charge the battery and turned itself back off.
Then, in the most likely scenario, I plugged it into the $5 Walgreens charger through my generic USB data cable for one hour. Turned it on, waited for it to boot, and went right into Tablet Status. The battery was at 23% and charging.
I didn't choose the $5 charger randomly for this test. I chose it because my Droid X is notoriously picky about chargers. Since it works with my X, I was confident it would work with my Nook.
I suspect folks are trying to use chargers that lack sufficient oomph to trigger the charge controller. My $5 charger's output is rated at 5V (verified - no load) @ 1A. I've also got a few that put out between 4.1 and almost 6V. I didn't try them in this test because they don't charge my X. I'd say the Nook is somewhat more forgiving in that respect.
After all is said and done, you can be confident that with a decent charger and cable you *can* charge the Nook. You just have to be patient because it will take longer than it will with the OEM charger and cable.
YMMV. Results not typical. Consult your physician. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Now where did I hide that cable...
Not to be argumentative but if you still had enough charge for the nook to be saying plug in a charger.... It's not fully depleted.
My nook (16gb original) absolutely will not charge cold from any third party charger from a completely depleted state. Only the actual nook cable will bring it back ro life. Reading through this thread, that's not unique to my nook. Maybe they've fixed it with later models though.
My nook (16gb original) absolutely will not charge cold from any third party charger from a completely depleted state. Only the actual nook cable will bring it back ro life. Reading through this thread, that's not unique to my nook. Maybe they've fixed it with later models though.
No argument. No problem. Just dialog.
I suppose what I'm not getting is, if it turns itself off (And off = off), how does it fully deplete the battery? Which ROM are you using? Something is still putting a load on the battery. I use a LOT of Li-ion batteries. All are inherently self-protecting. From overcharge, over-discharge and shorts (For amusement, search YouTube for lithium battery fire). Maybe I'm all wrong about the Nook. Though in today's litigious society, I'm hard-pressed to believe B&N's (contract) engineers would make such a mistake.
But, as your last point suggests, that's what hardware revisions are for.
When it's "turning itself off" the battery still has several percentage points of charge left. It won't last though. Leave it for a while (hours possibly) and the NT will be fully dead. By the way, I think you're overthinking it a little- this isn't uncommon for battery powered devices. What's uncommon is that it requires the 12 pin connector to bring the device back from a fully uncharged state, rather than any 3rd party connector even if it normally charges slower.
People may want to check this for themselves before leaving behind the actual Nook charging cable if they're thinking they can always let the NT fully discharge and any old charger will bring it back. Not the case with mine. Probably isn't with a lot of other people's either. I'd say check first before assuming.
LOL! You're not the first to suggest that. It's one thing I'm paid to do.
But I *was* thinking the opposite would be true. Nook seems to buck the trend. It's a very simple to implement the hardware so an external power source parallels the battery. Since everything is store in NVRAM, it *should* start right up on the charger.
If I ever get my hands on a cheap one...
Ok beyond the pointless banter about whether other cables work or not, If your nook is under warranty, you can go to the online chat at B&N's site and tell them you broke it and they will replace it after a few verification questions. I literally am typing this after having just done the above. The only caveat to this is that you might have to wait a bit, depending on how lucky you are, for a representative to start the chat. I think I had about a 10 min wait. I used that time wisely to address posts in the forum. haha
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Not sure about the chat thing but the general procedure has been described and confirmed a few pages before (in this thread). This might only work for canadian/us customers, though.
Other 12pin USB Cable
My Nook is still under warranty and until now, B&N replaced the cables for free. Once the warranty expires, I will try to get another 12pin USB cable e. g. this one: http://www.amazon.com/HTC-DC-T500-J...9094151&sr=8-1&keywords=12pin+micro+usb+cable.
My Nook is still under warranty and until now, B&N replaced the cables for free. Once the warranty expires, I will try to get another 12pin USB cable e. g. this one: http://www.amazon.com/HTC-DC-T500-J...9094151&sr=8-1&keywords=12pin+micro+usb+cable.
Compatibility is determined not just by the number of pins but also the pins' function assignment and, in the case of the NT, the extra length of the metal plug for its extra pins. Without this extra length the cable you're considering at best will not be any better than any $1 standard micro-usb cable sold on ebay.
I Busted my stock cable yesterday. the tablet fell off my couch and landed usb plug down and snapped all but 2 of the wires off of the usb connection.
at least the replacement cable is down to 15@B&N, i got 2, just in case.
other than that i have ~8 of the normal cables and can just use those after these 2 bust..figure in 2-4 years.
at least the replacement cable is down to 15@B&N, i got 2, just in case.
other than that i have ~8 of the normal cables and can just use those after these 2 bust..figure in 2-4 years.
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6The extra pins in the Micro end of the Nook USB cable are used to support the higher power draw of the Nook when charging at full rate (2.0A) since the max rated current of a Micro-USB connector is only 1.8A. I am sure they also use the additional pins to make the cable proprietary and possibly also control the bi-color LED. The extra pins are set further into the connector so that they do not cause compatibility problems with standard Micro-USB cables.
In addition to this, the charger brick that comes with the Nook has its Data lines shorted, to each other I believe, to indicate to the Nook that it is plugged into an adapter and not a computer.
The combination of those two things is what is needed for the Nook to charge at its full charge rate. Since the USB A end of the cable is a standard 4-pin design, extension cables that offer all 4 pins/wires will work fine.
The Apple adapter (even the 2.0A version) will not work because it uses a voltage divider (couple of resistors) on the data lines to indicate to the iPod/iPhone what style charger it is (1.0A or 2.0A). One of the data lines is held at 2.1V and the other at 2.7V. Depending on which one (D+ or D-) is at what voltage determines what style charger it is. So the Nook does not recognize the "non-zero" voltage values on the data lines and assumes it is a PC, so it will only charge at 500mA.
Other vendors power bricks use the same "short the data lines" trick as the Nook adapter so several others will work. I believe as mentioned already in this post that HTC uses this same method.
WARNING
Be careful though because if the adapter is rated at less than 2.0A (e.g. 1.0A) you could cause damage or fire. I am not sure if the Nook will slow down charging if it detects the charge voltage dropping if it is trying to pull too much power out of an underrated supply.
If you really want to use your Apple IPad adapter with your Nook Color/Tablet cable you could modify a USB A/A extension cable to disconnect the Data lines and then tie together only the data lines on the side of the cable that will go to the Nook. Again, this can be dangerous, I can not take any responsibility if you attempt to do this.
HTML:USB A/A Extension Cable [ ] GND ----------------------------------------------------- GND [ ] [ ] D+ ------} <-tied to D- cut and taped-> D+ [ ] [ Nook ] D- ------} <-tied to D+ cut and taped-> D- [ Adapter ] [ ] +5V ----------------------------------------------------- +5V [ ]4It's fairly easy to get a replacement NT USB cable under warranty.
These cables are pretty fragile (poor design) and I hear that BN has replaced many cables under warranty, with no hassle. You just need to call the technical support line (1-800-THE-BOOK) and indicate that your NT USB cable is wearing out. Common problems: "the male end of the cable that inserts into the NT is bent or broken or cannot be inserted into the device" or "the color n indicator built into the cable is not turning amber or green, but is red." They will ask you for your serial number to confirm that the unit is still under warranty and ship you a replacement cable.
You can do the same thing by bringing your NT and cable to a BN store, but they still have to have a replacement cable shipped to you as they do not have extras to give out. You can also purchase just the USB cable rather than an entire "charging kit," since the AC adapter part seems quite durable and only rarely gives problems.
I would recommend asking for a replacement cable even if yours is not currently broken, for it WILL wear out far sooner than is reasonable.2 Thanks for the tip!
i can confirm that getting replacement cables under warranty is easy. just do a live chat with them, give them your serial number for ur NT and they will ship it off to you. delivered in like 3 days max i think.
one thing u need to make sure of though when doing the live chat is to have a default shipping address assigned to your bn.com account. thats what i had to do anyways...1Although its slower to charge attached to the PC (500mA instead of 2A), it does charge. I left mine overnight and it was fully charged using a standard micro-usb cable.
My Samsung Galaxy Tab is like this. There is a software work around that makes it charge faster over USB (see http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1323957). This gives hope that someday we get similar functionality.1
