[Info]Making/Using a Factory Cable
- Thread starter SikYou
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Bad news and Good news!
I was quoted 0.18 cents per piece for an adapter (mini female to micro male which would be ideal IMHO) that would let me add a resistor myself. They wanted $9 for 50 pieces (with $40 s&h via DHL) unassembled and I would just add the resistor, snap it together and be done with it. Only problem is they use Western Union or Money Gram which are highly dangerous (I could easily be scammed, no thanks). Its Paypal or nothing...
I paid less than 0.10 cents each for 3000 pieces for the current Samsung JIG I manufacturer
and that came with the micro port, and both sides of the casing and 3000 resistors. Monoprice wants 0.70 cents per cable OUCH, but Im going to try to get them to 50 cents per unit.
Well guys good news and bad news. Bad news first I guess. I just do not like modifying a cable, its a time consuming process, you have to cut wires super short which makes it extremely hard to work with, add a resistor beforehand with it cut and shaped VERY precisely in order to fit it in. So I have to make the wires long in order to be able to work with it, but then its almost impossible to enclose into the casing because of bunching the wires up. Im a perfectionist and need the product to look good or I won't do it, and making it look professional takes time using a cable. Took me like 45 minutes to make just one, while it takes me 10 minutes or less to make a Samsung JIG. I'd love to do this for the Kindle folks, really I would but to give up that much time for a couple dollars each order is to much, even for my giving personality (I have to think of myself also). First Class shipping is $1.75 for anything weighing more than 1oz-13oz (which is what I pay now). So, I just don't feel comfortable committing to this project at the price point I was shooting for. I think the best I would be willing to do using a cable as the basis for this mod is $14.95 minimum (I will pay the shipping out of that). As time moves on and I get the process down easier and faster I will more than likely drop it some. The work is just ten fold more than what Im doing now for $5.95 and there's no way around that (except modifying an adapter would get us around that I believe) If I can find an adapter that already has the wires soldered and all I have to do is toss a resistor into it the mix (which was my initial offer) and snap it back together, I would then be Ok with $6 bucks per (Depending on initial cost of course). There's just to much work involed with this mod at that price point. I have to pay for shipping Labels, padded envelopes, my packing slips, my thank you and Instructions letters (yes I have one in every device I mod or ship), my resistors, hot glue, the cables, the connectors and the S&H.
Another major problem is that I have no Kindle to test this myself. I test my JIG's three times on my phone and once on my custom bench tester before shipping out. How in the heck will I know it will work when you get it? I have a perfect seller rating 5 stars for 5 stars for every category and I don't want to lose it from someone who may be upset at me because it did not work for them, lol... I had initially thought that I could just use my current bench tester I built for my JIG's but I come to realize that back in 2010 I cut the pcb for pins 1-3 and hot glued it into my bench. Meaning I can only ohm out pins 4 and 5. This device requires I test all 5 pins for continuity and pins 1 + 4 for 1k Ohms. And I currently cant even do that without physically doing it with my meter, which trust me IS NOT EASY on the micro side, lol. I Think for starters I'm going to have to ask for $14.95 in order to feel good about it. That is what my Sammy JIG's sold for for nearly a year and it is much less work. Hope peeps understand...
Bellow are pics of my very first one. I have no clue if it works or not. I did NOT put my LOGO on it as I do not want to waste one not knowing if it works or not. lol
The cables rubber cover and some of the shielding is solidly glued down into the plastic. Then I glue over the top of it again making it pretty much filled with hardened hot glue. If you look hard enough you just might see the 1k resistor that I had to put into a ridiculously tight and custom shape (This glue I use is used in the auto field to pull dents)
And now with 400 degree dent pulling PDR Hot Glue to hold it all in. DONT touch!
And the final product feeling rock solid in my hands.
NOT for the Kindle. This was my first JIG for Samsung smartphones back in 2010. I hated the PCB look. Just nothing personable about it at all.
I have no clue who would sell a custom pcb at that price, but they would surely break in no time and look quite ugly (look below for my old red Samsung JIG from mid 2010). Sparkfun wanted $1500 or so for 500 micro usb breakout boards that I still had to solder together myself.skorpn, have you considered ordering a custom PCB? you should be able to get at least 100 for $100, but good luck getting anything at all for less than $100. you can get both the plug and receptacle for less than a dollar in quantities over 100. that means $2 per adapter in materials... if you think you can sell 100
i have 10 of each of these at work, but i haven't had time to draw the board. i could draw it and give it to you if you were interested.
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/10103594-0001LF/609-4050-1-ND/2350357
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/10104109-0001LF/609-4051-ND/2350352
edit:drew this quickly to show you what i'm talking about
I was quoted 0.18 cents per piece for an adapter (mini female to micro male which would be ideal IMHO) that would let me add a resistor myself. They wanted $9 for 50 pieces (with $40 s&h via DHL) unassembled and I would just add the resistor, snap it together and be done with it. Only problem is they use Western Union or Money Gram which are highly dangerous (I could easily be scammed, no thanks). Its Paypal or nothing...
I paid less than 0.10 cents each for 3000 pieces for the current Samsung JIG I manufacturer
and that came with the micro port, and both sides of the casing and 3000 resistors. Monoprice wants 0.70 cents per cable OUCH, but Im going to try to get them to 50 cents per unit.Well guys good news and bad news. Bad news first I guess. I just do not like modifying a cable, its a time consuming process, you have to cut wires super short which makes it extremely hard to work with, add a resistor beforehand with it cut and shaped VERY precisely in order to fit it in. So I have to make the wires long in order to be able to work with it, but then its almost impossible to enclose into the casing because of bunching the wires up. Im a perfectionist and need the product to look good or I won't do it, and making it look professional takes time using a cable. Took me like 45 minutes to make just one, while it takes me 10 minutes or less to make a Samsung JIG. I'd love to do this for the Kindle folks, really I would but to give up that much time for a couple dollars each order is to much, even for my giving personality (I have to think of myself also). First Class shipping is $1.75 for anything weighing more than 1oz-13oz (which is what I pay now). So, I just don't feel comfortable committing to this project at the price point I was shooting for. I think the best I would be willing to do using a cable as the basis for this mod is $14.95 minimum (I will pay the shipping out of that). As time moves on and I get the process down easier and faster I will more than likely drop it some. The work is just ten fold more than what Im doing now for $5.95 and there's no way around that (except modifying an adapter would get us around that I believe) If I can find an adapter that already has the wires soldered and all I have to do is toss a resistor into it the mix (which was my initial offer) and snap it back together, I would then be Ok with $6 bucks per (Depending on initial cost of course). There's just to much work involed with this mod at that price point. I have to pay for shipping Labels, padded envelopes, my packing slips, my thank you and Instructions letters (yes I have one in every device I mod or ship), my resistors, hot glue, the cables, the connectors and the S&H.
Another major problem is that I have no Kindle to test this myself. I test my JIG's three times on my phone and once on my custom bench tester before shipping out. How in the heck will I know it will work when you get it? I have a perfect seller rating 5 stars for 5 stars for every category and I don't want to lose it from someone who may be upset at me because it did not work for them, lol... I had initially thought that I could just use my current bench tester I built for my JIG's but I come to realize that back in 2010 I cut the pcb for pins 1-3 and hot glued it into my bench. Meaning I can only ohm out pins 4 and 5. This device requires I test all 5 pins for continuity and pins 1 + 4 for 1k Ohms. And I currently cant even do that without physically doing it with my meter, which trust me IS NOT EASY on the micro side, lol. I Think for starters I'm going to have to ask for $14.95 in order to feel good about it. That is what my Sammy JIG's sold for for nearly a year and it is much less work. Hope peeps understand...
Bellow are pics of my very first one. I have no clue if it works or not. I did NOT put my LOGO on it as I do not want to waste one not knowing if it works or not. lol
The cables rubber cover and some of the shielding is solidly glued down into the plastic. Then I glue over the top of it again making it pretty much filled with hardened hot glue. If you look hard enough you just might see the 1k resistor that I had to put into a ridiculously tight and custom shape (This glue I use is used in the auto field to pull dents)
And now with 400 degree dent pulling PDR Hot Glue to hold it all in. DONT touch!
And the final product feeling rock solid in my hands.
NOT for the Kindle. This was my first JIG for Samsung smartphones back in 2010. I hated the PCB look. Just nothing personable about it at all.
I'm sure that looks 100%-300% better than some of the hack jobs that some people on the forum have done to make their own...
Example from a video attached.
When I do something it has to be perfect or I'm not happy with myself. When I build or create something, I feel it reflects who I am, and it just feels so good to hear praise from others. In fact, I cant stand how messy of a job I did with what you just seen. If you had seen how meticulously perfect I bent the resistors legs, you'd have thought Im nuts. Plus I am using low quality materials in order to get my products at a price point customers want, and although it does the job it just doesn't please my eyes..
P.S. read the last sentence in my signature. I live by that statement...
Oh and I was just informed that someone else in this thread has offered to make these. I had absolutely NO CLUE what so ever that there was someone else offering to make these, so if I have stepped on anyone's toes, please forgive me. I thought this was a virgin product in its initial stages of R&D... Sorry my bad guys...
Rod
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Now what?
OK, I built my cable and adb shell into my device. Unfortunately, it won't let me use any adb commands. My dilemma is that when I got the 6.2.1 update (which I tried to prevent) it booted to CWM and I dont have cm7 set up correctly (long story) anyway, cwm fails to update because I don't have recovery set up in cache and it is read only so I cant create it. I am sure I am missing something easy and any advice would be welcomed.
OK, I built my cable and adb shell into my device. Unfortunately, it won't let me use any adb commands. My dilemma is that when I got the 6.2.1 update (which I tried to prevent) it booted to CWM and I dont have cm7 set up correctly (long story) anyway, cwm fails to update because I don't have recovery set up in cache and it is read only so I cant create it. I am sure I am missing something easy and any advice would be welcomed.
Ok cool thank you for the vote of confidence. I have 50 cables on the way already. I think I can do this just as good as I do with my Samsung jig's, but the only thing that bothers me is not being able to test on a actual Kindle. I will have to beep it out and check continuity instead, and of course for the 1k resistance on pins 1&4.
So, is it agreed that 1k is the way to go for the short? Im going to pick up some heavier duty resistors probably in the neighborhood of 1/4 watt just for an extra safety margin, and Im sure 1/2 watt is just to big for the casing to close. Also, the next cable I make is going to ttabbal for him to test on his Kindle, and the one I already made was shipped today. Both have already paid for theirs and then some. Thanks guys...
For starters I went with 1.5 Ft cables, so hope that's not to small for everyone. Later on after a few sales I will also make some longer ones, 4 ft or so.
Also of importance, If anyone has any ideas, or has found any more info on this feature "Factory Mode" please by all means let us know, and or PM me. Would love to see some technical data on this Kindle Fire and or Atrix.
Thanks and everyone HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you all.
P.S. My Parents got almost 5 feet of snow this week and so I was forced to call off the drive up to their house. My Lexus is good in snow, but in inches not feet, lol, and his driveway is 75 yards long from the main road, so the plows would burry my car and then later probably hit it or total it by accident if it was to continue to snow. So Dad did not like hearing that the Christmas family gathering was cancelled and decided to break out his big Dodge 4x4 3/4 Ton pickup today and told me tonight he is planning to come all the way to Albuquerque to get me for the weekend. Wow what a great Father... Or did he just want to go 4 wheelin in the snow??? lol...
Do you have an ETA on making these? $15 sounds reasonable and I may be interested in one if I can't get out of my current predicament.
Not really an ETA but I do know I should have the cables by end of this week according to UPS ground. Then I can start modifying them and get a small number ready for next weekend or the first part of next week. I should have a Paypal button ready this weekend I hope, with shipments going out on that Monday hopefully...
Chances are as usual you can just use Google to find them once I start selling them. They will be called "The SkOrPn Factory Cable" or something similar. Thanks for your interest and good luck with your device. Hope you can solve or fix it before I am ready with these.
Sounds great !!
Would you also post it here once you start selling them ?
also would you be selling them on eBay or from where ?
Probably eBay... I have three sites I sell my other items, and one of them is eBay.
UPDATE:
Looks like these mass produced micro connectors will not work on the Kindle according to my first tester. It just wont insert into the device even though it inserted into my Sparkfun female bench tester just fine before shipping it. So I'm at a loss as this connector is identical to the tens of thousands that have sold world wide for the Samsung smartphones and Android Tablets. Everyone who manufactures JIGs use the exact same connector as its the inky one that allows room for a resistor. So my only guess is the connector needs to be made specifically for the Kindle devices. The tester has tried on his two Kindles and its a no go.
So I'm at a loss to understand what to do next. But I will keep everyone updated.
Sent from my I9000 using XDA App
Looks like these mass produced micro connectors will not work on the Kindle according to my first tester. It just wont insert into the device even though it inserted into my Sparkfun female bench tester just fine before shipping it. So I'm at a loss as this connector is identical to the tens of thousands that have sold world wide for the Samsung smartphones and Android Tablets. Everyone who manufactures JIGs use the exact same connector as its the inky one that allows room for a resistor. So my only guess is the connector needs to be made specifically for the Kindle devices. The tester has tried on his two Kindles and its a no go.
So I'm at a loss to understand what to do next. But I will keep everyone updated.
Sent from my I9000 using XDA App
I use usb cables from my thunderbolt and inc2 for charging and connecting my fire to my computer, both cables fit fine. Also, I made my factory cable from a standard size male micro usb breakout board, fits fine (and works fine).
Sent from my Kindle Fire
does matter what kind of wire you use? is cat 5 cable okay? I just ordered 2 of those breakout boards.
so I opened one of my old usb cords, the one I planned on using and I have a few questions about that aswell... it's a mini b, not a micro cable.. does that matter? and it has all this foil and wire/cabling wrapped around it.. does that matter either?
it has all the colors: red, green, black and white.
so I opened one of my old usb cords, the one I planned on using and I have a few questions about that aswell... it's a mini b, not a micro cable.. does that matter? and it has all this foil and wire/cabling wrapped around it.. does that matter either?
it has all the colors: red, green, black and white.
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Well I'm going to Best Buy today with a handful of connectors to try real quick. I did this with the Nexus to see if it would work and no one stopped me then. So wish me luck that they do not bounce me out of their store lol.
Sent from my I9000 using XDA App
Sent from my I9000 using XDA App
Any micro USB connector should work on the kindle. I used one that I got at a dollar store in Wisconsin. $1 was a great deal! I'll be modding it later today.
I also used the micro cable for my blackberry just now and that fit too.
Me
I also used the micro cable for my blackberry just now and that fit too.
Me
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This will NOT work, as the female breakout boards from Sparkfun does NOT have a breakout trace for pin 4 present. Only the male breakout boards have all 5 pins/traces needed. I've purchased hundreds of both and sold thousands of download mode JIG's for Samsung phones, and was forced to modify the female breakout boards to include a pin 4 trace for special projects of mine. I do not know if they since added the trace or not and its been over a year now since I asked for this feature.Was just thinking. If you used a female breakout board with a male breakout board you could essentially ground the male boards ground to the male boards vcc. And the female boards ground to the male boards ground as well.
This way you could leave vcc hanging (capped of course) from the female source (computer) side.
Hope this sparks some good conversation.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Is there even a market for these factory cables?
EDIT: I know this post used to be how to get a cable from me, but I ran out of the actual cables and never replaced them. With only about one request per week or month I decided to stop stocking the cables. I have everything else though (new micro ends etc) to build a professional one if you want to send a old cable to me.10There is a lot of information floating around about the factory cable but there doesn't seem to be a thread dedicated to the topic. I bricked my device today so I need to make a factory cable. I tried making a cable but I f'd up the soldering job so I am awaiting delivery of a breakout board. I just wanted to gather some information here on the topic because there seem to be a lot of bricks popping up around here. So for now I am going to post what I know and ask a few questions here and there so that I can get my cable done and hopefully help someone out along the way.
When I started messing around with soldering a jumper from pin 1 to pin 4 i melted the connector, blah, blah, anyway, I screwed it up. Hopefully I will have more luck with the breakout (see below).
From what I understand, using the cable is a simple a plugging it in so I guess that part is self explanatory for now.
I got most of my information about the cable and how to make it from here. Lots of good info with pics and diagrams.
Someone in these forums recomended using this breakout board. I ordered 2 of them today so I will let you guys know how it goes when they get here.
My one big question is about the the jumper from pin 1 to pin 4; I read that some people are using a resister and I am unclear as to where the resister is being used and the specs of the resister. Please enlighten me
I might add some pics to this thread just for fun. If you have built this cable please jump in a post any information that might help.
Thanks
BTW-You can buy a cable here but I have yet to see them listed as "in stock"6DIY factory cable out of a low cost microusb cable
I am really impressed with the images of SkOrPn but I didn't want to wait, so I tried to make my cable out a low-cost microUSB cable I bought on ebay and took some photos that can help other people.
These are the steps I followed:
1) Cut the cable. It is very unlikely that the ID cable exists, but it would be easier that way. I see only the 4 wires of USB cable.
2) With a cutter (and very carefully) "clean" the microUSB connector. This is the hardest part because I didn't know how the conector was and it has to be done very carefully to keep connector and fingers undamaged. I can see all 5 terminal, one of which is unused.
3) Identify connector terminals. It can be done using cable colours. Terminals 1, 3 and 5 are on one side and 2 and 4 on the other.
4) Connect again the 4 wires I have cut.
5) Scrape the unused terminal because it is a little bit rusty.
6) Tin unused terminal and solder a SMD 120 ohm resistor. I didn't want to place a jumper in case I made a mistake.
7) Connect the other side of the resistor to 5v (pin 1) with a small cable
8) Protect everything with hot glue
9) Cover with shrinking tube
I have tested the cable and it works
Rebooting with the cable connected and using "Kindle Fire Utility v.6":
ADB Status: Offline
Boot Status: 4002
Fastboot Status: Online4
Until I announce otherwise, I am still making them. Or until I am dead...3I simply used a jumper wire. No resistor used. I hear a 1k can be used as a precaution, but is not necessary. Without the resistor, it works like a champ. I turned off the Kindle, Plugged in the "Factory cable", and it went directly into fastboot.
PIN out is as follows on the SparkFun Breakout board:
VCC: RED
D-: White
D+: Green
ID: Jumper RED
GND: Black
