Make your own cables

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Entropy512

Senior Recognized Developer
Aug 31, 2007
14,088
25,086
Owego, NY
bert269 said:
I am not very clear about the universal connector?

I assume that the D+ and D- cables get cut on the male adapter side and the female side are connected to the two resisters, right?

Thanks
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Click to collapse
Correct. What it does is "hide" whatever D+ and D- are presented by the charger, so the Tab always sees what it wants to see as far as charging.

codyjat said:
So in my spare time I am making my own dock. I am using these drawings and MHL chip I found real chip on the internet. My goal is usb power with another usb for storage using the USB host w/ power drawing. Also with a HDMI out and 3.5 Audio out. THe HDMI will be gained but using the chip at the following URL siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=168. I will let you guys now how it goes..
Click to expand...
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No published datasheet, not in stock at any distributor I can find - good luck getting that chip!

pokey9000 said:
Are you doing your own PCB for this? MHL and HDMI are a pretty high speed buses so it'll need some real TLC to maintain signal integrity. You might be better off getting an MHL adapter for one of the phones that use it and hacking that up inside a case along with a hub and other goodies.

The good news is that MHL uses the same impedance cable as USB 2.0 so stripping the twisted pair out of a USB 2.0 cable should do for getting the signal there.
Click to expand...
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I agree... I'd be shocked if he's able to find the chip without cannibalizing it from a working adapter.
 
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kajolishot

Member
Mar 4, 2008
29
1
I picked up the USB adaptor. I wish there was a Male to Female cable that I could use to plug the USB adaptor into. Having a ridig adapter attached to the tablet while using the USB drive for video or audio is very awkward and feels dangerous.

Has someone already addressed this issue? :eek:
 
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pokey9000

Senior Member
Apr 17, 2007
767
396
Austin
kajolishot said:
I picked up the USB adaptor. I wish there was a Male to Female cable that I could use to plug the USB adaptor into. Having a ridig adapter attached to the tablet while using the USB drive for video or audio is very awkward and feels dangerous.

Has someone already addressed this issue? :eek:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

See the first post. It's fairly easy to make one yourself that uses a small connector + a USB jack at the end of a short cable.
 
joedoe

joedoe

Senior Member
Mar 29, 2005
655
44
kajolishot said:
I picked up the USB adaptor. I wish there was a Male to Female cable that I could use to plug the USB adaptor into. Having a ridig adapter attached to the tablet while using the USB drive for video or audio is very awkward and feels dangerous.

Has someone already addressed this issue? :eek:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You can stick the adapter into multimedia dock connector- works for me.
 
G

gonzule

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2010
87
9
Melbourne
hey, great article! i cant wait for my galaxy tab to arrive to start making some of these cables. One question thoug, in my country the galaxy tab 10.1 is not yet officialy available, can i use the cables/connector from the galaxy 7 (P1000) on the 10.1? they might be cheaper for me to purchase locally than to order just the connector internationally. thanks!
 
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ericlmccormick

Senior Member
Feb 20, 2009
199
42
Columbia
gonzule said:
hey, great article! i cant wait for my galaxy tab to arrive to start making some of these cables. One question thoug, in my country the galaxy tab 10.1 is not yet officialy available, can i use the cables/connector from the galaxy 7 (P1000) on the 10.1? they might be cheaper for me to purchase locally than to order just the connector internationally. thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes, the P1000 connector will work as long as the proper pins have been installed. If you look at a USB/charging cable, it may only have 5 or 6 of the 30 positions populated.
 
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ChoboNiNjA37

Member
Jun 22, 2010
6
0
I was actually messing around with the USB host connector that I made (I was trying to fit the resistors inside the connector, but I ended up screwing up the pins in the process), and I connected the resistors on the wrong pins by accident, but it forced the gtab into dock mode and brought up the clock.
I don't know if this was found out, but if anyone wants to attempt it, since I mangled my connector and I need to butcher one of my extra USB cables, I believe I used pin 14 and 15 instead of 13 and 15.
I don't recall reading about this anywhere, so I'm just posting my findings anyway. I think that pin 14 is the one I used, but I'm not sure, but I can confirm that I used the same amount of resistance for it at least.

So basically, the configuration I used was the same as USB host (1, 3, 4, 6), except I used 13 and 14. I don't know if the USB port is needed, though, but it did temporarily pop up when I plugged in a flashdrive, so that might be a good step for making a USB dock.

Sorry if this was already found out, I haven't read it anywhere else.
 
N

NPuter

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2010
288
22
kajolishot said:
I picked up the USB adaptor. I wish there was a Male to Female cable that I could use to plug the USB adaptor into. Having a ridig adapter attached to the tablet while using the USB drive for video or audio is very awkward and feels dangerous.

Has someone already addressed this issue? :eek:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Search online - what You want does exist - I have one. It is a male to female USB cable the is around two inches long.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
 
K

Kings Lee

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2006
142
8
thank you ericlmccormick! made a cable with your pinout.

has anyone able to connect a usb hdd to the tab? I used those Y-cable which supplies power to the hdd but still not able to use the hdd... any idea?
 
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E

Entropy512

Senior Recognized Developer
Aug 31, 2007
14,088
25,086
Owego, NY
Kings Lee said:
thank you ericlmccormick! made a cable with your pinout.

has anyone able to connect a usb hdd to the tab? I used those Y-cable which supplies power to the hdd but still not able to use the hdd... any idea?
Click to expand...
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You need a powered hub or an HDD that has external power for this.

Also, if it's NTFS you need a custom kernel.
 
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Kings Lee

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2006
142
8
Thank you for your quick reply. I just thought the Y-cable will supply enough juice for the hdd. Also found that it won't mount ext4 partitions, and it won't connect with my Galaxy S (High-Power USB device connected). Is my soldering skill that bad?

So far from my experience, only card readers and key memory sticks work.

Found on the internet somewhere a udev rule file will kinda help with the high power usb device, anyone knows anything about this?
 
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Entropy512

Senior Recognized Developer
Aug 31, 2007
14,088
25,086
Owego, NY
Kings Lee said:
Thank you for your quick reply. I just thought the Y-cable will supply enough juice for the hdd. Also found that it won't mount ext4 partitions, and it won't connect with my Galaxy S (High-Power USB device connected). Is my soldering skill that bad?

So far from my experience, only card readers and key memory sticks work.

Found on the internet somewhere a udev rule file will kinda help with the high power usb device, anyone knows anything about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Where would the second port of the Y cable get its juice?

Also, even if there is no overcurrent trip on the +5 rail, if a device tries to negotiate high power the tab may reject it.

A powered hub allows HDDs and other high power devices to work.

Surprised ext4 doesn't mount - it may be that the automounter doesn't handle ext4, but manual mounting should work.
 
K

Kings Lee

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2006
142
8
Entropy512 said:
Where would the second port of the Y cable get its juice?
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From a portable battery, like one of those from Zagg, that supply 1A.

Entropy512 said:
Also, even if there is no overcurrent trip on the +5 rail, if a device tries to negotiate high power the tab may reject it.
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I don't know understand this... :confused:

Entropy512 said:
A powered hub allows HDDs and other high power devices to work.
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A hub is what I am trying to avoid, it greatly decrease the portability of the who setup...
 
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pokey9000

Senior Member
Apr 17, 2007
767
396
Austin
Kings Lee said:
From a portable battery, like one of those from Zagg, that supply 1A.
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Not a good idea. Those Y cables just short together the 5V from both plugs, assuming they come from different USB jacks on the same PC and so the same power supply. If you do this with the Tab and a USB battery pack, the battery will feed power into the Tab's USB host power supply when it turns off in sleep mode.
 
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Entropy512

Senior Recognized Developer
Aug 31, 2007
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Owego, NY
Kings Lee said:
I don't know understand this... :confused:
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In addition to monitoring current on the +5v power supply line, when USB device that follows the standard wants to draw extra power, it has to ask the host for it. The mere act of requesting this power might cause the tab to disconnect a device, even if the device doesn't actually put load on the +5v rail.

pokey9000 said:
Not a good idea. Those Y cables just short together the 5V from both plugs, assuming they come from different USB jacks on the same PC and so the same power supply. If you do this with the Tab and a USB battery pack, the battery will feed power into the Tab's USB host power supply when it turns off in sleep mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What might work is with a custom cable that disconnects the +5v line from the tab, leaving only a common ground.

So:
Tab side - Ground, D+, D-

Power supply side - Ground, +5v

Device side - Ground (connected to both tab and power supply), D+ (tab only), D- (tab only), +5v (power supply only).

Of course, it could still fail - see limitation above.
 
S

scmguru

Senior Member
Feb 3, 2007
65
4
"..So far from my experience, only card readers and key memory sticks work."

I've measured the output of the port on the Galaxy tab and if the draw goes over 300-400ma, it shuts down.
 
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    ericlmccormick
    So far I have learned how to make a USB host cable and a universal charging cable. I have shared this in a few post but I figured it would be good to have them all in one place with a diagram.

    I will update this drawing as I learn how to build the other cables.

    Thanks goes out to pokey9000 for sharing how to do the USB host and nudging me the right way for figuring out the charging!

    Update:
    I guess the titles of each is not enough to properly relay what each does so here is a quick description of each.
    1. USB Host - Puts the Tab into host mode so that you can use items like thumb drives and keyboards. If you want to use a USB powered hard drive, you will need to use a powered hub.
    2. USB Host w/ Power - Puts the Tab into host mode but also allows you to charge the unit at the same time.
    3. Universal Charging - For making a 30-pin cable that will let you charge your Tab off any 5V source so that you don't get the red X over the battery. When doing this, data transfers will not work.
    4. Universal Charging Inline cable - For if you don't want to buy a 30pin connector or cut up your OEM cable, you can put this in line with your OEM cable and use any 5V source.



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    ericlmccormick
    It is my first time linking a picture which you can't just upload, you need to link to an existing online photo.

    I think I fixed the problem use ImageShack but if you still have issues viewing, use the below link

    GT Cable layouts
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    ericlmccormick
    snaai8 said:
    okay a few questions again..

    Would it be hard to make a usb keyboard work on the tab (like cutting up the usb cable and replacing it with a 30pin dock connector?)?

    And how much effort would it take to create a hdmi out? or a normal video out if possible..? Because I actually need an old video out port but on the samsung site is says that the video out represented is not compatible with the 10.1..

    and where do you solder everything on? I've yet to find a picture of the 30pin connector which tells you where to solder..
    Where would I solder in this image? http://shop.kineteka.com/images/thumbs/0000564.jpeg
    Or should I just get a tab-out like this:
    http://shop.kineteka.com/products/200-samsung-tabbreakout.aspx
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    If you want to take a USB keyboard and make it work, the easiest thing for a beginner would be to get the tab breakout connector and then solder the wires as shown in the diagram. If you don't have a female connector, you can cut off the male connector from the keyboard and just match up the colors.
    Only get the other connector if you have a way to ohm out the pins so you know what is what, have a good soldering iron with a fine tip, and also have a steady hand. I got my connectors in the mail last night and I can probably take a picture and specify the pin layout if you like.

    As for the HDMI, I am not sure yet. Seems like either no one has an adapter or if they do, don't want to share what the insides look like. For the older tab, it had one pin for standard video, but HDMI has 19 pins so either a lot of pins on the 30pin connector get reassigned in some way, or there might be some type of chip that does the conversion. I don't know enough about HDMI to make a proper assessment at this point. I hope someone with an actual adapter will chime in soon.
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    pokey9000
    Kings Lee said:
    From a portable battery, like one of those from Zagg, that supply 1A.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Not a good idea. Those Y cables just short together the 5V from both plugs, assuming they come from different USB jacks on the same PC and so the same power supply. If you do this with the Tab and a USB battery pack, the battery will feed power into the Tab's USB host power supply when it turns off in sleep mode.
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    1
    Bxsteez
    Bxsteez
    I'm going to create these boards and order them so if they work i can just share it with the community. You guys won't have to do anything besides install the parts or something.
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