When the battery is low and I REALLY need to charge my Samsung
BlackJack II, then it can't take a charge off the USB/data cable. I
have to "kickstart" the charge with the wall-wart charger.

Is this a bug or a "feature?" Either way, is there a patch or
workaround?

When I travel with my laptop, my Nikon D SLR, smartphone, my GPS, and
my Hyperdrive portable data storage unit, I have pounds and pounds of
just chargers and data cables. It's nice to be able to charge up
devices off the laptop's USB connection. I'm surprised that the TSA
guys at the airport x-ray checkpoint haven't done a strip-search of my
suitcase when it is full of all these chargers and cables.

-AH

At 05 Sep 2008 16:21:09 -0700 Andrew Hamilton wrote:
> When the battery is low and I REALLY need to charge my Samsung
> BlackJack II, then it can't take a charge off the USB/data cable. I
> have to "kickstart" the charge with the wall-wart charger.
>
> Is this a bug or a "feature?"

Neither, really- just a lousy charge implementation many USB powered
devices share. The low voltage/power output of USB (5V, 500mAh) is less
than the wall-wart.

Are you sure it doesn't charge eventually if you leave it long enough?

> Either way, is there a patch or
> workaround?

My workaround was a stronger USB charger- I carry a small AC plug with USB
output (5.4V, 800mAh) and use it to charge my various USB-powered devices
with their own sync/data/charge cables.

> When I travel with my laptop, my Nikon D SLR, smartphone, my GPS, and
> my Hyperdrive portable data storage unit, I have pounds and pounds of
> just chargers and data cables. It's nice to be able to charge up
> devices off the laptop's USB connection. I'm surprised that the TSA
> guys at the airport x-ray checkpoint haven't done a strip-search of my
> suitcase when it is full of all these chargers and cables.

I get pulled out of line almost every time when traveling with the family!
My bag usually has two or three cellphones, a portable hard drive for my
ASUS EEE PC, a couple of Pocket PCs, two Zunes, a couple of smaller MP3
players, a wireless router, and the assorted chargers, battery packs and
cables to keep it all running.

I keep the adapters and devices all categorized in quart ziplock bags so
the TSA guys don't make a mess of it all when they paw through the bag.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:35:55 -0600, Todd Allcock
>
>Neither, really- just a lousy charge implementation many USB powered
>devices share. The low voltage/power output of USB (5V, 500mAh) is less
>than the wall-wart.
>
>Are you sure it doesn't charge eventually if you leave it long enough?
>
>> Either way, is there a patch or
>> workaround?
>
>My workaround was a stronger USB charger- I carry a small AC plug with USB
>output (5.4V, 800mAh) and use it to charge my various USB-powered devices
>with their own sync/data/charge cables.
>

Ah, good point. That is simpler than carrying around that many more
device-specific AC chargers.

>I keep the adapters and devices all categorized in quart ziplock bags so
>the TSA guys don't make a mess of it all when they paw through the bag.

Another good point. Even if you don't have to deal with TSA, you
still have the problem that all those chargers and data cables just
love to get all tangled together.

Seperate sandwich-size "baggies" helps with that problem.

-AH

So after 'upgrading' to WM 6.1 I have had the same problem. I figured out a hack that helps.

1. Open the USB -> BJII cable and cut the white and green (usb signal) cables.
2. Look at the end of the connector with the yellow arrow down and bend the third pin from the right (third (-) pin) to the left and down into the connector to get it out of the way.

This makes the connector look the same as the AC adapter to the phone. The AC adapter outputs 700ma and the usb 500ma so this should work even for a dead cell phone though I havn't tried that yet.

That third (-) pins seems to tell the cell phone that it is connected to a USB cable and not to charge... odd.

Of course try at your own rist

I have tried reconnecting the green and white cable but the cell phone doesn't show up with the computer. So this makes this a charging only adapter cable.

For those that are squemish and don't wish to do surgery on their cables,
there is an option that probably works as well. A company called Gomadic
http://www.gomadic.com/ makes a cable system that I have found very useful
over the years. They have a USB cable with a connector at the end that you
can get assorted tips for whatever device you may have. What may help here
is they typically have both charge, and charge&sync tips. For the BlackJack
II the charge tip is #80, and the charge and sync tip is #76. I don't have a
BJII but for the numerous devices I do have, the wiring appears to provide
that difference as to whether the device believes it is connected to a
charger or a USB port.

No guarantee from me that it will solve this particular issue, but thought
it might be worth bringing this source up for general info anyway. For those
that have numerous gadgets they bring along on trips, if nothing else, this
can reduce some of the supporting charger spaghetti that comes along. I
especially like the coiled 'springy' cords.


"undisclosed" wrote in message
news:46f4d2200cea1d2e3b1ad95cf866da52@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> So after 'upgrading' to WM 6.1 I have had the same problem. I figured
> out a hack that helps.
>
> 1. Open the USB -> BJII cable and cut the white and green (usb signal)
> cables.
> 2. Look at the end of the connector with the yellow arrow down and
> bend the third pin from the right (third (-) pin) to the left and down
> into the connector to get it out of the way.
>
> This makes the connector look the same as the AC adapter to the phone.
> The AC adapter outputs 700ma and the usb 500ma so this should work even
> for a dead cell phone though I havn't tried that yet.
>
> That third (-) pins seems to tell the cell phone that it is connected
> to a USB cable and not to charge... odd.
>
> Of course try at your own rist
>
> I have tried reconnecting the green and white cable but the cell phone
> doesn't show up with the computer. So this makes this a charging only
> adapter cable.
>
>
> --
> mikefazz

Could you do us a favor and tell us what web forum you're accessing this NG
from? A lot of spam is coming in from the same IP address- maybe we could
get the forum to police their members a little better and let the legitimate
posters like you through, but turn down the spammers a little?



"undisclosed" wrote in message
news:46f4d2200cea1d2e3b1ad95cf866da52@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> So after 'upgrading' to WM 6.1 I have had the same problem. I figured
> out a hack that helps.
>
> 1. Open the USB -> BJII cable and cut the white and green (usb signal)
> cables.
> 2. Look at the end of the connector with the yellow arrow down and
> bend the third pin from the right (third (-) pin) to the left and down
> into the connector to get it out of the way.
>
> This makes the connector look the same as the AC adapter to the phone.
> The AC adapter outputs 700ma and the usb 500ma so this should work even
> for a dead cell phone though I havn't tried that yet.
>
> That third (-) pins seems to tell the cell phone that it is connected
> to a USB cable and not to charge... odd.
>
> Of course try at your own rist
>
> I have tried reconnecting the green and white cable but the cell phone
> doesn't show up with the computer. So this makes this a charging only
> adapter cable.
>
>
> --
> mikefazz

Hmm web forum? I know I tried to post with google chrome a few times and it didn't work till I tried with firefox... hope that helps.

As to the mod looks like you need to cut the ground (bare wire) for this mod to work.

At 28 Sep 2009 01:57:55 +0100 undisclosed wrote:
>
> Hmm web forum? I know I tried to post with google chrome a few times
> and it didn't work till I tried with firefox... hope that helps.


This is a Usenet newsgroup. You typically access a Usenet group with an
NNTP client(Outlook Express, Forte, XNews, etc.), not a browser. To use a
browser, you have to access it thorough a webpage "gateway" like Google
Groups.

To ask it more simply, what website do you go to to read or post here?
That site is letting a ****storm of spam through.

Oh Technology Questions | A Community of Technology Enthusiasts is the website I went through. I guess their a combination of usenet groups or at least that is how they got lots of content fast: About Technology Questions | Technology Questions.

Hope this helps

At 28 Sep 2009 17:44:50 +0100 undisclosed wrote:
>
> Oh 'Technology Questions | A Community of Technology Enthusiasts'
> (http://www.technologyquestions.com) is the website I went through. I
> guess their a combination of usenet groups or at least that is how they
> got lots of content fast: 'About Technology Questions | Technology
> Questions' (http://www.technologyquestions.com/about.html).
>
> Hope this helps

Yes, thanks. It looks like a simple gateway to Usenet. Their forums
provide no content of their own, but simply harvest Usenet newsgroup
content as if the site was a popular, thriving forum of thousands of users,
which it isn't.

But welcome aboard, anyhow!