Hack a cell phone charger to make a USB charger
August 10th, 2006
I’m sure this has been done a million times, but it’s not the same unless you do it yourself.
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Problem:
My Mother-in-law has an Apple iPod Shuffle, but the computer doesn’t charge it. So she has to bring it over for me to charge. Not a big problem, she’s a wonderful person. But I wanted her to be able to charge her iPod and not have to wait to get it charged at my house.
Solution:
Take one of my old cell phone chargers, a Sony-Ericsson phone that I no longer use. I check the output voltage, 5.1V with 450mA. Looks good. I checked the USB specs and I believe it’s well within the acceptable range.
Supplies:
- wall charger around 5V, providing around 500mA.
- USB extension cable
- soldering iron and supplies (unless you use a phsyical clamp)
Step 1:
Cut the adaptor off the wall charger, strip the wires.
Step 2:
Cut the female end off the USB extension cable, this is the end you need. Cut away the green and white wires (do a search for USB pinout, there should be a site.. something like pinouts.ru). Strip the red and black wires.
Step 3:
Verify the voltage and polarity of the wall wart with a multi-meter.
Step 4:
Solder (or otherwise connect) the red (+ve) wire of the charger to the red (+ve) of the USB extension cable.
Step 5:
Solder (or otherwise connect) the black (-ve/gnd) of the charger to the black (-ve/gnd) of the USB extension cable.
Step 6:
If you were using shrink tubing you would have put it on before Step 5.. I bet you’re wishing you would have read all the instructions first! 
 For a more ghetto look (or if you have run out of shrink tubing) tape up the exposed wires with some electrical tape.
Step 7:
Verify the voltage and polarity of the pins on the USB extension cable with a multi-meter.
Step 8:
Test on your own device before giving it to your Mother-in-law. She’s a dear, but you never want to test that relationship! Just kidding! 
Conclusion:
Now you’ve saved the environment by not depositing both an old charger and a USB extension cable in the trash. However let’s not talk about the lead fumes you breathed in while soldering, or the fact that you nearly set your desk on fire (always remember to put soldering iron back in holder, even when phone rings!)
Pinouts:
Verify independently, but I saw this on a number of pinout diagram sites.
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| Pin | Name | Cable color | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VCC | Red | +5 VDC |
| 2 | D- | White | Data - |
| 3 | D+ | Green | Data + |
| 4 | GND | Black | Ground |
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Entry Filed under: Projects
15 Comments Add your own
1. mistercharlie | August 13th, 2006 at 2:12 am
Very nice hack.
It got me to thinking that you should be able to do the reverse, too, and fix up the plug you cut off – the part that plugs into the phone – onto the male end of the usb cable.
Then you have a USB phone charger! Plus, you can always plug them back together again.
2. Newt | August 13th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Very cool.. now I just need to search the garage floor for the male portion of the phone charger!
3. Willem | August 13th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
I’ve actually done the reverse. soldered a charging plug (from a $1 battery powered charging kit) onto a usb cable. haven’t used the original charger for over a year!
4. Dave Allen | December 19th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Step son keeps coming charging his MP3 Player on the PC when ever he comes to the house. I went to check some pinouts to make him an adapter for the car using no less than the cell phone charger project you have already layed out. Thanks - Very helpful!
5. Brad | January 1st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
this is a sweet idea. has anyone tried it on an ipod nano? i just got it for christmas and i am goin up to my grandparents with nothing to charge it, but i just want to make shure that it will work before i go fry my new ipod.
6. isko | January 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
i purchased a used lg charger, 5v, 1A….followed the your instruction….even checked the polarity using a multimeter…..it dint work on my 4g nano…tha charging icon blinked only about 3 times and gone…i left it connected thingking that it was charging even if the icon was not there…i was wrong…it did not charge at all…what could be wrong?????:D
7. Newt | January 31st, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I believe some iPods need to have a voltage applied to the data lines. I think I saw something like 2.5V, but I would check around first before doing that.
I’ll try to dig that up..
8. Vishnu | March 7th, 2007 at 6:05 am
My Nokia 2300 was not getting charged with this idea.
It is showing a message “NOT CHARGING”. Is there any other idea to make it charged?
Please help me.
9. kiran kumar | May 29th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
every thing fine, my question is why to cut the existing cell charger, instead of that we can make a connector for connecting cell charger port to USB port directly. this will be definitely very useful. With the same charger you can charge your cell phone and also your mp3 player.
10. jerry | June 18th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
i have an lg ax 8600 and was wondering if there’s any way to hack the wall charger by adding the end of a usb that plugs into ur pc and plug the other charging receptacle into the phone thus assumably making ur own usb data cable with pc charging capabilities for your phone. or are there more wires in a usb data cable for said type cell phone needed than there are wires in ur cell tele charger
11. Newt | June 19th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
There are four wires in a USB cable, two for data and two for power. If your phone only requires 5V @ 450 mA then you should be good, but unless your phone has a USB interface you won’t be able to get data.
12. Chandhan | September 4th, 2007 at 2:49 am
hi am going 2 convert my ps/2 mouse in usb mouse. i want 2 how about the voltages coming in usb. and am taking a usb cable and cut that and then cut the ps/2 and solder that how it is posible
13. Eric | September 24th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I did this a few hours before I found this site. My wife’s ipod (click wheel) didn’t see the charger unless pins 2, 3, and 4 were grounded.
14. Al | October 25th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Cool idea! But would it be safer if you used a current limiting device like a diode or resistor or even a transistor?
15. isko | October 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
i found a blackberry usb charger in a thrift store…it works perfectly with my nano….no modification needed……i think any usb charger will do
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