Homemade Usb Passthrough

[Firdaddy]

While being a kid and taking my batteries apart for my 901 , I managed to kill it.. so I wanted a usb passthrough anyways so I made myself one.. This is nothing more than a quick writeup on how to make your own from a dead battery.. I skipped some steps, but if you have the know how to do this in the first place you no doubt have the skills to fill in the blanks.

First you need to source the following...
usb cord with at least 3 ft of length
battery for your model PV
Soldering iron
Solder
razor blade of exacto knife
shrink tubing
patience

First off take the usb cord. It can be from a camera cord that you no longer need, or from a broken device.. they all work just fine really.
Now cut the unused end off the cord.. ie. the end opposite the usb plug..
you'll need to strip back the insulation sorrounding ther four wires..
Inside you'll find the following color wires

Green= Data
White=Data
Red = + power
Black= - power
You only need the red and black wires, the green and white are useless, however just cut them off so they're out of your way


Next you'll have to strip the insulation back far enough so you can work with the wires.. About 1/2-3/4 of an inch give or take..

Now strip the insulation on the red and black wires back about 3mm or so, just enough to get a soldered butt joint on there..
Then solder some extra length of wire to it, about 2 inches or so.
the red wire needs to go to one side of the switch
now you can either use the original pressure sensitive switch, or wire in a external switch, which is my preference..
now with a wire soldered to the red wire and the other end soldered to one side of the switch, and both soldered joints shrink wrapped to prevent short circuits, your ready for step two and decision number two.
Led or no led? that's the question... if you want a led still you'll need to run another wire down to it so its at the bottom of the battery opposite the battery connector.
also though you need to run a wire from the other side of the switch(opposite the first wire you ran) to the battery connector.. more specifically in the middle of it..

now with these steps done, its time to use that black wire..
solder the back ire to another length of wire and run it to the outside ring of the battery connector, on the inside lip though as to make sure the connector will still fit in the tube..
once you've done this , run a wire from there to the other side of the led you ran earlier..
well if you've done this than you're done.. plug it in and try it out..
there's a little more to it , but like i said just the basics...

[mcquinn]

When I tried this I over amped the usb port on my work laptop,it reset when I rebooted but had me scared for a while.I went with the passthrough with the battery inline to smooth out the load.

[Royal]

Most usb 2.0 ports aren't designed to handle this amperage. A usb 2.0 hub with it's on power supply works better, or just get a usb wall adaptor works best. I never plug directly into my computer, but I do use a usb 2.0 hub on occasion.

[Firdaddy]

yeah, mine freaked out the computer a couple of times.. thought about soldering in a resistor , but i haven't gotten around to it yet

[mcquinn]

I just got confused by the name usb ,I associate that with puterz.It is hard to solder the little wires that are in a dead battery so my homemade one looks like a screwdriver PV with a gun handle ,made of 1/2 copper pipe.Worked but not something to show off.

[Firdaddy]

lol yeah, it was not easy to solder.. luckly for me , my buddies dad is a warehouse manager for Lockheed martin, so he gets all the nasa leftovers.. so i got to borrow a soldering iron that when cold could stab the hell out of you.. its tiny

[mcquinn]

kewl,I am always afraid I will melt the isulator out of the connecter when I am attaching wires.I took the still good batteries out of four dead ones and fixed it where I can use them with my homemade usb passthrough.They will recharge in the regular charger.I just wired the battery to the connecter sans switch

[mcquinn]

I bought a Janty Kissbox usb passthrough ,it has a battery inline and it does not bother the computer at all,Can be used by itself as well and recharge through the puter

[Royal]

Yep, it is using a 3.7 volt inline battery, You are essentially just using battery power while the USB keeps it charged. Without the battery you would be gettign full 5 volts. If you have never tried higher voltage, it is hard to go back once you have.

[mcquinn]

It would seem to me that would fry the atty faster and melt the poly fill faster I have to change the poly every couple of days once it melts enough it won't give up the liquid