Just wanted you guys to know that my Dell USB travel sync cable actually provides charging power when my Axim is turned off!
I got this cable for only $11 when added it to my Axim purchase with those 25% coupons.
The cable also sports a female power slot just underneath the Axim connector end so that you can use your cradle's power supply if you choose to also pack it along with your traveling gear.
This chimes along with previous tests where the normal USB +5v pin provides just enough current to charge the battery, so long as your Axim is turned off.
I bought a PSP car charger (third party, pelican brand, $9.99) and it works wonderfully. It plugs right into the AC adapter dongle thing, since it has the same plug as the AC adapter. It's rated at 5v 2A. No screen flickering to speak of. Used it for 3-4 hours during a road trip, full screen brightness, with microdrive in use, and it charged the x50v to full while in use.
I highly recommend it.
Which model did you get. I purchased a Pelican PSP car charger Model PL-6003 and it does NOT eliminate the flicker and no where on it or the package does it indicate the output.
I bought a couple of cheap cables on eBay, ones that were advertised to sync and charge. They would charge for a short period of time, until the battery voltage was greater than 5V. Using info on the site here, I buzzed out one of the aftermarket adapters and found the 5V pin was shorted to the 5.4V pins.
Here's what I did and I hope it makes sense without a diagram or pictures! I also realize if you're not comfortable with a soldering iron, this won't interest you much. I have a couple of the generic USB AC adapters. The ones that supply around 5.5V and approx. 1A to the power and ground connections of the USB plug. The data pins are unused. Belkin makes some of these but the ones I used are "no names". Measuring the output voltage I found both at around 5.4V. The cases on these particular 2 are sort of press fit together so it was easy to take them apart. Once they were apart, I drilled a small hole in the USB connector end of the case and fed a sacrificed USB cable thru the hole. (Sacrificed = I cut off the smaller "B" end of the cable.) I connected the two data leads (green and white) in the sacrificed cable to the unused data pins on the USB connector on the circuit board of the adapter. I also soldered the black/ground lead of the sacrificed cable to the ground pin of the USB connector on the circuit board. I left the red (+5V) lead of the sacrificed cable unused. I then closed up the adapter. If you've been following me, I now have an aftermarket USB power adapter that puts out around 5.4V with a USB cable sticking out the end of it. Once I plug the adapter into the AC, and the USB cable sticking out the end of the adapter into my USB port on my laptop, I now have a fully functioning USB connector inside the adapter with 5.4V on the power pins and data on the data pins.
Now, back to the aftermarket sync/charge cables. These particular ones have a small circuit board inside. It was easy to identify the trace that shorted the 5V pin to the 5.4V pins. I cut the trace and inserted a schottky diode between the two cut traces with the anode to the 5.4V pins.
The end result...once I plug the aftermarket sync/charge cable into the adapter is that I have data connection to my x50v, 5.4V on the 5.4V pins and roughly 5.1V on the 5V pin. And it works great. Syncs and charges at the same time.
Thought I'd try another tack to charge and sync at the same time - a cable that came with a Maplin 4-way USB hub which has a Y configuration to draw power to the hub from 2 USB ports on the PC (only 1 carries data!). It has an A-style connector on the end so I also needed an A to B adaptor.
Bad news is that it doesn't work... I guess it's either faulty or 1 amp is not enough as reported elsewhere. Drat...
Sorry if this post will get people annoyed...but i'm so confused about all this power/current stuff. I'm only a Bio. major not a physics major :P And yes I did take physics but that was in first year!
Anyways, so is it SAFE to buy those aftermarket ones (like on eBay?) Even at retail stores they have like charge/sync cables, but i don't know if its safe! I really don't want to fry my laptop. So what should i do? Like the cables at boxwave, or proporta, or aximcases all have charge/sync, but i don't know if its safe :( So what's the verdict guys..only buy the charge/sync cable from Dell?
I have one question for the experts: The Belkin Car kit works via an obvoisly modified sync cable. The sync cable must provide power to the 5.4v pins (otherwise it wouldn't work while turned on). Question: Is it safe to use this cable for the computer. Dell's cradle doesn't supply power to the 5.4v pins, presumably to protect the computer's USB from blowing. Why is the Belkin safer? If it is safe, why didn't Dell use the same system in their cradle?
Any comments would be helpful; bonus point for any answers before I make the purchase!
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Just wanted you guys to know that my Dell USB travel sync cable actually provides charging power when my Axim is turned off!
I got this cable for only $11 when added it to my Axim purchase with those 25% coupons.
The cable also sports a female power slot just underneath the Axim connector end so that you can use your cradle's power supply if you choose to also pack it along with your traveling gear.
This chimes along with previous tests where the normal USB +5v pin provides just enough current to charge the battery, so long as your Axim is turned off.
Hi,
There is another cable even better and in a reasonable price. This cable is a combination of Dell VGA out presentation and travel sync cable. It complies to all Dell designs. Use USB to charge your PDA only when PDA is off. It provides VGA out presentation, DC plug, USB port(sync with your computer. Charging your PDA when it is off.). For detail, please refer to the following link. http://www.aximpda.com/product_info.php?products_id=29
I found this thread after busily searching for help on a cheap sync/charge cable I bought off of ebay. It would light the power button light, while off and on, seeming like it is charging. I think it's fine on that end. BUT, it wouldn't keep a connection in ActiveSync. I could explore the device for about 10 seconds and then it would freeze.
It all makes sense about these cables supplying USB 5v to the Axim 5.4v pin. Simply causes conflict (read all the explanation from the beginning of this thread).
SO, I opened the sync cable and found that the USB 5v was indeed jumped over IN ADDITION to pins 1-4 where the Axim expects to receive 5.4v. This simply is not going to happen from a 5v USB supply.
So I simply unsoldered the USB red wire and the black jumper wire from those 4 pins, making sure to keep the red and black wire together (so that the USB red 5v would still be going to pin 21 , near the other two data wires).
All works great now. For what I want at least.
I can sync and explore just fine. And when I shut the Axim off, I get the charging going.
Mirrors the cradle as of now.
So hope this helps anyone that bought one of the "confused" cables and wants to correct it for this purpose.
{Be careful not to short any pins while de-soldering. Common sense of course, just had to note it}.
I found this thread after busily searching for help on a cheap sync/charge cable I bought off of ebay. It would light the power button light, while off and on, seeming like it is charging. I think it's fine on that end. BUT, it wouldn't keep a connection in ActiveSync. I could explore the device for about 10 seconds and then it would freeze.
It all makes sense about these cables supplying USB 5v to the Axim 5.4v pin. Simply causes conflict (read all the explanation from the beginning of this thread).
SO, I opened the sync cable and found that the USB 5v was indeed jumped over IN ADDITION to pins 1-4 where the Axim expects to receive 5.4v. This simply is not going to happen from a 5v USB supply.
So I simply unsoldered the USB red wire and the black jumper wire from those 4 pins, making sure to keep the red and black wire together (so that the USB red 5v would still be going to pin 21 , near the other two data wires).
All works great now. For what I want at least.
I can sync and explore just fine. And when I shut the Axim off, I get the charging going.
Mirrors the cradle as of now.
So hope this helps anyone that bought one of the "confused" cables and wants to correct it for this purpose.
{Be careful not to short any pins while de-soldering. Common sense of course, just had to note it}.
:)
This dosent work in my X51v. I remove the red and the blue (in my case the black is blue there), but it dosent charge the ppc. I have the red and the blue (black) together but it dosent work. Any solutions?
Thanks!
The answer has probably been given several times, maybe a summary of the large sticky files is an idea:) ?
Everyone is talking about a cable that charges and syncs, but I don't need that, my cradle does that. What I want on the road, is a cable that charges while my X51 is turned on. So I can keep working / playing even though the battery is empty (again:-( ). Anyone?
The answer has probably been given several times, maybe a summary of the large sticky files is an idea:) ?
Everyone is talking about a cable that charges and syncs, but I don't need that, my cradle does that. What I want on the road, is a cable that charges while my X51 is turned on. So I can keep working / playing even though the battery is empty (again:-( ). Anyone?
The answer has probably been given several times, maybe a summary of the large sticky files is an idea:) ?
Everyone is talking about a cable that charges and syncs, but I don't need that, my cradle does that. What I want on the road, is a cable that charges while my X51 is turned on. So I can keep working / playing even though the battery is empty (again:-( ). Anyone?
Where do you want the power to come from? This whole warning is for people who expect their computer to supply the power through the USB ports. If you are just looking for something to plug into the wall you could always use the power adapter that came with your Axim and the small little power plug. I use the original power adapter along with an inverter when I am in my car.
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