Hacking Down with Proprietary Charging Plugs!

[ShadowStitch]

I ripped out the proprietary charging plug, which serves no other purpose than to tether me to the stock Nintendo hardware, and replaced it with a mini USB socket!
Now my DSL is capable of going toe-to-toe with the PSP, and I can charge it from my PC, or from my moto's car phone charger, without the need for a special cable... tee hee!

Incidentally, I did this same thing to my GB Micro!
(Which also has a proprietary power plug, except that now I can't ever link it with another GBA...using the proprietary cable for THAT feature which I ALSO didn't have anyways, so screw it.)

USB CHARGING FOR ALL!!!!

 

[Brian117]

o____________o

Awesome mod dude. Great job.

How exactly did you do it?

 

[Mr.Seiko]

Yeah, that's Nice.


More info would be wicked.

 

[Isaiah]

I lol'ed

thats great dude pretty f'in cool but isn't the power outage from a computer and a wall socket different? +plug it in your ps2/ps3

 

[PuyoDead]

Ok, so, I have a degree in electronics engineering, and I feel downright stupid for not thinking of doing this earlier. It looks damn good, too. All clean and pretty. Was it just a simple matter of soldering a new connector on? I mean, other than the plastic bits.

 

[ShadowStitch]

I lol'ed

thats great dude pretty f'in cool but isn't the power outage from a computer and a wall socket different? +plug it in your ps2/ps3

USB has a pretty standardized voltage and amperage across the board -- that's why they have USB Standards, to make sure everyone is on the same page. The current may vary SLIGHTLY from say, the original DS charger, to my PC to my laptop to my phone charger, but it's always going to be within tolerable limits for the hardware. After all, they sell USB-DS proprietary charging cables already, without any special magic there.

In any case, there's almost no way that anything that supplies power through a mini-USB plug is going to supply MORE power than the USB standard, so I should be safe...and if something goes wrong? Well then, that's my mistake -- time to buy a DSI.

QUOTE(PuyoDead @ Jan 15 2009, 12:35 AM) Ok, so, I have a degree in electronics engineering, and I feel downright stupid for not thinking of doing this earlier. It looks damn good, too. All clean and pretty. Was it just a simple matter of soldering a new connector on? I mean, other than the plastic bits.

You wouldn't believe how ridiculously easy it is. It's just a matter of opening up the bottom of the DS, desoldering the nintendo socket and adding a USB socket in its place. That's it. The right angle surface mount socket I used was almost EXACTLY the same size as the DS socket, it simply looks fatter because it takes up more of the opening, and it's more trapezoid shaped. The board only has two solder points, one clearly labeled VIN and the other one GND. The points for the 4 feet AND the plugs lined up almost perfectly, and the end of the socket sets flush with the side of the DS like it was meant to be there. I didn't even have to cut any plastic -- it's almost as if the DS was DESIGNED to have a mini-USB port and Nintendo changed their minds.

A practised electrician could do it in under an hour if you wanted to -- unless you're like me, and you fuck up and accidentally tear out the ribbon cable going to the touchscreen interface, and have to spend 4 more hours repairing that damage also.

 

[Ferrariman]

Does it charge any faster?

 

[jesuschristmonke]

Awesome.

That kind of garbage from companies always annoys me.

How much is m$ still charging for X360 HD's? Far more than generic storage, I'm sure.

And don't get me started with Sony's proprietary schemes. The funny thing is most of them die and the company loses money. Minidisc, atrac3, UMD, etc.

Good for you, man.

 

[dinofan01]

Thats awesome. One of the best mods Ive seen.

 

[Ferrariman]

And don't get me started with Sony's proprietary schemes. The funny thing is most of them die and the company loses money. Minidisc, atrac3, UMD, etc.

*cough*Betamax*cough*

 

[ShadowStitch]

Does it charge any faster?

I don't know about faster, I never timed it.

Though I can say this much -- I drained the battery all the way and then plugged it into my PC, and it charged all the way till the charge light turned off, and it appears to have a full charge, as I've been playing it for the last few days without issue. I really don't know enough about the intricacies of the system to say whether it's charging any faster, or if the mod will affect the life of the hardware/battery in any meaningful way.

If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say that since the voltage on the stock DS charger is at the highest end of what the USB standard is supposed to safely supply, with roughly the same amperage, it may be that it charges slower.

 

[mixinluv2u]

wow i am jealous. too bad i don't have the skills needed for this.

 

[jesuschristmonke]

And don't get me started with Sony's proprietary schemes. The funny thing is most of them die and the company loses money. Minidisc, atrac3, UMD, etc.

*cough*Betamax*cough*

I didn't mention that because it was actually technically superior to VHS. Maybe it didn't deserve to go down. But still, LMAO @ Sony.

 

[BlueStar]

Nice mod, although a DS Lite USB charge cable cost me about £1. Just leave it at work so I never run out of juice.

 

[ShadowStitch]

Nice mod, although a DS Lite USB charge cable cost me about £1. Just leave it at work so I never run out of juice.

I used to carry my DS-USB cable in my pocket with the DS, until the cable started getting flakier and flakier and eventually died completely. I couldn't find another one locally and didn't feel like mail ordering one, so I guess you could say this mod was borne of laziness as well as convenience.

Now I just stick a mini-USB retractable cable in my pocket...and failing that, if I'm out somewhere, there's always going to be someone with a charger or cable to fit this. If the Keychain MicroSD reader I was using as a strap hadn't crapped itself, my DS would be an almost self-sufficient package!

 

[UltraMagnus]

nice mod, I would do it myself, but it would mean i couldn't use my hori charging dock....

And don't get me started with Sony's proprietary schemes. The funny thing is most of them die and the company loses money. Minidisc, atrac3, UMD, etc.

*cough*Betamax*cough*

*cough* blu-ray*cough*

oh wait

 

[Joe88]

nice mod, I would do it myself, but it would mean i couldn't use my hori charging dock....

And don't get me started with Sony's proprietary schemes. The funny thing is most of them die and the company loses money. Minidisc, atrac3, UMD, etc.

*cough*Betamax*cough*

*cough* blu-ray*cough*

oh wait

 

[FAST6191]

How much is m$ still charging for X360 HD's? Far more than generic storage, I'm sure.

Have a read:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7024

@UltraMagnus I am quite some way from considering blu ray a success (all sales are trivial compared to DVD).

Back on topic nice work ShadowStitch, the only hesitation I would have is USB has an initial current draw limit as part of the spec (requiring the device to be initialised first). Most ports ignore this but I have run up against it on some laptops with simple MP3 players using a single AA for power.

For others wondering USB has 4 main components, power, ground and two signal wires, some things use the metal shell or the "X" pin as an earth of sorts but do not count on it. These power devices almost aways just use the power parts and ignore the signal wires.
MiniUSB pinout:
http://pinouts.ru/Devices/mini-USB_pinout.shtml
(this site is a fantastic site for pinouts of various things)

GBA pinout:
http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#auxsou...terypowersupply

power to power, ground to ground, signal wires can be ignored.