Thursday, November 8, 2007

My First Try At Modding



Well, after watching this video I decided to have a go myself. The steps seemed really simple, and I couldn't wait to make it. I found an old, unused webcam as a USB cable, then I got a normal Nokia Charger to fix it on.

I cut both cables, so now only the USB plug was from the camera and the mobile plug from the charger. I stripped both wires, and I have to stress it was a hard job. Stripping wires is terribly stressful and annoying.

At last I had both wires stripped, and the inside wires stripped as well. The charger cable had two wires, one red and one black. The camera one had one red, one black, one green, and one white one.

According to the video, the red and black ones were the electricity ones, while the green and white ones were the info parts for the USB (send/receive data). I checked the voltage of the wires, while plugged in to the computer, using my dad's voltmeter.

It read 5.05 volts, which was the usual for USB, so I knew I was on the right tracks. The next step was to join the wires together, in the video the guy soldered them, but I don't have a solder so I just twisted them over each other.

I went ahead, and taped over the uncovered wire, then tested it. A huge warning sign screamed into my face, saying "Not Charging". I resisted the urge to break the mobile and smash it into smithereens. I felt stupid, so I started trying several different mobiles.

Most gave the same message, and I wondered why. Usually the message comes up when there is not enough voltage to charge, so I looked on the back of the charger. The output was 5.7V, and I wondered why mobiles were so fussy about 0.7V! Does it really matter?

Anyway, the charger worked on my mobile, the great Nokia N70. I have no idea why it was the only one that worked, maybe because the N series is special or something. I will try to test it on my dad's N73 and see what happens.

Now a question to the audience. Have you ever tried modding something and how did it end up? I'd like to hear from you. :D

4 comments:

  1. Nice Job wallah
    I do these "mods" all the time. For car electronics. Computer stuff. you name it. I had some pretty good successes at times, and .. not so great at others

    To fool your phone to charge you need to step up the voltage. It's a simple thing to do but you need some electronic components to do it. And the results of these "do it yourself" projects are usually not very pretty. But they're functional

    I don't think your phone distinguishes between 5.0 and 5.7, but it might be due to the current not being sufficient since most USB ports limit the current

    Besides, you might blow up you usb-controller if you draw too much current from it. So be careful (Replacing a 2JD charger with a $1000JD laptop might not be the smartest thing to do :)

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  2. or you just waltz down to the electronics store and take out 10JD :)

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  3. Qwaider: What do you mean by electronic components?

    Hani: :)

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  4. just google "Voltage step up" and you will get schematics to how to "up" your voltage.
    But I suspect that will not be enough

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