Where to Buy USB Charging Cable?

[reggie14]

I used to have a few USB charging cables, that already had their data lines shorted. These are really useful for charging phones at the full 1A rate rather than 500mA (allowing me to, for example, use Navigation and keep my phone charged).

I lost a couple of those cables, and now I can't find any. I'm looking for a 4-5 ft charge-only USB cable. I know its possible to mod regular cables, but I'd much rather just buy some.

 

[hondaguy520]

Amazon.com? They have EVERYTHING. plus cheap

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[reggie14]

Amazon and Monoprice were the first places I looked. The only thing I could find on Amazon was an iGo brand usb charging cable, although it wasn't clear from the description if it is only a charging cable (not a sync cable). It was also too short. Monoprice has a super cheap retractable cable, but I've tried those and they broke almost immediately.

I found a 3ft charging cable on eBay, so I'm giving that a try. That's a little shorter than I wanted, but it will probably work for most of my needs. I found one of my longer USB charging cables too, so I'll just have to remember to keep that one in my car. I need about a 4ft cable to get from my cigarette lighter in my card to where I mount my phone when I use it for navigation.

-Andy

 

[hondaguy520]

Have you tried best buy or radio shack?

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[xeene]

Best buy will probably charge you $500 for it.

 

[fish1552]

Do you mean something like a factory style programming cable?

 

[reggie14]

I'm a little surprised there aren't more USB power-only cables floating around out there. But, they are admittedly a pretty niche thing. I've never seen them at Best Buy, although Radio Shack sells iGO usb charging cables that go along with the iGo external battery packs. The problem is, they're horribly priced, plus they're only about a foot long (which isn't long enough for my purposes).

There's another option to get 1A charging for people looking to avoid taking a soldering iron to USB car chargers. Various sites sell little USB adapters that short out the USB data lines. Sometimes they're sold as USB charging adapters for iPads, since the iPad will complain if you try to charge it on 500mA. I have some of those too, although its nicer to just one cable.

 

[BroidDrionic]

I see one on amazon that does up to 2 amps. Search for 1 amp USB cable.

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[BroidDrionic]

Also, all the generic USB cables I've gotten from amazon (like five cables, we have them everywhere) can charge at 850mA, which is the max the bionic can charge at.

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[BroidDrionic]

Actually, a cable having the data lines shorted is irrelevant to how much current it can carry. 1A is hardly anything, nearly all USB cables should be able to carry an amp without any trouble regardless of if they are data-capable. Even my super thin "ecomoto" earth-friendly Motorola cable can handle the 850mA that the bionic likes. Hell, even the cable I got with my Nokia Brick five years ago can handle it.
All the cables I got from amazon are generic blackberry cables and they charge my phone no prob.

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[reggie14]

Actually, a cable having the data lines shorted is irrelevant to how much current it can carry. 1A is hardly anything, nearly all USB cables should be able to carry an amp without any trouble regardless of if they are data-capable.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm looking for and why I'm looking for it.

The cable is relevant because of how most cell phones work when plugged into a computer. When the Galaxy Nexus is plugged into a computer, it goes into a USB charging mode where it only pulls 500mA. According to the USB spec, if you're building a USB charger, you're supposed to short the data pins. That apparently tells the device on the other end its safe to pull whatever it wants. However, most of my generic outlet/car USB chargers (that provide a USB port to plug a cable into) don't short the data pins. So, if you use a regular USB data cable, the phone will only draw 500mA. The Galaxy Nexus uses more power than that when its running Navigation, which is why I want to charge at 1A.

A relatively popular mod to car USB chargers is to crack it open and solder the two data pins together. Then you can connect any old USB cable to it and the phone will charge at 1A. But, an easier thing to do is to just get a USB charging cable that has its data wires shorted. You still need to get a USB charger that works up to at least 1A (which is most of them, at this point), but it turns out its not always sufficient to just get a USB charger that is good up to 1 or 2A.