[Streak 5 Accessories] AviUA:
sometimes its the cable, not the charger

Hey Rad,

I may be a little behind the times, but still love my Streak - and the world is finally catching on to the idea that a ~5" screen has its benefits, so I feel a little smug about that...

Anyways,I have found that some aftermarket (non-OEM) cables seem to limit charging rates to what one would expect from a computer USB port, and can't even keep up with consumption while, for example using the GPS mobile.

I've been using the Battery Monitor Widget Pro app to indicate charge current (which said app derives indirectly from other data), a parameter it seems the Android OS does it's utmost to obscure, or maybe the hardware doesn't even measure it. Swapping between the OEM and the aftermarket cable with the same charger shows a huge difference in charge rates going down from close to an ampere to less than a couple hundred milliamperes, which is empirically verified by usage. 200mA isn't even enough to keep the battery from running down in some scenarios.

If you look into the socket on the end of an OEM cable ( my old eyes need a pretty decent magnifying glass to do this), you will see that all the connector pins are present. In the aftermarket cables, I can only make out four pins. Now, I don't know what's actually wired up to what in the OEM cable, but I'm guessing that the Streak expects to see +5v for charging on a pin other than one of the four present in the after-market cables.

This link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDMI

claims the connector is PDMI, and gives the pinout, but not a picture, but it appears to be a single-line connector, with the actual contacts alternating which side (top or bottom) they are laid in from. If this is correct, on my aftermarket cables, only pins 1,2,3, and 5 are even populated with contacts, which would mean the Streak thinks it is connected to a regular USB port. For high current charging, I would expect pins 6 and 7 or 15 and 16 (not sure who's the"host" here) to be connected, based on the wikipedia article.

Has anybody with steadier hands than me and really tiny probes for their VOM tried to figure out what's actually connected in the OEM cable? Has anybody got a source for these cables (Dell hasn't got them any more) and I have not as yet found a source for the better cable. There's any number of after-market cables out there, but as with the chargers, you don't really know ahead of time if what you are getting is really wired up to charge at full rates - and you can't just fix it with a blob of solder, like some of the chargers above.

(BTW, the Manii claims it's not really a PDMI connector:

)

cf this guy built a USB adapter using an OEM cable:

[URL="http://linuxslate.com/#USB_PDMI_Adapter"]http://linuxslate.com/#USB_PDMI_Adapter

but his video is no longer there

and here's one from China that goes to micro-USB, but is it like the ones I got from Deal Extreme, with only those few pins connected?

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-ARRIVAL-bulk-selling-POCKET-CABLE-for-mini-5-OTG-cable-for-Dell-mini-5-streak/808801_528904868.html?cn=null&PID=6149808&tp1=tdf5fzm4bbjp&tracelog=null&src=ale&URL=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.aliexpress.com%252Ffm-store%252F808801%252F211185105-528904868%252FNEW-ARRIVAL-bulk-selling-POCKET-CABLE-for-mini-5-OTG-cable-for-Dell-mini-5-streak.html&cv=10925486&af=cj_6149808&vd=30

anyways, if this is too off topic, give me 3 lashes with a wet noodle. Thought the info might help somebody.

-avi