Can I fabricate my own USB power cable? - Hardware

bji-gg@ischo.com (Bryan Ischo) wrote in message news:<d976b79f.0409091048.48af4ffc@posting.google.com>...
> So my question is, will it help to somehow splice together the USB
> power cable so that I can plug it into *both* USB ports? Will each
> deliver the full 500 mA, and will I then be able to give a full 1 A to
> the drive? Hopefully this will be enough to read any CD/DVD at any
> speed.
>
> I was thinking that I would just take another USB cable (I have
> zillions), cut it open and untangle the wires. I believe there are 4
> wires in there, 2 data and 2 power. I just have to splice the 2 power
> wires into the 2 power wires of my USB power cable right? I remember
> embarrasingly little from my college physics classes - will the
> resulting cable still be 5 V or do the voltages add up (will the
> resulting cable be 10 V instead?)? Finally, would I be able to take
> the 2 data wires from the USB cable that I cut up and splice them into
> a USB hub, so that I would have:
>
> * Both USB ports delivering power to 1 power adapter
> * One USB port connected to an unpowered USB hub into which I would
> then plug all of my data devices?
>
> Is this a crazy/useless idea?

Yes. Probably all USB ports are sharing 500ma.

> Another way to solve my problem, that I actually think would be better
> in many ways, would be to somehow limit the spin speed of the drive
> itself. Is there some way under Windows to tell the drive to never
> spin up to more than, say, 10x (I believe that it is a 24x drive)?
> How about under Linux?
>
Yes, under Windows there is such a program. Search for CD Drive Speed
Limiter or something like that, and you should find what you need.

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

Aaron

Maybe a capacitor spliced inline would be the best choice. It will
store the excess power that is not being used by the drive in the low
power situations and make it available when the drive demands more.

aaron.axvig@sendit.nodak.edu (Aaron) wrote in message news:<93f8353a.0409091902.24965e3f@posting.google.com>...
> bji-gg@ischo.com (Bryan Ischo) wrote in message news:<d976b79f.0409091048.48af4ffc@posting.google.com>...
> > So my question is, will it help to somehow splice together the USB
> > power cable so that I can plug it into *both* USB ports? Will each
> > deliver the full 500 mA, and will I then be able to give a full 1 A to
> > the drive? Hopefully this will be enough to read any CD/DVD at any
> > speed.
> >
> > I was thinking that I would just take another USB cable (I have
> > zillions), cut it open and untangle the wires. I believe there are 4
> > wires in there, 2 data and 2 power. I just have to splice the 2 power
> > wires into the 2 power wires of my USB power cable right? I remember
> > embarrasingly little from my college physics classes - will the
> > resulting cable still be 5 V or do the voltages add up (will the
> > resulting cable be 10 V instead?)? Finally, would I be able to take
> > the 2 data wires from the USB cable that I cut up and splice them into
> > a USB hub, so that I would have:
> >
> > * Both USB ports delivering power to 1 power adapter
> > * One USB port connected to an unpowered USB hub into which I would
> > then plug all of my data devices?
> >
> > Is this a crazy/useless idea?
>
> Yes. Probably all USB ports are sharing 500ma.
>
> > Another way to solve my problem, that I actually think would be better
> > in many ways, would be to somehow limit the spin speed of the drive
> > itself. Is there some way under Windows to tell the drive to never
> > spin up to more than, say, 10x (I believe that it is a 24x drive)?
> > How about under Linux?
> >
> Yes, under Windows there is such a program. Search for CD Drive Speed
> Limiter or something like that, and you should find what you need.
>
> http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
>
> Aaron

Thank you very much for your response. I guess the program you
mention sounds like a better option than messing with the hardware.

Thanks again, and best wishes,
Bryan

jajwarehouse@gmail.com (JAJ) wrote in message news:<c070a001.0409092231.57429653@posting.google.com>...
> Maybe a capacitor spliced inline would be the best choice. It will
> store the excess power that is not being used by the drive in the low
> power situations and make it available when the drive demands more.

How big would be capacitor need to be to satisfy up to 500 mA extra
load for minutes at a time?

Thanks!
Bryan

Hi,

Yes you can limmit the speed.

As already said, on a notebook, the 500mA will be shared, so more usb
ports = same power.

Anyway, back to limiting the speed. Nero Drive Speed

Download a trial version of Nero, its included in the package. You set
the capable speeds and the max speed you would like the drive to spin
at.

I think you can also download just Drive Speed as a freeware program
as part of their utility pack.

Good luck.

Tarl

Yes you can make your own cable and if you hook up power leads in parallel i.e. + to + and -to - the voltage remains virtually the same with an increase in current supply. Or you can purchase one from link below. This is a problem with allot of laptop drives being used as an external usb drive they initialize at over 1vdc and one usb port is not enough to power it up. Limiting speed is one way but I would think not real efficient as if there is a constant pull on usb port at over its rating drive will become overheated and could actually become dangerous.