Searching for a small, suitable USB otg cable yielded nothing. So I went about making my own...

This donor cable was bought from a mobile phone store.



One end is a suitable Micro-AB plug. The other end goes to a 3.5mm EIAJ soclet (Nokia socket.) The cable was intended to charge MicroAB devices like the Razr2. The nice thing about it was the connector wasn't inset into plastic moulding, the case could be "unsnapped" to yield the innards.

I desoldered the MicroAB plug and set it aside.


Initially I had the idea of soldering a TINY MicroSD card reader directly to the plug. However a part of me felt a generic OTG dongle was better. So next I needed a USB-A socket.



I knew those Microsoft mouse USB->PS2 dongles would come in handy eventually

A few minutes peeling plastic away and I was left with this:



Donor USB-A socket was removed and set aside. The next step was soldering both MicroAB plug and USB-A socket. ID pin was soldered to ground.

A quick test:


...and all's well.

Unfortunately the tiny wires like this weren't secure; so next we smother with hot-glue.



Again - still too much flexing. So I bought out the thermoplastic and shaped it around the dongle.

Final product:


The dongle switches the N810 to OTG mode without using USB Control. It's a little larger than I hoped - but for V0.01beta it's fundtional! Ideally I'd have liked a MicroAB plug that sits flush in the socket so I can leave the kickstand shut and feed wires to the back.




Now that's fine and dandy for low powered devices like the SD card reader. However I used a USB-A socket so as to try different things. This means I need a power injector.

I ended up buying a Camelion Cellphone Pwer Stick fom Maplin for £4.99 This uses 1 1.5v/1.2v battery and some special electronics to raise the voltage to 5V. Perfect for us!

However the camelion uses 2.5mm Jacks for power connectors. I had no spare 2.5mm plugs, so I decided to butcher one from the new packet!

Splicing apart a FlexUSB connector there was a tiny bit of space available to feed a few extras wires through. I added the 2.5mm jack and the old 3.5mm EIJA socket.




So I basicaly now have:
1) A small MicroA ->USB-A dongle.
2) A flexible USB power injector that takes a single AA battery.

Cool project. And an excellent write-up.

I like that 90 degree solution; there's nothing like a thumb-drive sticking straight out the end of my N800.

It's like an online job application to work with jolouis and company.

yabbas doesn't want to leave [East?] London for Canada :P

(If my IRC memory serves me well...)

Hey, work is virtual now! Just recently I've been working with Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, Canada and Russia... from my house!

I love receiving and signing for goods via email :P

ya lost me.

I was thinking that it would be cool to have a USB adapter that wraps around to the back of the device, so that you could plug in flash drives or other USB things and not having them sticking out to the side. A flash drive could just hang out behind the device.
I'm no hacker, so there's no chance of me making such a thing, but maybe by throwing the idea out there, someone else will be inspired to make it real.

I've posted on that kinda idea before; I'd like a whole backpack, though, not just an adapter. (Containing mondo battery, USB hub, and maybe some integrated USB peripherals with switches to disconnect when not in use.) Maybe, someday, I'll make one... or several, since there is some interest from others.

Is a flush micro A/B connector even possible? That would sure open possibilities.

On a somewhat related note, my current holy grail is a low-profile car cigarrette lighter adapter. Stupid Ford Taurus designers have the console armrest interfering with the space...