Miscellaneous laptop discussions forum: USB Connector issue

You did not understand the question so no reply is warranted. I have been looking for the same kind of (adapter or connector ) for some time. This is a single (1) port that has dual capabilities.It looks like a USB Male with another connector (the power supply) mounted to it. I haven't seen or found one for it, but i'll let you know(wonder_boyz) if i find a work around or something.

I could see cutting (or snipping) the plug in half to seperate the USB from the power (if thats what it is) to plug up the USB connector.
I can't find any spech's on it to tell.

Thanks Guys for all your insights into this issue but pls advise where do we go from here?

I am sure you all are expert in this field so please let us know what is the doable solution to this issue?

Do I understand well that all that double connector does is a duplicate USB connection, the second one of which is there only to provide another 500 mA at 5V? If it is this case, then I could connect a standard 5V power supply, capable of supplying 500mA to the second connector and the external DVD would work on any USB device? The data flow cannot possibly go by both USBs, I believe. If this is the case, which of the two USBs is the second one? The smaller, narrower connector?

Hi Bob,

Thanks for answering. Unfortunately I did not understand your answer. I bought an external DVD, a Dell PD01S, very cheap, with a funny connector, hoping that I would find out how to put it to work. It seems that the funny connector is a double USB, and that the only reason to double it was the power limitation of the USB, limited to 500 mA. If one of the two connectors is there only to provide 5 V at 500 mA max, then why an external power supply would not do what this connector brings in?

But I do not have to do as I thought in doing it when I discovered that it may be that the connector is split for power reasons. I could implement your solution, but what do you mean by [getting] the USB case for te drive that allows or comes wit said power supply? The DVD drive I bought came in a box which has a single cable out which ends on a funny connector, one part of it is recognizably a USB, the other part, also four contacts, nothing that I recognize. The DVD is itself easily detachable from the box just pulling a lever then pulling the unit out. Is there another box for sale, perhaps with a power supply to plug on the wall and a standard, one USB connector? Thanks for helping me Bob. As for my electronics skills, I can put together a power supply and cut wires to reroute whatever is needed to another connector, soldering, etc. Thanks again.
Sergio

Thanks, but I will - as soon as I either: (1) find out what is in the second connector (lower, not marked with the USB logo on the computer), or (2) can get my hands on one computer with that connector to measure what is there. I can let you know the result, if you want. BTW, if you know what is in that lower connector and is willing to tell me I would greatly appreciate. Thanks again Bob
Sergio

Sergio,

Please go to the very bottom of the page at:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd400/smen/pinouts.htm

Now, if you decide to cannibalize, at least you have the Pinouts!

My understanding is that this is a proprietary Dell connector for Dell external devices used only in a few Dell laptops (and their docking stations) which did not have an internal optical drive...

Mark

Okay, so here is what I did last night: Upon opening the docking station, realized that the D/Bay connector is hard soldered onto a printed circuit card (of course), so no way to "break in" to the data transfer path there. So, what I did was to cut the cable of the external DVD drive in half - that left me wires long enough to separate, strip back, 'ring-out' (to correlate wire color to pinout), shrink-sleeve, and solder to. Then, onto the cable end still attached to the DVD drive, I soldered the cable I just cut off back on, but only connecting the wires relating to pins 5/6/7/8/9 (the "power-side" of the D/Bay connector). Then I took a 6' USB cable, cut one end off, checked pinout/wire assignments, and soldered the appropriate wires to the remaining four wires on the DVD-drive cable which originally were for the "USB-side" of the D/Bay connector (pins 1/2/3/4). Here is the pinout diagram again, bottom of this page: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd400/smen/pinouts.htm
After insulating all connections and taping it up, I now had a two-connector cable on the DVD-drive. I plugged the D/Bay connector into the docking station for power and the USB connector into the ASUS Netbook computer for data transfer. Clean Solution. Fortunately, I bought a Netbook that runs Windows XP, so finding drivers for the DVD-drive wasn't a problem (it's only 3 years old). Just so you know, I did this so that I can install software from CD's that I already have, like MS Office 2003PE and such... it's clunky because of the need for the docking station for power, but it gets the job done for the few times that I will need an optical drive on my new Netbook! Take care, all... and Sergio - if you really are my old Prof, shoot me an e-mail to mjklaser@hotmail.com so that we can 'catch-up' on the past 24 years!
Mark

You can take apart a spare D-Bay and connect an old laptop power supply 19.5v (just like it says on the d-bay case) at least 2.8A output - laptop supply gives 3.34A. Use a meter to make sure and get polarity right since this is DC power. Positive on red, one black is shield/ground other is negative. Pretty it up by soldering and tie a knot in the ac power cable. Then you plug your power in and use a usb extension cable to plug into the other half of the dport connector hanging off the drive bay. Then you can use your drive via usb on any pc. In other words, 1/2 of the connector is regular usb, the other just provides 19.5v and at least 2.8A.

another solution which might be simpler but annoying..is to split the connector in half...the funny connection to your laptop that accepts and the other half into the laptop you want to install your usb, of course this requires 2 laptop on for the extra power and the other one which you are going to install it in for the data...by the way that bob guy is a knuckle head...if he could make it he would have also as an engineer he would of thought of this simple solution...hope his not over paid where he works!

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/cable-style-dual-power-1000ma-usb-2-0-4-port-hub-13526

Hmm, maybe I should have added that you simply wire up a USB plug plus wire to the brown-white-green-yellow wires (red-brown, gree-green, white-white and black-yellow, but if you hadn't figured this out, maybe this isn't the job for you...).

5,6,7,8 and 9 don't have to be hooked up to let the thing work!!!

The powerplug near the switching power supply needs the external voltage: just black and red, the shielding of that wire is shorted to ground anyway.

I figured that out after posting...

I replied to my own thread making this a little clearer as I haven't found out how to edit my own posts.

I measured the connector with 9 pins inside the housing: the white is the same as the white inside a USB-wire/connector. The green is the same as the green inside a USB wire/connector. Then you only need the yellow (needs to be hooked up to the ground or black wire in the USB-wire/connector) and the brown (needs to be hooked up to the red or +5V wire in the USB-wire/connector) and you are good to go, provided you hooked up an external powersupply of between 12* and 20*V to the three-pin connector near the internal switching powersupply.

The remaining 5 wires are, strangely enough, not needed for the operation of the PD01S...


* I say between 12 and 20V because I have verified that this works, but the range you can use may be bigger

Thanks for your post R-P.

Your positive instructions lead the way and worked a treat.

4 wires Usb connection 5v D- D+ 0v (brown,white,green.yellow)
2 wires Power supply connection 19v 0v (red,black)
3 wires unused (purple,blue,orange)

I also connected a 12v supply (to red,black) and the drive worked with that. It draws less than 0.5amp.

My daughter now has a DVD drive for her laptop.

Many thanks again

Steve