USB Power Socket

[billybovine]

I installed a USB power socket on my ST right after getting it, last year. It was rated at 1,000 ma and should be lots of power for my phone during rides and Sena headset between. Well my phone would complain, sometimes would not charge and other times would charge slow. This year USB power sockets rated at 3,000 ma are becoming common so I replaced mine. Should be enough power to charge a tablet. To my disappointment, my phone would only charge slowly. Tried my tablet and it refused to charge at all. I always had a 2nd cable on my Spyder and tried it. My phone and tablet refused to charge at all with it, but would charge my headset just fine. Went in the house and found 7 more cables with the correct end and tried them. 2 of them worked great and would charge the phone, tablet and headset. Tried the old socket again with those 2 cables. Phone charged fine and the tablet charged as well but complained about using the correct charger. Tried the cables in my cage with a dual 1,000 & 2,100 ma sockets adapter and got the same results.

Conclusions:
Well I am a little slow but finally figured out my phone would charge or not depending on the cable I happened to grab that day.
A lot of USB cables the wires are just not heavy enough to carry enough current for some devices.

 

[ChasCS]

Who were the winners

No brand names to suggest?

Which ones worked the best?


Chas

 

[MikeinGA]

Make sure they are UL approved.


Mike

 

[GrumpySteelMan]

Amazon has some of their own-branded cables (Amazon Basics) that work great and get the current delivered.

 

[billybovine]

No brand names to suggest?

Which ones worked the best?


Chas

I only know where one of the good cables came from. I bought it at KW Surplus (the home of cheap Chinese stuff). It looks like a really well built cable. I can see the woven shielding through the clear blue plastic covering instead of the normal aluminium foil. It has a ferrite choke molded on it. The problem is the blue cable does not look good wrapped around my handle bars.

 

[Fat Crip]

I fitted a 1amp and 2.1amp dual USB socket to the left speaker grill of my 2013 STS and it charges my iPhone just great even whilst using it as a SatNav. I also used it to top-up my Sena headset the other day.

The only other point of note was that the socket always draws a current and displays a blue LED even if there is nothing plugged in. I doubt that this will affect the battery greatly even though it's constantly on, but I fitted a small switch also...just in case!

Whilst I wad at it, I fitted a standard 12v socket to the right side, again direct (via a fuse) to the battery jump posts so I can plug in my Optimate easily without opening the frunk.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[billybovine]

I fitted a 1amp and 2.1amp dual USB socket to the left speaker grill of my 2013 STS and it charges my iPhone just great even whilst using it as a SatNav. I also used it to top-up my Sena headset the other day.

The only other point of note was that the socket always draws a current and displays a blue LED even if there is nothing plugged in. I doubt that this will affect the battery greatly even though it's constantly on, but I fitted a small switch also...just in case!

Whilst I wad at it, I fitted a standard 12v socket to the right side, again direct (via a fuse) to the battery jump posts so I can plug in my Optimate easily without opening the frunk.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

That little led light is almost meaningless for draw. I have the alarm system, BT dongle always on and the headset charging on the seat. In a week and a half it's not going to start if I don't use the tender.

 

[Johnny_Swindle]

You can convert any usb cable into a high capacity charge only cable since you have a power socket that is delivering more than 500ma. Two methods:

#1

or

#2

With either method these cable can only be used for charging and will not transfer data.

I installed a USB power socket on my ST right after getting it, last year. It was rated at 1,000 ma and should be lots of power for my phone during rides and Sena headset between. Well my phone would complain, sometimes would not charge and other times would charge slow. This year USB power sockets rated at 3,000 ma are becoming common so I replaced mine. Should be enough power to charge a tablet. To my disappointment, my phone would only charge slowly. Tried my tablet and it refused to charge at all. I always had a 2nd cable on my Spyder and tried it. My phone and tablet refused to charge at all with it, but would charge my headset just fine. Went in the house and found 7 more cables with the correct end and tried them. 2 of them worked great and would charge the phone, tablet and headset. Tried the old socket again with those 2 cables. Phone charged fine and the tablet charged as well but complained about using the correct charger. Tried the cables in my cage with a dual 1,000 & 2,100 ma sockets adapter and got the same results.

Conclusions:
Well I am a little slow but finally figured out my phone would charge or not depending on the cable I happened to grab that day.
A lot of USB cables the wires are just not heavy enough to carry enough current for some devices.

 

[CTSpyderRyder]

Powerlet Cable

I had installed a Powerlet direct-to-battery cable with micro-USB plug the end of May to my 2012 RT SE5, attached positive to positive jumper connection, negative to bolt on seat latch. It worked for 4 weeks, then the portion under the seat stopped working, I attribute loss of power to the disconnect portion of the battery side of the cable to possibly the seat resting on the wires doing something to the cable wires, bad idea doing it that way anyways:banghead:. But I was afraid of breaking the mirror trying to get it off to do it the correct way the first time .:gaahconnecting it to battery)
Powerlet replaced the entire cable with one with a better regulator to boot.:yes:
So I decided to install the terminals directly to the battery this past Saturday, got over my fear of removing the mirror so I could remove the panels, ran the cable until it came up along side the steering column, attached phone and it began charging, replaced panels, total time 2 hours.
Plugged phone in Monday night, then started Spyder, still worked. So far, so good. If any problems, I'll re-post.
I got it it initially from Leader Motorcycle along with a waterproof phone holder, phone holder okay, not 100% perfect, probably same issue other tank bag models would have, i.e. glare and sunlight makes it hard to see phone screen sometimes.

 

[billybovine]

You can convert any usb cable into a high capacity charge only cable since you have a power socket that is delivering more than 500ma. Two methods:

#1

or

#2

With either method these cable can only be used for charging and will not transfer data.

I made a couple of cables like that for my LG phone. That's because it would not charge at all with any other stand alone charger unless the data lines are shorted out. That is not the case with my BB phone. It is the same as lot of newer phones and no longer follow the USB standard, (Apple never did). When they detect that they are not connected to a smart device, they draw as much power as they can until the voltage drops.

 

[RD2-BBP]

USB Ports

All USB ports are not the same. You need one that is I-Phone compatible. USB's for I-Phones have a low voltage feed on the two center pins. If the USB does not have that the device will not charge not matter what amps it is rated for.