charge clix from any USB

[frank and val]

NOTE: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGED EQUIPMENT!

TOOLS Needed
knife
old USB cable
solder
soldering iron
clix data cable
volt meter
small project box
black electrical tape

First cut one end off the old USB cable. You will need the end that plugs in to the computer leave at least 6 inches on it the more the better. Cut about 2 inches of the out side coating off then strip only the Black and Red wires cut the other two down to were you striped it to you will not use the two wires at all. plug this wire in to a computer. Test with voltmeter to make sure the red and black wire has 5volts with correct polarity. RED +, Black -. If there is a slightly lower or higher reading you should be ok 5.5 to 4.5 volts. the main thing is the polarity.

now you will slice your clix data cable (this is not reversible) open. pick a spot that would be practical for use. not too close to one end or the other you will need room to work with the wires and solder with. remove the casing around the wire about 1 to 2 inches. DO NOT CUT ANY WIRES (if you cut a wire you will have to reconnect them!) you should see 5 wires BLUE, BLACK, RED, GREEN, and WHITE. we only need the BLUE and BLACK wires. leave the others alone. I REPEAT DO NOT CUT ANY OF THE WIRES OR YOUR DATA CABLE WILL NOT CONNECT CLIX AND COMMPUTER. only remove the coating around the BLUE AND BLACK wires about a 1/2 inch is all you need to remove. now plug your soldering iron in let it get hot. Take the RED wire from the old USB wire and wrap it around the BLUE wire. solder these wires together. wrap them in black tape. Now take the BLACK wire and wrap it around the BLACK. Solder and wrap with electrical tape. now test your cable first plug the end in to CLIX then plug CLIX DATA CABLE in to computer everything should work normal. if a wire is crossed or cut it will not work. in that case unplug it and find the cut/crossed wire. If it works good then UNPLUG that wire from the computer and plug the OLD USB wire in to the computer. Your computer will NOT do anything. now look at your CLIX the charging animation will be flashing a little faster than normal but it has not caused any problems for mine it works normal you will be able to use the clix and charge at the same time. now that you know it works take the project box and put the spliced section in the box to prevent it from being pulled on and broken apart. You are done.

I would not recommend plugging both USB ends in at any one time. I do not know what will happen if they are.

NOTE: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN I DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIABLITY FOR YOUR CLIX OR CABLES. I WILL NOT REPLACE THEM.

I used a USB plug for the fact that your computer regulates the voltage and amperage to some degree so that it helps reduce the risk of damaging your clix you can add any end you want but beware of voltage and amperage before you plug it in.
This worked for me hope you enjoy

i will answer any questions if you need help. It might be a little while before I get to answer your question but i will answer it.

[sleepytime]

I'm thinking you can't transfer files to the Clix while this is occuring. Correct?

[clieos]

What is the blue cable for anyway? i know the usb clix used are not standard, but normally the 2nd pin (blue cable, next to 5V) is not in use. The blue cable also pinned to another pin in socket, which has nothing to do with data and power, what is it?

[mincho/Cheddar]

maybe some pics would be nice.

[flor de snor]

frank and val, you're me hero! ...
I'm going to test this once I get my clix .. (by the end of the month)

[frank and val]

not sure on transfering like i said I was not willing to plug both in. I pinned out the wires on the clix, the data cable, and a charger that would work but it appllied too much voltage almost 6V. after tracing the wires in both I found that the blus wire and the black would work for charging.

[frank and val]

the only thing that I could think the blue cable would be for is charging maybe certain USB chargers us the BLUE wire to charge with verses the red and black. I really don't know just shooting in the dark. I do know that it works though.

I'm trying to get some PICs posted but it might take a while. My cam is messe up if someone does this try to take pics of it as i don't know when i will be able to add pics

[clieos]

So you went for the trial and error approach.. good job nevertheless, Thanks!

[frank and val]

note be care full with the wires they are very small and easy to break espcially when taking the coating off each wire on the clix cable.

i'm trying to figure some more on it I got some intresting test results and some odd things when trying to pin out the clix. it seems if a couple of pins are shorted it will turn the clix on, and if other ones are shorted it will almost reset the clix, it will give you the black screen when you plug it in the computer odd very odd bt still works fine.

[cj.ruggles]

Hi all,

I have just successfully performed the above procedure on my Clix cradle USB cable and can confirm that it works! Funtionality is as follows:

- The unit will charge from any USB port
-- I use a USB-mains adapter like this (http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.sto...uct/View/M9936)
- You can use the Clix while charging (in my case, the cradle will play through it's in-built speakers)
- The charging icon animates quite a bit quicker than usual
- You can use the on/off button on the remote to turn it off - when it is off you will see the black "Charging..." screen (I don't know if this means that it is actually off or just sleeping)
- The radio will still not work in the cradle (receive "This menu is not available in the cradle" message)

Nice work frank and val, this was the one bug-bear I had with the Clix!

[traut]

So there's a fifth cable connected to the clix which somehow holds the "I may charge" information?

Any info of the pinout, which of these cables goes to which pin?

The Clix / U10 got a 25pin connector, while the cable holdes 5 wires.

USB got ground, +5V, data + and data -. Shielding should be connected to ground.

From your article I learn:

Clix cable color:
BLUE: +5 V (USB cable: red, Pin: 1)
BLACK: 0 V ground (USB cable: black Pin: 4)
RED
GREEN
WHITE

Two of the others should hold data + (USB cable: green, Pin: 3) / data - (USB cable: white, Pin: 2). Any idea which is where and what?

But my major question still is: which purpose do the others have. This would require an analysis of the cradle. Most interesting: which one is line in...

[clieos]

cj.ruggles, nice work on testing out all of the function, Thanks.

[kitkatneko]

Maybe someone may come with a full pinout of the U10/clix cabling...
Like where the speakers I/O pins are and such

that would be super useful.

[raremind71]

frank and val,
I was reading through this post and was astonished that the CLIX cable had five wires, so I took a look for myself. Sure enough it did, the funny thing is no USB port made has five connectors. Standard USB is Black = Ground, Red = +5 VDC, Green = D+(Data Up), White = D-(Data Down), So why would there be a fifth blue wire? I took apart the adapter end and low and behold Blue is not pinned to power the red wire is. It seems that blue wire is pinned to a charge only pin on the connector. But here is the kicker, If you look inside the USB end of the Clix cable there are five connectors, like I said before no USB port has five connectors. So with a stripped USB Cable I touched the red cable to the Mysterious fifth pin (it's in between the ground and the D-) and the black wire to the ground pin. I get the exact same results you get, it charges without connecting. So it would seem that there very well may be an adapter that allows you to charge only. All I can say is the Iriver engineers are some sneaky bastards. I am looking into making a USB adapter to tap that fifth pin. If anyone want to help please let me know.

[xinzhitan14]

Originally Posted by cj.ruggles

Hi all,

I have just successfully performed the above procedure on my Clix cradle USB cable and can confirm that it works! Funtionality is as follows:

- The unit will charge from any USB port
-- I use a USB-mains adapter like this (http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.sto...uct/View/M9936)
- You can use the Clix while charging (in my case, the cradle will play through it's in-built speakers)
- The charging icon animates quite a bit quicker than usual
- You can use the on/off button on the remote to turn it off - when it is off you will see the black "Charging..." screen (I don't know if this means that it is actually off or just sleeping)
- The radio will still not work in the cradle (receive "This menu is not available in the cradle" message)

Nice work frank and val, this was the one bug-bear I had with the Clix!

i got that charger at DSE the other day, and it didnt work unless the clix is completely discharged. =(

[Pick-up-Clix]

What are the chances they will release a firmware fix for this? It's my first Iriver product so I can only guess..

[traut]

Originally Posted by raremind71

But here is the kicker, If you look inside the USB end of the Clix cable there are five connectors, like I said before no USB port has five connectors. So with a stripped USB Cable I touched the red cable to the Mysterious fifth pin (it's in between the ground and the D-) and the black wire to the ground pin. I get the exact same results you get, it charges without connecting. So it would seem that there very well may be an adapter that allows you to charge only. All I can say is the Iriver engineers are some sneaky bastards. I am looking into making a USB adapter to tap that fifth pin. If anyone want to help please let me know.

You say there's a fifth pin within the USB-A plug? Or is this cable tied to one of the others, e.g. via a 100 kOhm resistor to Ground? If there's a pin within the plug, I'd welcome a picture.
was done on a scanner directly.

Do you have any chance to measure resistance or direction (e.g. whether there's a diode in between) between this red 'charge clix' wire and any of the others.

I read from your posting that you verified the correct other colors and pinning:

Clix cable color:
BLUE: +5 V (USB cable: red; Pin: 1)
BLACK: 0 V ground (USB cable: black; Pin: 4)
RED
GREEN: D+ (USB cable: green; Pin 3)
WHITE: D- (USB cable: white; Pin 2)

Did you find the matching pins on the 25 pins clix side?

[clieos]

Originally Posted by xinzhitan14

i got that charger at DSE the other day, and it didnt work unless the clix is completely discharged. =(

You must perform 'the above procedure' first (short the extra pin) or else it wont work.

[Fielious23]

I have had My clix for a littel while and I to am interested in charging with out the computer. I thank you for the labeling of the wires. I did notice somting though is wat if you find cell phone charger with the same conecter. My Mom has one and it fits but does not charge. and she won't let me cut it up to try . Next time I got to a store I will look for a charger with the cable and leave a post.

[goonieg]

Hey Guys...I have the pinouts from the AFT-200 FM Transmitter...
There are 6 wires in connected to the pins.
Blue and Purple
Red
Green
Yellow
and Black.
Hopefully you guys can read the pinouts from this diagram.






Connectivity is as follow:
With the negative probe of a multimeter on the first mentioned wire:
Red is connected to Blue/Purple
Blue/Purple is NOT connected to Red
(the above doesn't really make sense to me, as the voltage is -5V...so doesn't that rule out a diode?!??..I don't know, perhaps someone more "electrically inclided" can explain it?)

Black is connected to Green
Green is connected to Black
Black is connected to Yellow
Yellow is connected to Black
Yellow is connected to Green
Green is connected to Yellow

So, if you want to make your own charger, you'll probably only have to worry about pins 2, 4 and 5

If you're in canada, you can find cell phone tips for the LG phone that is the same connector as the clix. They have it at "The Source by circuit city". Its about $10. I bought one, and you can open it up, hack it to remove the pins (there are 4), solder wires onto them, and place them where you want. You guys may want to look into it if you wan't to make a charger without using your cable that came with the device.

As for the black, green and yellow cables. I'm not sure what they are...Most likely they are line in to the FM Transmitter so it can transmit sound, but I havent put a speaker on the wire to try it out.

[traut]

Thanks - that's good news.

Did you build the graphic of the plug your own?

Hm, I checked myself now and have very different results.

A) my spacing of the plug is different. I'd say the notches are above pins 2/3/4, above 12/13 and above 19/20/21 instead of your drawing with 2/3, 16/17 and 22.

It's not that easy to identify the right pin - thus I did not count from one, but from the according notches. This may be wrong by one pin more or less. (edit: I just opened the screws of the plug by now - pins can be identified easily this way).

My results:

Ground (USB pin 4 black) is on shield and 2, 12, 19 and 24
V_BUS (USB pin 1 red,) is on 16 (but not 4/5 - I guess this is also the explanation for faster charge than USB permits)
D- (USB pin 2 white) is on 10
D+ (USB pin 3 green) is on 15

And the surprise mentionned before: There's an extra contact within the USB plug, between 1 and 2, which is connected to 4 and 5 (as shown in the image above named as +5V, the blue charge wire)

[traut]

Thanks for the LG phone info - I would not have seen a match while looking at e.g. http://pinouts.ru/connector/24_pin_L...onnector.shtml. The notches there are much narrower (one pin only instead of 3)

They name: