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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Alessandro on Fri, 31 August 2012, 10:25:34
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Hello everyone,
I recently finished giving my humble Choc Mini a detachable cable! The mod itself was relatively simple, and just required some basic soldering. It cost about £10 for all the various cables I needed (USB mini B extension, and internal USB motherboard cable). The board is now a lot easier to move with me, and no longer has its included bulky cable!
The only tools required were a soldering iron, some wire strippers and cutters, a craft knife and a hot glue gun. This took me about an hour, and would definitely take a lot less time for the more experienced out there! But it's a practical, simple mod that I'm happy with, and this can be adapted to almost any other keyboard if you'd like to do it!
Anyway, lets take a look! (Apologies in advance for some bad photos)
Here's the internal cable- pull it out! But remember to take a picture of the pin out so you remember where the wires go!
[attach=1]
I made the job a little easier for myself by using an internal USB header that already fit, here it is!
[attach=2]
Here's a bad photo of the cut and stripped wires, now lets get soldering!
[attach=3]
I've soldered and insulated the wires, now lets see if it works!
[attach=4]
It works! The test was a success! Now we can put the finishing touches on and get it all in the case.
[attach=5]
I've made a few small cuts to the inside of the case so that the mini B header will sit tight, and flush with the case.
[attach=6]
The header fits nicely!
[attach=7]
And there we go! Done! Here are the final photos.
[attach=8]
[attach=9]
There we go! This is a much better looking board without the bulky cable on the end! I hope this helps any of you looking to do the same thing, as it can be adapted for almost any other board!
Alessandro.
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No comments? D:
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Created an account just to say it looks awesome!
Ordered this keyboard and will most likely follow in your footsteps after I feel a little more comfortable modding it.
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Great documentation of your process. :) I'd love to do this, except I don't own a soldering iron nor have I ever done anything like this before. xD
Although if a. my cable breaks or b. I get a second keyboard so I have a backup, this would be one of the first things on my list to try on my Filco MJ2. It would be nice being able to port it around for use with my laptop - not possible now since it's wired down behind my table to my CPU, hence a big pain to remove.
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Created an account just to say it looks awesome!
Ordered this keyboard and will most likely follow in your footsteps after I feel a little more comfortable modding it.
Thanks! It was a really easy mod as the internal cable I got already fit perfectly!
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With your how-to I did this mod with my Qpad MK-50. It works very well and it's useful. I like it, thanks! :)
Unfortunately I didn't have such an internal USB header, so I had to cut the original cable and solder it to the USB port. It took a while, but it's fine now :)
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With your how-to I did this mod with my Qpad MK-50. It works very well and it's useful. I like it, thanks! :)
Unfortunately I didn't have such an internal USB header, so I had to cut the original cable and solder it to the USB port. It took a while, but it's fine now :)
Awesome! Nice work!
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I tried searching for the mini b header cable but can't find it anywhere. Do you know the exact name for it? I will probably buy it from Frys or Amazon. Thanks.
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I tried searching for the mini b header cable but can't find it anywhere. Do you know the exact name for it? I will probably buy it from Frys or Amazon. Thanks.
I just bought one in my local computer shop. What you need to look for is a mini B extension to cut the header from. This would do:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLOCK-cable-2-0mini-B-extension-82667/dp/B003VN0B0M/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_1
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Thanks for the reply. I ended up getting mine off ebay 2 for $5. Can't wait to get this project started on a couple of my boards!
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Awesome!
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Cool stuff! I just got my choc mini last night, how did you open yours up? I haven't really had a chance to inspect but at a glance I didn't see any screws.
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Cool stuff! I just got my choc mini last night, how did you open yours up? I haven't really had a chance to inspect but at a glance I didn't see any screws.
Use an old credit or loyalty card to separate the outer plastic frame from the inner one, there are just a couple of clips.
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Where did you get this ?
(http://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=35178.0;attach=3190;image)
I'm trying to fix my noppoo choc mini too. My old cable is screwed.
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It's this cable:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/60cm-akasa-usb-20-cable-header-(female)-to-type-a-(female)-cable-ideal-for-motherboards
I swapped out the full size external USB plug to a smaller type B by soldering. If you're not in the UK, the same cable will be easily available on ebay or amazon.
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Thanks a lot!! Now to the waiting game (again).
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Can i check whether this is the same with your keyboard
(http://i.imgur.com/iMVXb.jpg)
Because my device did not work the other time. I've decided to research more about the micro usb pin outs and whether I'm bridging all the connections to the right place.
http://from8to5.blogspot.sg/2008/11/usb-and-firewire-pinout.html
Comparing the pin outs, the micro usb female adaptor i have comes with 4 wires, the last wire is blue and the 3rd wire is black. Which sets me thinking whether my Noppoo choc mini follows the normal color coding. since the pin outs don't seem to match with the normal usb pin out format.
(http://pinouts.ru/connectors/usb_a_b_male.gif)
Pin Name Color Notes
1 VBUS Red Power
2 D- White Data -
3 D+ Green Data +
4 ID - Type A - GND: Type B - NC
5 GND Black Ground