MP3 player - charging

Feb 11, 2008 7 Replies

I have a Sony NWD B103F MP3 player that is designed to charge its battery through a USB computer connection.


I don't always have a computer with me when I want to use the MP3 player, so I have tried to charge the battery by simply connecting a regulated 5 volts to the correct USB power pins (Pins 1 and 4, with no connections to pins 2 and 3). However, this does not work with the B103F. It seems that it is necessary to more closely simulate a USB port, presumably with voltages (or no voltages) on the USB data pins (Pins 2 and 3).


Does anyone know how this can be done, please?


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Try this.

Cheers TT

PS You can get car cigarette lighter ones as well

Some devices require an actual USB handshake before they start drawing enough power to charge - This is the USB spec. Unfortunately, that requires a complete USB host controller in the charger. Every charger that I've seen is just a dumb +5V supply, so some polite devices can't be charged.

Cheers, Nicholas Sherlock

Thank you, Nicholas, and thank you also, TT, for your informative responses. It seems that building (or even buying) a suitable USB charger is not a simple matter. I will just have to continue relying on a computer to keep the B103F charged.

Regards Bob

Did you try the DSE unit I suggested and it didn't work? I know it works with iPods and Creative's Zen Touch.

Cheers TT

No, TT, I have not tried the DSE unit. It's quite reasonably priced and I would be quite happy to buy it, if it was certain to work. However I suspect that it does nothing more than providing 5 Volts to USB Pins 1 and

4, which I can easily do myself. I think that my Sony B103F may be much more fussy about its charging source than the iPods and Creative's Zen Touch.

When I originally Googled this topic I found that someone had built a charger by simulating a USB port with a network of resistors connected to the USB Data pins, but this did not work for me either - in fact, after trying this I needed to press the master reset button on the B103F to get it working again. This fussiness about its charging source may be a good reason for many people to avoid Sony MP3s. AFAIK Sony doesn't sell a charger for this unit.

Thanks anyway Bob

Remember that DSE's got a 14 day period for you to return something if it doesn't do what you want. If you've got time, you could try that approach.

Bob

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