On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:32:21 -0800, SMS
wrote in :

Franc Zabkar wrote:

Ah, so the Motorola mini-USB cable has 5 pins at both ends?

No. The Motorola charger uses a five pin mini-USB connector, the charger
is on the other end, and inside the charger there are connections
between the signals that the phone detects to determine that it's a
Motorola charger.

The five pin mini-USB to 4 pin USB A cable used to plug the phone into a
PC will only charge the phone when the Motorola Phone Tools software is
present.

If you use a power-only USB cable (no signal lines, just power and
ground) which do exist, then the phone won't charge from a USB port
because the phone will know that it's not plugged into a Motorola charger.

Similarly if you use a cable with all the signal lines, but plug it into
a power-only USB supply (12VDC to 5VDC USB cigarette lighter adapter,
110VAC to 5VDC USB adapter, or the USB power port on many 12VDC to
110VAC inverters) it won't charge the phone because the phone will know
it's not plugged into a Motorola charger. You could build a special
cable that simulates what's present inside the charger to get around
this, or you could modify the phone to get around this (people have done
both).

Or you could simply ignore this nonsense.

--
Very best wishes for the holiday season and for the coming new year,
John