this sunday we bring you a DIY PSP USB charger. Say you don’t drive, but have a car charger laying around that is 5V and will satisfy the PSP’s power needs. you should take that charger and hack the end off and replace it with a male usb cable. this way you can charge pretty much anywhere you might find a usb port. especially handy if you’re going to be in a computer lab or you’re at a friend’s house and the PSP dies after hours of metal gear acid. it’s a fairly simple hack, but a very useful one.
Um… This has been done for the DS as well… quite an easy hack… for more info visit
http://mods.greenmangames.vze.com
Is connecting a red and black wire really a hack?
its handy to know the basics are covered, keep it up guys
seriously? we go from building a couple of robots that’ll do it like…. robots to cutting two wires and soldering them on. i think this should’ve been put on a hackaday links because it can be helpful, but you know someone had a choice between this and a “serious” hack
“It’s a fairly simple hack, but a useful one.”
The fact that this isn’t a horny robot is not lost on Vince.
I have a question, though–what about the voltages? I’m not the sort that messes with electronics at all, but I do know that if the power levels for the USB-out and the PSP-in are different that it could cause problems. I’ve had both a discman and a bass amp fried by my brother and his idiot friends plugging stuff into them that weren’t meant to be (a different voltage-rated AC power plug and a CD player into the input of the amp, respectively). I assume this does work, but how do you know it won’t kill your hideously expensive PSP? Just curious.
It’s a useful hack. Not every hack is going to involve putting linux on something!
I would say though, that the picture looks like it was taken by Roger Patterson (Bigfoot reference).
For it to be USB it has to adhere to the standard, which states that the voltage levels are 5V at up to 500mA(?).
car 12v to psp 5v ???
guys. The output for the car charger is five volts and the usb connection is fine.
I know, the camera is shoddy. This is what I get for purchasing a cheap webcam to use. I’d get new pics very soon, my buddy has snatched the cable away before I could get a “good” shot of it.
I’ve tested this on a old cd player I had lying around. It works perfectly. =)
you don’t really need a 5v car charger to do this. all you need is a spare usb cable and the terminal that plugs into the psp supplying the 5v. You can get this at radioshack for about 2 bucks.
He doesn’t use the circuit in the 12v –> 5v car charger anyway. it wouldn’t make sense.
So why buy the $15 car charger when you can do without it?
This is useful if you have a spare usb cable and adapter cable lying around.
If you don’t, might as well buy a REAL usb cable charger for the psp. $15.
for eric:
so what your comment is “we don’t need additional circuit to transform the voltage or protect our psp”, it’s unecessary to waste the money… right?
thanks for your opinion.
Would a motorola razr car charger work? the phone uses a usb plug to charge it.
The USB voltage is correct (5v) for the PSP, but I just looked at my AC charger, and it’s rated 5VDC @ 2A …. 2amps… USB can only supply 500mA.. So you plug that sucker in and you then dont have a computer because it fried the 5V rail. Sorry, no sale. Word of advice, go buy the right one. Don’t make this piece of junk.
This just saved my butt.
How would I have been able to put off going to bed without a psp power supply?
thnx, keep it up.
hey one question how can i adapt a usb connection to charger a nokia cellphone, i have tried the same thing u have listed but i have had no luck, i got the LT to turn off once, and the phone just beeps and five seconds later it says “not charging” i have tried to disconnect some wires, but no luck. i would apriciate any advice to keep me going, i don’t want to give up and just order one, so any help will be good.
i have a cd player charger that fits into the psp socket, but it’s 6v. would it still matter even though the psp is 5v?
matt is right.
for this to really work without destroying anything expensive, you need a 5V@500mA to 5V@2A transformer. It might be expensive and it’ll be a real hassle to find one, but the coolness factor might be worth it.
btw: the psp should have a REAL usb port so that you could charge it with that. i’ve forgotten the name of it, but it’s the kind you use for printers and scanners. The one that they sell you is hackish.
Some of the comments for this hack show exactly why it’s needed – i.e. people have NO IDEA when it comes to power.
The car charger is rated to 2A, the USB port to 500mA. All that will happen is that the PSP could possibly draw more than the USBs 500mA – at which point the PSP may start questioning the the power supply, turn off, or give a warning. You can’t fry the motherboard.
Just because something is ‘rated’ at a certain amperage, doesn’t mean it will draw that full capacit 100% of the time. Do you think you brand new shiny power supply rated at 450W is upplying that much to the motherboard the whole time? No – it probably won’t reach that at any time. if you load up your computer with as many accessories as possible, and ask it to perform multiple task you might come close for short bursts, but not continuously.
Hey i made a charger-usp plug all in one….. i took the charger plug and connected the black and red wires together then i took the usb and connected the red and black to the charger and the male usb….. then connected the green and white wires together….works fine…great ideia…..thanks hack a day……i tested it on my mp3 player (philips micro audio jukebox) and it works perfect! i am sooo happy….
what are you talking about?
btw i am trying to make a battery pack inside of a N64 game. If i use 6v of AA batteries (4) and a 1000k resistor shouldn’t it work? Please email me @ souldierofwar@gmail.com
the usb wire has a red green black andwhite wires and charges wire doesnt so its not working
it works on my psp
why dont u just hook up a 9 volt battery to the car charger using headphone wires .. that way u dont have to hack off the end and can still charge it even without having a usb port around … and btw some digital cable boxes have usb ports which are also good for charging
I am putting a 5.2v car charger from an old cell phone to use as a charger. It output 5.2v, ~900mah (roughly) will the >5v fry my psp?
Thank you for the idea. Well I didn’t use a usb cable, I used 2 chargers. One was a jvc adapter. I used the plug that connects to my psp. then i used a model cnr-4000 ac adapter. I used the plug that connects to the wall. it output dc5v. I cut both cables in half, and reconected the 2 I needed. I was afraid it was going to blow my psp. But guess what? it worked, and i’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now with no problem. If you need pix, email me hexagram85@sbcglobal.net so I can prove it to you.
I want to make a usb chager with my usb cable but it has 5 wire yello,blue,red,brown,white how do i do it useing these.ps this is from the walmart starter kit
hey you guys may be able to help me..im desperate..
I have a KIRRIO Tungsten E2 GPS cradle and the in car charger is fooked. (part : KRCLA1).
How can i get hold of another one or can i adjust another 5.2 volt car charger and how do i do it.
please help me as i am in dire need.
The kirrio site has gone down – permanently and i cant get anothe rone…the end of the wire is different to any i have ever seen before.
Cheesie
oh and where can i find a 5.2 volt in car charger to do it?
You only need the plug and cord from the car charger..
You can also do mobile charger with 4 AA chargeable batteries and then solder a usb connector to em ect..
what happens if the plug which goes into the ciggy socket is the problem?
i have the cord and the adapter…please help.
You can also do mobile charger with 4 AA chargeable batteries and then solder a usb connector to em ect
HOW DO I DO THIS? any one help me?
i made this and my psp just switches off?
it will only fry the rail if you conect the green and white cables together my advice is that when you make this mod cut the green and white cables off so your olny left with a red and black cabe which makes more sense really if u think about it…!!!!!
ps oh by the way it frys because the green and white cables shoundnt touch or it will short circuit and fry ur usb rail compleatly hope i help…..
Thanks to the author, it works great! Saves me on those days in school…
Well how come the pelican chargers dont work???Or do they? if u open it u see a chip and blue and black wires…Would those work?
it did not work with my psp
what should i do with the white and green wire email me at gadgetman94@hotmail.com thank for your help
Guis, first excuse if my english is not so good, second, use this with no fear, the output of the PSP AC Adapter is corect 2000mAh/2Ah, that means that the battery will charge faster and nothing else, actualy the USB Charger is safer because it does not have the power (Amperrage per Hour) to stress the battery pack, so in the end the USB Charger (Homemade or not) is better for Battery Life (Charge Cicles) than the Sony AC Adapter, ask any electronist and it will tel you the same thing, A BATTERY LIVES LONGER WHEN IS CHARGED SLOWLY, keep it up, USE HOME MADE THINGS :P.
http://cgi.ebay.com/UNIVERSAL-Laptop-Notebook-DC-CAR-Charger-Power-Adapter_W0QQitemZ270243022419QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270243022419&_trkparms=72%3A552%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
me funciono de mil maravillas solo conecte el cable rojo y negro al los de el conector de psp y listo psp cargando 100% exito en mi pais el cargador original es muy caro aproximadamente 30 dolares lo que en argentina equivale a 100 pesos asi que esto si es una gran solucion muchas gracias….
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My little brother has had his PSP Slim 300x for almost a year now. The original charger had gone bad, and I didn’t want him running out to my car or my parents car to charge his PSP. What an inconvenience.
So, Googling around, I came across this website. I was skeptical at first, knowing that USB only puts out 500mA @ 5v on most desktop computers. While this isn’t what the original charger puts out (not by a long shot! The original charger put out 1500mA @ 5v!), it is enough to charge the PSP just fine.
It will charge slower, and more efficiently. I’ve been using the cable I made with this guide for almost a month now and have noticed that the PSP actually lasts longer on a full battery. (Used to be about 3 hours. Now its over 5 hours!)
However, there is a drawback. DO NOT plug this cable into a laptop computer while the PSP is plugged in. Most laptops only supply 200mA @ 5v. When I plugged it into my laptop to charge his PSP, my laptop went haywire with USB “overcharge” errors. (In Mac OS X. I’m not entirely sure what would happen in Windows. It may just burn up the USB hub!)
I unplugged it really quickly, luckily not burning up my laptop USB hub.
So, to those of you claiming that this doesn’t work, or somehow bricked your PSP, you must’ve failed at following directions.
Here are some tips I’ve found while creating this cable:
I clipped off the adaptor that plugs into the PSP from the charger. (The little round adaptor with the yellow end.) Then stripped the wires. Pay attention to the wire insulation! If you look, one of the wires has little white hashmarks all along the wire insulation. THIS IS THE GROUND WIRE! Be sure to connect this to the ground wire on the USB cable!
Because of the comments here, I decided to try this with two different USB cables. Some have said that using the Green/White wires in the USB cable would cause the cable to function improperly. I tried this way originally, with success. Being ambitious however, I made another while using the Green/White wires. It also worked just fine. So using the Green/White cables has NO effect on whether or not this will charge your PSP. (At least, in my limited testing it did not.)
Some things I’ve noticed about this cable:
My friend has a fat PSP. THIS CABLE WILL NOT CHARGE YOUR FAT PLAYSTATION PORTABLES!!! (In his case, it would charge for a half second, then completely shut off. Then repeat the process.)
You can plug this into your PS3 and it will charge the PSP while you’re playing CoD: MW2!
Mac OS X (10.5.8) sees the Memory Stick Duo inside the PSP, however I cannot modify the contents of the memory stick. It doesn’t show up as an external drive like most memory sticks, however it does show inside “System Profiler”. While I own a Windows computer, I have not tried this on it. I’ve always used my MacPro which does not boot Windows, or I use my PS3.
you need be careful and read the the charger has the same amount of mini amps or the you are gonna be dameshing the battery. o the polarity of the wires is very important is easier if you have a voltage meter on hand. just be careful or you will create a short. dameshing the eletronics and electrocuiting your self.
Saw your Blog bookmarked on Reddit.I love your site and marketing strategy. Check out my website if you get a chance, just click on name. (I don’t want to leave a link, it looks too spammy)
the spring broke in memo stick reader should it still read the stick
I don’t know if you’d be able to help, but I used the PSP charger for my camera, and now my camera isn’t turning or charging, but it will turn on when I put the PSP charger back in. You have any idea why that is?
Thanks.
This works fine. Please read comment made further up by Alin – (who said his english not so good but is just fine.) – He KNOWS what he is talking about.
This may seem unrelated but is relevant…
Once got this dist.pedal for my guitar when i was 19, Marshall JackHammer. Manual said ‘ use 9v 300mA ac adaptor. So i bought one. From a proper electrics shop not a chain like Curry’s. It stopped working after 2 months. Went to shop and said: ‘ it just stopped working ‘. The guy in the electrics shop asked me what i used it with and i told him. He said: ‘ if you use a device with 300mA requirement you should use a power source with a larger mA value, in this case 500mA would be better for you as the mA value is resistance , not power. The voltage is the power and the amperage the resistance. Always use a power source with the same Voltage as that required and a larger amperage / mA value than that required by the device.’ So I got the 500mA adaptor and I’m still using with no problems and that was 7 years ago… …
I bought a cheap charger for my PSP just over 2 months ago on ebay. It stopped working also. It was 5v but only 500mA. Got a replacement cheap adaptor from ebay. 5v but 2A / 2000mA. Comes with a year warranty. And again, yes, the USB cable idea works. I had a USB mini vacuum cleaner, got from the pound shop. Chopped USB plug an the lead off. Chopped the plug and most of lead off the burnt out charger. Both these cables were basically the same inside, one red wire one white wire. (one cable had 1 red and 1 black, the other had 1 red and 1 white.)
I twisted the red from each cable together and the black from each together ( well, black to white actually ).
Works fine. I haven’t seen anyway say they had done it this way which is so simple so thought i’d say. Anyway, gotta go back to work now. Happy wiring… Neil
hey i plug a tmobile model;tc p310 ac adapter output 5v 1a with usb razor and hooked it to my psp usb port and it worked fine …well next day i went to play it and was checkin it out and open the memory card slot and took battery out as well …now it doesnt want to turn on ..i just got it and didnt have the correct charger ….so is there anything u suggest i do before i start spending money on it to see what the problem is///thank u
Found this via google for “psp charge via usb” and I just wanted to add a comment about the laptop 200ma output “overcharge” situation. It’s just windows telling you that you’re exceeding the power draw that the usb device is willing to give. I believe it’s actually to the tune of “USB Hub power exceeded”. If you click the balloon instead of freaking it, it will suggest other ports that do have enough available power. I’ve seen laptops with a single full power USB port and other low-power ports.
I can duplicate this by using a 25ft USB extension, G15 keyboard, and trying to use almost anything in the keyboard’s USB ports. =)