Home » Wish-list: OTG cable with built in Charger

Wish-list: OTG cable with built in Charger

Hereby we are starting a new section on the website, called ‘Wishlist’. The purpose of the section is to add a list of gadgets and gizmos, or just enhancements that we’d like to see in our gadgets, whether it is hardware or software.

We start off with one of our favourite little add-ons to the Nexus 7 tablet, the OTG cable. The OTG cable allows users to add USB plug-in devices to your tablet. This could include anything from USB Keyboards and Mice, to USB Portable HDDs, or USB Memory Sticks for short. While you may have to add certain apps to view media from the said USB drive, the OTG cable works great, since you can plug in a USB Hub and attach a mouse, a keyboard, and a USB Drive to your tablet. The fact that they cost around a pound from most online retailers make them even better. The OTG cable not only works on most Android tablets, but also works on certain Android phones as well. You can also root a device to make it work.

So this is how we’d like to enhance them. The obvious problem is that if we have plugged the OTG cable into the micro-USB slot available on our Android tablet, we cannot charge it as well. This means that if you are on a journey watching a TV Series or a film or two, you just cannot plug your device in to be charged. This presents us with the obvious problem where your device runs out of battery. So we propose that somebody come up with an OTG cable that allows you to charge your device while you use the USB connectivity.

All somebody has to do now is build one. A quick search on the internet shows a few people have attempted this, but nothing conclusive has been posted. Give us a shout if you have a working model, or seen one on sale.

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One thought on “Wish-list: OTG cable with built in Charger

  1. This isn’t something than could be solved with a different OTG cable design. The problem is with how USB works and how it communicate with your android device. When an OTG cable is connected your device acts as the host to whatever you connected. It then supplies power to the connected “non host” device. It can’t send and receive power ant the same time. There are ways around this by tweaking the android OS somehow but I don’t know how to do that.

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