Make Your Own On-The-Go (OTG) USB Cable

By Make: Editors
Time Required: 1–3 Hours 
Difficulty: Easy

Print this Project

In order for your Android phone or tablet to host a USB device such as an Arduino, you need an On-The-Go (OTG) USB cable. You can buy these for a few bucks online, but if you have an old USB cable around it’s easy and more fun to make one!

Steps

Step #1:

NextPrev

All you need are two donor USB cables, one with a female type A end like you’d find on a USB extension cable (shown in the first photo here) and one with a male micro B end (second photo). When you’re finished, you’ll have a cable that plugs into your phone on one side and accepts a standard USB cable on the other.
First, cut your 2 donor cables to expose the red, black, white, and green wires within, and strip the insulation off the tips.
Match up the wire colors from both sides of your soon-to-be Frankencable and solder them together. Insulate the soldered joints from each other using shrink tubing, electrical tape, or hot glue. Don’t forget to connect the braided shielding as well — that’s the uninsulated stranded wire that surrounds the 4 colored wires.

Make: Editors

perry

one end a 3.5 audio, 2female rca, s-video other end 10 pin round
Radoslav Gulik

I like, if someone spread those how-tos through the internet. Chinese (eBay, dx,..) cables are somethimes only straight (only 1st step of this how-to), so sometimes we need to do something by our hands. thanks for this!
Tom Monfort

I have an adapter that came in a package to adapt a retractable USB to the various mini/micro USB connectors that have been in use over the last few years. It has one that plugs into the micro USB on my Motorola Xoom and a standard male USB to plug into the retractable USB, which has a female USB and male USB. I also have a female to female USB adapter. The adapter package came from Walmart 3 or 4 years ago and the female to female from mcmelectronics.com. So, for those of you that are all thumbs, Walmart and the web can save you from the possibility of getting wires crossed and creating new problems for less than $20.
- Tony Ahn Jr
  
  If your goal is to create an OTG cable, this won’t work. Pins 4&5 on the Micro-USB end must be jumpered (ie grounded).
Kitty Cat

Instead of buying a soldering iron, I just taped a small piece of tin foil on and it worked fine
- annonymous
  
  that’s one way to do it but it may be a problem if you start plugging out USB and accidently sripping the wires and making a short circuit directly on your phone
Tony Ahn Jr

WRONG Instructions. This will result in a “standard” USB pass-through cable. A properly configured OTG cable has pins 4 & 5 jumpered on the micro-USB end.
- BurgersBytes
  
  It is moron!
- Angelo
  
  Can’t you read? Obviously, you only read step 1. In step 3, he clearly states that pins 4 and 5 must be soldered together. There is even a little diagram!
- John Daniels
  
  The very first thing you should do when you open one of these how-tos is click on view all steps. Then you don’t run into these kinds of misunderstandings.
Samuel Denty

It wont work as Tony Ahn Jr said!
- Angelo
  
  Don’t youyou people read? Step 3 in the instructions alreadt said to solder pins 4 and 5 together. Get it? It WILL work!
لوازم جانبی موبایل

tnx a lot see our site too:

http://www.digimobileco.ir/
beatriz

I have a usb 64 GB for android leef brand the problem is that my phone is a galaxy S6 that also is compatible with this drive but my phone do not recognized it I am trying to transfer photos fron my phone to the computer can you help
- TechGuy
  
  How is the Oneplus OTG wired as I believe it has a resistor involved as it is non OTG standard and most otg adaptors don’t work.
- John Daniels
  
  If I’m understanding your problem correctly, search the Play Store for USB OTG software. I think there is locked and unlocked versions of the software. This will allow your nonOTG phone to use OTG devices.
  
  Consider using punctuation. It makes sentences easier to read.
Edward Smith

Now if only we could get this for USB type C.
Tim Osborn

If I’m making this for my new Raspberry Pi Zero, do I need to short pins 4 and 5?
- kedwa30
  
  Yes.
Bruno Miguel

Is it possible to have 2 standard usb to one micro? So i can connect a keyboard and a mouse?
- kedwa30
  
  I just saw an adapter like that which has a built in two port hub, so it seems to me that a hub would be required.
Mondie

Can the old Apple ADB connector be upgraded or changed to USB?
- kedwa30
  
  Yes, you can cut off the connector from the cable and wire the wires to a USB type A male and also swap out the female part with a female USB type A and this will allow you to have a more robust connector since “The mini-DIN connector is only rated for 400 insertions and it is easy to bend a pin if not inserted with caution; in addition, the socket can become loose, resulting in intermittent function.” You should be aware, though, that a USB keyboard will not work as an ADB keyboard even if the connectors are changed out. In order to avoid accidentally plugging a USB device into the modified ADB input, you might choose some other type of connector instead such as a headphones jack scavenged from an old MP3 player. You could even build a custom connector using some bullet connectors that you arrange into a particular shape and mold together with hot glue or epoxy. The USB type B would also be an excellent choice.
  - David Nist
    
    Kedwa – You rock!
    
    Looking through this old thread, some of the respondents seem to have forgotten what the word “Make” in the URL is all about… I mean, anybody can hit a Walmart price drop and pick up a whole crowd of adapters for any myriad of situations…
    
    Done, done, and done…
    
    But it’s a whole ‘nuther kettle of fish when one takes this ‘very simple’ example and uses it as a teaching opportunity: as was the case with me and my son.
    
    It was a couple of years ago…
    
    … having just finished up with what is now referred to as the ‘Galaxy Note-3 Hot-Rod project,’ we went looking for our next ‘Make.’ — And somehow, I stumbled on this article.
    
    Long story short, after reading through all the steps, we jumped in with both feet and went cable crazy there for awhile, because at last count we had 17 of those suckers, all configured for just about any low-power need one can imagine. (LOL)
    
    My favorite though, has to be the one we built to serve pwr/com via a modified USB/micro cable to a hard drive pulled from a salvaged laptop.
    
    That very same cable splits, also providing pwr/comm to a very early Rev.1 “headless” Raspberry Pi that’s used as a portable Android/Linux Dev environment.
    
    That whole ‘make’ cost $34.00 for the Pi, and about 5 man-hours to put it all together. It’s fast, stable, it’s small, it runs on anything USB, and is barely bigger than a couple of decks of cards.
    
    But the REALLY cool thing? — The idea for it, started with this very thread.
    
    Almost two years ago!
    
    I’m always very appreciative when I see helpful posts and comments like yours keeping these older threads alive and kicking. -One just never knows what kind of impact it’ll have on future readers.
    
    So thank-you Kedwa.
    
    Keep up the good work!
  - David Nist
    
    Here’s a couple of screenshots of my hotrod.
    
    She may only be 32-bit stock hardware, but she records video at a full 60FPS.
    
    Beat that Note 8!!
    
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0bc4103ba28afe539c7585e4db1b7a302e7563bc977c1cd06daaed9b609b33a6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f954195f59200da8c44dcb722e7540a3e6cab01d5d27bdd4b49e731c58178dd9.jpg
Bonnie

Find a very good otg and charging cable for samsung and other device.
DECEC Multifunction Micro OTG USB Charging Keyring Style Cable
http://www.amazon.com/DECEC-Multifunction-Micro-Charging-Keyring/dp/B00Z97FEWI
Urme Jahan

10 Amazing things i can do by OTG cable. Really this video make my life so simple
Carrie Graham

You rock, bacon-saver. Totally rock. Thank you :-) I need to access data on my cracked zenfone. I had no idea this Frankencable thingamawhammydoodle existed, so I’m pulling out the xacto and electrical tape now.
Ronald Johnson

hate to break it to you guys but… Most of the vendors today are making their cables so cheap, or so reverse engineering incompatible that you will destroy the cable attempting to modify it. I recently purchased a dollar store unit. With the exception of the metal connector and the solder to clip, it was molded entirely in one piece. It would be helpful if people started posting their observations. Mine was a dollar general MicroB ribbon cable. The plastic ends are molded straight through the wire solder points. Finally, they leave the electrical pin, but terminate it at the end so it doesn’t find it’s way back to be soldered. None of the wires were color coded.
- kedwa30
  
  Good point. It’s probably a better idea to make the pin 5 connection on the outside with some foil rather than risk destroying the micro connector. Of course for a reliable cable it will be best to just buy one, but I envision these instructions being used mostly for impromptu emergency situations like when a phone’s touch screen stops working and they need to gain quick access to their phone by connecting a mouse. Connecting pin 5 externally with some foil will be easier than chopping open the connector, but of course will not hold together for multiple uses. If it’s not an emergency situation and you still want the satisfaction of making your own cable, the connectors can be ordered from Mouser or the like. :D
  I think it would be neat to have one with a switch so that the shunt to ground on pin 5 can be broken or connected as needed.
Sam Hammonds

We have literally spent the whole day in the office making some of these here at http://akjservices.co.uk/
kedwa30

I just had the idea to connect two USB micro, short the pin 5 on one and not the other, then use this to charge one phone from another phone. Whichever phone you plug the one with the shorted pin 5 will be the source which will charge the other. I’m guessing the phone being charged can be off but the phone sending the juice may need to be on. I will have to experiment to see.

I’m also thinking about what if someone is in a situation where they crack the screen on their phone to the point they can’t unlock the lock screen and they don’t have access to a mouse but they have another phone. There might be a way to use the good phone to emulate a mouse so that they can gain access to the data without having to obtain a mouse. Unfortunately it seems a custom app will need to be written so that the good phone can send mouse data over its USB port. All the mouse emulator apps I’ve seen so far are specifically to work wirelessly; even the An2An app. :(

Make: and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. | Privacy | Terms

Get the Magazine

Make: is the voice of the Maker Movement, empowering, inspiring, and connecting Makers worldwide to tinker and hack. Subscribe to Make Magazine Today!

Sign up for the Make: Newsletter

Stay inspired, keep making.

We are all makers

Make: Magazine

Maker Faire

Maker Shed

Maker Share

About Make:

Make: Projects

Parts

Tools

Steps

Step #1:

Step #2:

Step #3:

Step #4:

Make: Editors

Get the Magazine

Sign up for the Make: Newsletter

POPULAR SEARCHES:

Make: Projects

Make Your Own On-The-Go (OTG) USB Cable

Parts

Tools

Steps

Step #1:

Step #2:

Step #3:

Step #4:

Make: Editors

Explore Making

Our Company

Follow Us

Sign Up

Follow Us

Sign Up

Make:

Explore Making

Our Company

Welcome to the Make: Community!

You might also like these newsletters:

Maker Pro

Maker Faire

Make: Education

Awesome!

Awesome!

We've got it.

Thank you!

Get the Magazine

Sign up for the Make: Newsletter