I bought an iAudio X5L 30GB MP3 player. great features with one major engineering failure. To either charge the unit or transfer data with a computer via USB, you are required to use an add-on dongle that plugs into the bottom of the unit.
Now, this device has the ability to charge over USB and it also has a USB port built into itself, yet the makers decided that the built-in plug would be perfect for the "USB Host" feature; the ability to plug in a device(camera) and download its contents into itself -- and you can not charge it via this port. This is the number 1 complaint I have read on the 'net regarding this player, and I decided to do something about it for myself.
The logic: When, if ever I wanted to use the Host feature, I need to plug a USB mini-standard dongle in because any USB device comes with the standard USB plug to use on your computer. So, if I am going to have to use a dongle for that, anyway, I may as well keep it with the other dongle needed for AC charging. If the built-in one could be used as the computer/USB charging port that would be most supreme, since all you need is a standard USB-mini cable and nothing more. You can put new songs on it and charge it with just the unit itself, making it truely portable.
Now it is time to void my warranty. I popped open my unit to investigate any extra room I may have for wires/addons, and check out the possibility of re-wring the two ports.
I forgot to take true pre-pictures to show the unit unaltered. A battery was soldered onto the board, and a grounding wire to the MIC/Headphone daughter board was removed. Here are the pins for the 2 ports. The pins from the Host port (1) and dongle (2) have been de-soldered and pulled up. You only need to do 3 of the pins because ground is common so you just need 3 per port, data plus, data minus and power. Looking at the Host side, the power (+5) is not connected? as for the dongle end, a simple continuity tester was used to get the correct pinout. (from this view, leftmost being 1; pins 1-2 = GND, 3-4 = DATA+, 5-6 = DATA-, 7-8 = VCC)
You need a fine-tipped iron, good eyes and a steady hand for this, it is not for real amateurs!
Since I was able to successfully de-solder the pins and had ample room to solder in wires, I decided to go for it. I was thinking I should use stranded wire for its flexibility so as not to rip any traces off or break pins. That was semi-right... CAUTION Use as flexible a wire as you can. If you lose the traces you may never be able to use your iAudio properly again!
still writing.. i'm lazy
