Hello,

In my bedroom I prefer to keep the mains charger that came with my phone in there but in the living room as I don't have a mains socket close to my sofa and coffee table, I use a mains plug with USB socket and 1.5m long lead so I can keep my phone charged up while I am in the living room should I need to charge it.

The 1.5 metre USB extension lead plugs into the USB plug and then I have an adapter lead with USB plug on one end and 10 different power plug connectors on the other end such as mini USB, micro USB, Nokia phone connector and iphone connector.

That worked fine but the cable was only long enough to reach the floor below the left arm of the sofa.

I wanted to be able to have a cable long enough to place the phone much closer to me and be able to use my phone while charging.

To be able to hide the cable a bit, looking on ebay I found a retractable USB extension cable which extended to 1.7 metres from only 10 cm.

This was plugged into the 1.5 metre extension lead and the 10 connector adapter plugged on the end of the retractable lead.

What I found though is that the 'lightning' charge indicator was flashing when it should stay on while charging.

When I went on the battery status of the phone, it would alternate between Charging (AC) and Not Charging.

The original USB mains plug I had only had a 500mA output current so thought maybe if I bought a new plug with a higher output current (1000mA), it'll work.

Found it was exactly the same.

The only difference is whereas the metal shield is earthed on the other leads, the shield on the retractable lead isn't earthed.

Would this make a big difference?

If so, I have also tried connecting a micro USB to USB data cable up between my phone and the USB mains adapter and that too causes the lightning indicator to flash and there is no earth there between the metal shields.

Using a mutimeter, the retractable lead is wired exactly the same as my other extension leads.
I don't know exactly what pin is what on a USB plug, but with the plug/socket end facing you and the pins facing up, if you were to call the pins from left to right 1 to 4, it appears that pin 1 could be ground/negative and so with respect to pin 1, pin 2 has around 1.9-2.1 volts on it, pin 3 has around 2.5-2.6 volts on it and pin 4 has around 5.0-5.2 volts like you would expect on it.
On the two 1000mA USB mains plugs I have got, they both gave the above voltage results. On the 500mA USB mains plug, I could only get around 5 volts on pin 4 and nothing on pins 2 or 3.

I've tried many configurations such as putting the retractable cable first after the USB plug adapter instead of second after the non-retractable USB extension lead. and have concluded that however I try to connect the different cables I have, it is always either the data cable or the retractable lead that always causes the charge error.

Would I just need to get a longer USB extension cable or can anyone think of another solution?

Regarding Bluetooth, I have a Samsung Bluetooth V3.0 Stereo Headset which is basically a mono earpiece and boom microphone in one but is fitted with a micro USB socket that is used as either a charging socket or to plug in the earpiece for the other ear.

I have tried using it for the live video/audio app LINE but for some reason, I can hear the other person through it but they can't hear me.

Is my headset just incompatible with LINE and if so, is there one I need to buy instead that is compatible or is it LINE that is incompatible with the headset or is it my phone incompatible with LINE or incompatible with the headset?

I have tried making a normal telephone call both from my phone and to my phone using the headset and it works so what could be the problem?

Hope someone might be able to help me with these problems I have experienced.

Thanks.

How thick is the cable? If it is thin then the voltage drop will be too great to keep the phone happy. That is one reason why you rarely see phone chargers with more than about a metre of lead.

Swapping the USB adapter for one with higher current will only make a difference if the phone can make use of the extra current. The power supply simply determines the maximum amount of current available. it is the load on the power supply (ie the phone) that determines how much of that is used.

So you need a fairly thick lead if you want to go more than about 1.5m to be on the safe side. Or of course move the mains closer to you so the 5V doesn't have to travel so far.

As for the pinouts of USB. The outer pair are the 5V and ground. The inner pair are the data connection. So on a power supply that has no data capability you won't see anything on the inner pair. Oh and by the way you had the plug upside down, pin 1 is 5V

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Pinouts

Hi,
The cable on those retractable leads are very thin to be able to retract back into the reel.
I thought trying to earth the metal shield might work but it didn't.

I then tried connecting up just the retractable lead and 10-connector lead into a USB mains plug but it still didn't charge properly and the cable is only 0.2 metres longer than if I connected the 1.5 metre non-retractable lead to the 10-connector lead so am now guessing because of your explanation that it must be the fact the cable was so thin and incapable of giving enough power out to charge the phone effectively.

Thanks for explaining everything including the pinouts.
I guess buying the retractable lead was a mistake though it still doesn't explain why the USB to micro leads didn't work as they were only very short leads of about 0.5 metres and cable not very thin but anyway I'll try something else now.

So what about my Bluetooth issue?
Can anyone help me with that please?
Hope somebody can get in touch to see if anything can be done.
Thanks.