Comments on: Portable Charger for Microsoft Surface

By: Valy-D

Valy-D — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 14:54:00 +0000

In reply to BB.

My surface pro 4 adapter felt from a (relative) high altitude and stops working (my own mistake of course)

Thanks to this post, I could create my own power supply.

I’ve bought a USB 3.0 TO SATA/IDE 2.5/3.5/5.25-INCH Hard Drive Converter/Adapter that has its own pocket power supply.

I’ve cut and use the male side of a computer power connector (the 4 pin side of this Amazon StarTech.com 6in 4 Pin Molex to SATA Power Cable Adapter – LP4 to SATA – 6in Molex to SATA Cable – 4 pin to SATA power)

I’ve cut the cable from my Surface Pro 4 adapter (mine has only 3 wires. Red, Blue and Ground)

The connection:
Surface pro 4 wire Male 4 Pin Molex to SATA
________________ ________________________
Red __________to___ Yellow (12V)
Ground _______to___ Black (0V)
Blue__________to___ Black (0V) this has to be connected otherwise it won’t work (in my case)

My pocket Hard Drive power supply specs
12V — 2A on the Yellow
5V — 2A on the Red

Hope it helps

By: RJ

RJ — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 00:44:49 +0000

In reply to Justin. OMG don't hook a car battery you will fry it with that many amps. A battery from a rc race car and is lithium would be nice!

By: Ch.Idea

Ch.Idea — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 16:34:42 +0000

In reply to Emmanuel Plata.

Confirmed that this is right.
http://idea.sh/joomla3/29-ms-surface-pro-3-charger-diy.html

By: Voltaic Systems

Voltaic Systems — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 14:17:00 +0000

In reply to Matthew Sleeth. Yes, it will also charge the Surface Pro 2.

By: Matthew Sleeth

Matthew Sleeth — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 04:23:57 +0000

Just wondering if this cable will also charge the Surface Pro 2 (only Surface 2 spec’d)

https://www.voltaicsystems.com/surface-2

Thanks,
Matt

By: Chrys

Chrys — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 16:13:21 +0000

My surface pro charger finally blew up rather spectacularly with pops and white flashes at the point where the low voltage cable comes out of the unit. I salvaged the cable, and am going to put a connector on it. So glad it’s 12 volts! I’m going to modify several different power sources to supply it as the occasion warrants: 12v 4A power supply, a small car battery, a solar panel. Thanks for the wiring color code!

By: Tony Kauffmann

Tony Kauffmann — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 16:17:26 +0000

In reply to Karl. It won't work with a 5V USB cable because it needs 12V to charge, not only 5V.

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 22:22:11 +0000

Is this sort of hack useable with a male USB end. Has anyone tried and tested such a thing?

I travel a fair amount for work, being on planes all the time they generally have a USB charging/media port.

Any help would be appreciated.

By: Emmanuel Plata

Emmanuel Plata — Sat, 16 May 2015 15:09:55 +0000

I´ve actually modified a surface pro original adapter, because I got one of those with a broken cable, right from the transformer output. I saw thas it´s different, but it works in the same way, the red cable is thicker and is the 12v +, the blue and yellow are also present, and works the same way (charger detection and LED), but instead of a black cable, the metal shield of the cable is the ground. For the surface pro 3 i supose that you only have to use the red one and the shield for making your “car powered” charger.

By: MH

MH — Tue, 05 May 2015 07:57:48 +0000

Those extra wires are there to detect when to reduce or cut voltage briefly when the computer inside the battery indicates disproportion in distribution of charge across the cell. You might getaway with it for a few charges, but eventually, you’re going to start an explosive fire, and since the battery is internal, all the gases will include arsenic and a dozen other poisons as well. The safety mechanisms are not there just to annoy everyone.

Youtube “lithium battery fire” and see what I mean.

If it were safe to do this, do you think the battery would contain a computer at all? Would the entire battery industry be disregarding such a huge market for something so easy to build?

Be careful. You’ll live longer, and your kids will get to have parents.