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      01-21-2013, 06:01 AM   #1
BanziBarn
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USB in glove box not working

Hi guys,

I use this port to charge my phone, not to upload music as I have 6FL in the arm rest. However, recently it is only charging my phone sometimes.

It's not a biggie as I've bought a cig lighter usb socket to use instead but then I got thinking - If I get the USB fixed under warranty would they also need to update all the software on the car? Could this be a cheap way to get the latest updates? (I have £100 excess warranty).

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      01-21-2013, 06:13 AM   #2
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Probably no need to re-code the car - and if they did, it would only be specific to whatever they worked on.

Don't tell them you've been using the glovebox USB to charge your phone as it's not supposed to have enough power to do that - you're not even supposed to plug in portable hard drives in case the load is too much!

- or so it says in the manual

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      01-21-2013, 06:54 AM   #3
BanziBarn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwynMike View Post
Probably no need to re-code the car - and if they did, it would only be specific to whatever they worked on.

Don't tell them you've been using the glovebox USB to charge your phone as it's not supposed to have enough power to do that - you're not even supposed to plug in portable hard drives in case the load is too much!

- or so it says in the manual

Mike
Oh really? That's interesting - thanks for telling me.

I'd not have thought you could damage a power supply by plugging something in that needs too much -that implies the the device sucks power rather than having power pushed to it! This may be the case - I have no idea how these things work.
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      01-21-2013, 06:54 AM   #4
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Have you actually tried it for what its supposed to be used for recently, ie a USB stick? Reason I mention, if it works ok with that then BMW will say no fault found.
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      01-21-2013, 07:00 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dopper99 View Post
Have you actually tried it for what its supposed to be used for recently, ie a USB stick? Reason I mention, if it works ok with that then BMW will say no fault found.
Yep, plugged a USB in and nothing happened. It's a good point though as I release that some phones need quite a lot of juice and simply won't charge via a PC based USB. I've noticed the problem started since I got my new phone which has a 2100ma battery - so at first thoughts it could be to do with that, however I then got my wife to connect her phone which has always worked and that didn't work either.

Like I say, its intermittent. Perhaps by connecting my phone it kills the power temporally which then means testing my wife's phone also appears not to work.

It does seem odd that it works sometimes and not others though.
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      01-21-2013, 08:01 AM   #6
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I'm afraid you could easily have blown the power supply on the usb card in the CCC (or CIC, can't remember).

An older 'downstream' (non charging) PC USB port is only 100mA and will just fail for good if you cook it.

Even newer 'charging ports' are only up to 500mA, but they can shut themselves down.

If BMW are saying not to plug phones in, that means it is probably NOT a 'charging port' type of USB socket, so susceptible to overload damage.

OR it is a 'charging port', but you are overloading it and making it shut down temporarily.

Basically, forget charging phones in the glovebox and buy a ciggy lighter USB port, much better!

Last edited by doughboy; 01-21-2013 at 08:12 AM..
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      01-21-2013, 08:16 AM   #7
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Cheers for the info.

The link below says the following - is that rubbish then? I'm not questioning you, I just like to learn how things work!

"Can I blow up my USB device? In short, no: You can plug any USB device into any USB cable and into any USB port, and nothing will blow up — and in fact, using a more powerful charger should speed up battery charging."

http://www.extremetech.com/computing...our-smartphone

In terms of how chargers work, I always thought that damage could only be caused to the item that needs charging if you used a charger that was too powerful for it. In my simply mind, I see the device as passive, which will accept the incoming power if it's got enough current, but if not, just do nothing with it.

PS - when working, the phone does charge up so I think it must have more than 100ma and therefore must be a charging USB port. But yes, ordered a cig lighter one off amazon this morning.
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      01-21-2013, 08:34 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BanziBarn View Post
No, either device could be damaged in principle, in simple terms a big battery can blow a small charger as it draws too much current and vice versa, but things are not simple these days!

With a modern device and port you are pretty safe.

The important bit is the AGE of the equipment, 'charging ports' were only invented in 2008, and there's a time lag for implementing them, so our new CCC units were released in mid 2008 (designed on 07?), so who knows what ports are in it??

Try a USB stick in it after a few days to see if it has 'recovered'

Last edited by doughboy; 01-21-2013 at 08:41 AM..
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      01-21-2013, 08:37 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doughboy View Post
Yes, these days you are pretty safe, but read on....

The important bit is the AGE of the equipment, 'charging ports' were only invented in 2008, and there's a time lag for implementing them, so our new CCC units were released in late 2008 (designed on 07?), so who knows what ports are in it??

Modern charging ports are self regulating and will only provide the voltage / power that the device wants, but a smartphone takes way more juice than was ever anticipated in 2008!
Oke doke! Well, I've not blown it completely so hopefully, if I don't connect a phone to it again, it will work ok for USB sticks if I ever need to upload stuff to the internal HDD.
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