Knowing more about USB cable

I have always wanted to know more about USB. Since I knew that USB has a power voltage of +5 Volts, I have always thought about making use of USB power for making some custom or personalized USB stuffs (for fun only). Nowadays, all computers whether desktop or laptop have come with USB ports. These ports are also at the back or at the front of your casing of desktop computer. For laptop, at least there are two USB ports. These ports can be used to connect to peripherals like flash disk, hub, printer, scanner, modem, digital camera, or even unusual usb products such as, usb air conditioner, usb blender, usb eye massager, etc. There are too many usb products to talk about.

Inside a USB cable, there are four cables which are two power cables and two data cables. A USB cable has the red cable as power (5V) and the brown cable as the ground. It also has a pair of twisted cables (yellow and blue) to carry data. The four cables form a USB cable. So, if you want know exactly, you should cut it yourself and see it yourself!

USB power and unique products

There are common USB products such as: flash disks, memory card readers, mice, keyboards, etc. There are also many unique USB products such as: coffee warmers, massagers, fans, lamps, etc. These products usually use 4.5-5.0 Voltage as their power consumption. So, actually you can use your own things that use AC adaptor on USB with your computer or laptop. You can also use your battery operated things (usually 3 x 1.5V = 4.5 V) as long as it has a hole that you can connect through USB. The connection uses a cable with one end of USB and another end of power jack, like most on those old-type mobile phones. If your mobile phone battery uses 4.5V, then you can also charge your phone with only your USB to power jack cable, but usually people won't do that cause there is charger that comes with it.

That's also why you can forget charging your mp3/mp4 player with the charger that comes with it. If you look at the charger carefully, you'll find that the charger has a voltage around 5 V. And this is equal to the electricity from the PC USB. If your objects are without AC adaptor (only battery operated), you can still modified it to make USB products. Of course some basic electronics knowledge is required to do this. You can also make your own desktop decoration if know electronics. Then keep it for yourself or give it as DIY gift.