iGo Juice DC cable Repair and Schematics
The Juice is a very convenient and functional adapter for laptops.
However, it suffers from a poor design of the DC cable. After a while, the wires inside the molded connectors break.
iGo is very good at sending you a replacement, no questions asked.
However, that will not be forever, so, at some point, someone will have to start repairing those cables.
I hope that the information included will be helpful for your repairs.
Davide Andrea
8/19/05
SYMPTOMS
- The laptop shows that it's not connected
- The Power Supply's blue light flashes every second or so
- Operation can be restored if you twist one of the connectors of the DC cable, or the cable itself by the connector
CABLE SCHEMATIC
ADAPTERS SCHEMATIC
ADAPTERS' COMPONENT VALUES
| # |
Vout [V] |
R1 [KΩ] |
R2 [KΩ] |
RL [Ω] |
Pinout |
| 2 |
19 |
5.87 |
86.4 |
|
 |
| 3 |
19.5 |
5.18 |
80.5 |
|
|
| 4 |
16.5 |
13.9 |
161 |
|
|
| 5 |
19 |
5.85 |
88.3 |
|
|
| 6 |
15.3 |
46.3 |
394 |
750 |
|
| 7 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 8 |
24 |
2.72 |
46.3 |
|
 |
| 9 |
19.5 |
5.07 |
78.5 |
|
 |
| 10 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 11 |
16.5 |
13.7 |
164 |
|
|
| 12 |
20 |
4.73 |
74.5 |
|
|
| 13 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 14 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 15 |
24 |
2.71 |
46.5 |
|
|
REPAIR
- Find which end of the DC cable is broken:
- while trying to power the laptop, try to re-establish operation by twisting the cable by one connector, then the other one. Or
- with just the DC cable, disconnected from everything, use an ohmneter set to beep on continuity, to see which connection is broken; then try to reestablish the contact by twisting the cable by one connector, then the other one
- Cut out the molded plastic around the connector with an Exacto knife
- Un-solder the remaining wires from the pin header of the connector. Use a temperature controlled iron: you don't want to melt the header!
- Remove any extra wire strands from the soldered ends of the pins
- Cut the cable, remove about 1/2" of the outer cladding
- Unravel the shield braid where you removed the cladding
- Strip and tin the red, blue and brown wires. Cut the ends so that only 1/8" of the tinned end is uninsulated
- Twist the shield braid into a wire, closest to the Red wire (away from the other 2 wires)
- Tin the end of the twisted braid
- Solder the wires and the braid to the header (see schematic above)
- Reconnect everything and est the operation
- Disconnect the cable. Pull out the connector you are working on by brabbing th eheader itself: do not pull on the wires!
- Fashion a body for the connector with 5 minute epoxy, and let it cure
APPROXIMATE FORMULAE
4/26/06
R1 = 462 K / (Vout - 14.2)
R2 = 25 K / (Vout - 14.7)
POWER INPUT CABLE SCHEMATIC
0- HOT
0- NEUTRAL
0- GROUND
o- +DC
o- -DC