Wiring of a USB Y-Connector

[jiayo]

The background of question: recently I bought an

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External DVD Writer that is TV compatible. But after a couple of times it stopped working on my Sony LED TV. It would start spinning, but stop after two seconds. This would go on and on.

I assumed that it wasn't receiving enough power from the TV USB port (the DVD writer was rated to 1.6A). So I made a simple USB Y-connector where I took two male USB plugs and one female. Connected the red and black of the female to one of the male USB and the green and yellow alone to the second male USB plug.

I connected the data Male USB to my PC and plugged in the power male USB to a USB power adapter rated to 2.1A. Finally I plugged in a USB thumb drive to the female USB plug to test it out.

But there doesn't seem to be any activity.

Is there something wrong with the wiring itself or simply because there is an improper connection made.

Thanks

 

[mman454]

Try a powered USB hub.

[chupo_cro]

On 11/3/2017 at 6:04 AM, jiayo said:

Is there something wrong with the wiring itself or simply because there is an improper connection made.

You have to connect all negative contacts (black wire) together so the PC has the same reference voltage for the data line as the  DVD writer. You can even connect all the red contacts together too - that way the maximum current the DVD writter could draw would be 2.1 A (from power adapter) + 0.5 A (from the laptop).

That is if your laptop has USB 2.0 connector. If it has USB 3.0 then it would be 2.1 A (from power adapter) + 0.9 A (from the laptop) .