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USB "Condom" Allows You To Practice Safe Charging

Posted by samzenpus on from the plugging-it-in dept.

MojoKid writes "Yep, a USB condom. That term is mostly a dose of marketing brilliance, which is to say that grabs your attention while also serving as an apt description of the product. A little company called int3.cc has developed a product—a USB condom—that blocks the data pins in your USB device while leaving the power pins free. Thus, any time you need to plug a device such as a smartphones into a USB port to charge it—let's say at a public charging kiosk or a coworker's computer--you don't have to worry about compromising any data or contracting some nasty malware. It's one of those simple solutions that seems so obvious once someone came up with it."

5 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. *yawn* these have around for years? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My MP3 player, the nearly 10 years old Cowon D2, actually came with a power-only USB cable. Maybe their goal was to save money on copper.

    1. Re:*yawn* these have around for years? by tjohns · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you plug your power-only USB cable into a modern charger, you'll find that your phone charges quite a bit slower than you'd expect. Modern chargers use the data pins to negotiate whether a charger supports higher currents.

      You don't want a phone to try drawing 2A from a charger that's only designed for 500mA.

  2. What does the electronics do? by irp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've apparently made 'USB condoms' myself. A male and female usb connector soldered end-to-end, the data pins shorted together.

    This enables my ancient HTC Desire to recognize any usb charger as a dedicated charger, and charge with up to 1 A (in reality significantly less). It is a low tech solution that works.

    So why so much electronics on the board??

  3. Re:Fast charge detection by jamesh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They can still try to draw 500mA and let the host cry. I don't know if they will, but wall chargers don't seem to have a complex protocol setup, I don't know how the do it.

    I had an aftermarket iPhone charger for my car that was a cigarette lighter adapter with a USB socket on it and then a USB to iPhone cable. One day I was in the office and needed to charge my iPhone and didn't have a charger so I grabbed the USB cable from my car. The moment I plugged it into my laptop, even before plugging the iPhone in, the laptop turned off. No damage. Being naturally curious I tried it again and it was repeatable.

    I'd go as far to say that some are basically brain dead

  4. Not the only one out there by ericfitz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a current KickStarter project called LockedUSB which does something similar, but which also includes a power management chip in order to negotiate higher power charging levels that normally require data connectivity. LockedUSB doesn't appear as big or ugly as the one in TFA. (Full disclosure: I'm a backer)