iPad/iPhone VGA Charging

Hello everyone,

I am new here and this will be my first post.

I have an iPad/iPhone VGA adapter that I use very much at work. The downfall of this adapter is that it lacks charging abilities. I stumbled on an eBay item that did this very thing. The website of the place was called customgadz.com and I don't know if they still make this. I searched my butt off for two days to no avail. So I figured it out how it was done myself. So!..... HERE WE GO!!


You need a multimeter, soldering iron (a very thin tip will be the best), soldering lead (for electronics, not plumbing lead), a USB cable (preferably apple's USB wire as the white outside insulator is soft enough to work with.), super glue, a thin flat blade screw driver, and wire cutters.

First: The head connector that goes into the idevice is what will be taken apart. There is a seem between the cap and body that needs to be broken to access the internals. Use the thin flat bade screw driver to break the factory glue bond (if you have good finger nails, use them instead of the screw driver to help prevent scratches). Now that you have most of the glue broken, use the flat bladed screw driver to pry out the cap. Use extreme care not to bend or damage metal connector.



Second: Make a mark on the wire so you will know what side is "up" (notice the blue pin mark on the wire by my thumb?). Slide the body down the adapter wire. Now on that body, make a hole on the bottom right side the size of the USB wire. (Note: Make sure that the hole is made when cleared of the head assembly and adapter wire. Making a hole while the head connector is totally assembled will cause damage!) Run the cut USB wire through that hole from the bottom up and give yourself more than enough work room for the next step.



Next: When you have the metal head exposed (no pun intended), there will be two metal shields covering the PCB (printed circuit board) that will need to be removed with the thin flat bladed screw driver and soldering iron. You will need to access the bottom half side of the head. The way to tell of the correct side is that its the only side with chips on it and its the opposite side of the mark that was made on the wire earlier. Be careful not to over heat the head and/or damage it with the screw driver as there are chips in there. Now sorry for I do not have a picture with the metal shields. (I deleted them by accident ) But here is the PCB exposed with out the shields.





As you can see, its strait forward were to solder the four USB wires but it is a very tiny work area to solder. When your wires are soldered on, you want to use the multimeter and check each of the three pins to make sure they are not grounded out to the main metal frame. To do that, put the meter on ohms and place the black lead of the meter on the metal part of the head and the red lead on each of the pins individually. if any of the pins read anything lower than 0.8 - 0.0 then you might have a grounding pin on the metal body (wire is touching the body). Just re-solder. If you have a digital multimeter, it should read "OL" (overload)on the screen.

Once you have the wires in place, you must trim one of the metal shields to clear the new wires. Use the same solder points to put the shields back on. If you need to use a little more solder to keep the shield on, do so with caution that the melted lead does not fall into the cracks and on to the PCB as this will ruin the whole adapter if the lead makes contact with the chips and/or connections inside.

Last: Before you put everything back together, test the adapter with the VGA plug side first. Make sure it works and displays on the monitor. Next, plug into the apple USB block. If done correctly, you will hear the chime that says the idevice is charging. If successful, proceed to assemble the head and cap back together. It will be a tight fit and the plug might not be the same but use some super glue to hold the cap on the plastic body. Use some pressure to keep the cap down if needed.









This works on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 (I have these idevices) on the block chargers (fat ipad charger and the small block iphone charger). When used on a computer, It only transfers data and no charge for the ipad 2 or the iphone 4. I will post pictures or a video of this adapter in action when I get my video camera back.

Disclaimer: This is a "how to" guide to help people that want the charging ability on their apple ipad/iphone VGA adapter. I am not responsible for any loss or damages to idevices while performing or after performing the "how to". Performing this "how to" will be at your own risk.

Happy Modding Guys!!!

Quick update: It seems that this cable does support charging and data transfer on a computer. This was tested on a WIN7 system. This was for both iPad 2 and iPhone.

My first wire that I made seemed to have had a wire grounding and was not allowing to charge. I made a few other adapters for some people and these were performing all functions of a USB sync & charge wire and the VGA output.

Hello Crude,

Thanks for showing interest in my cable. I will be glad to make one for you. Depending on what you want determines how much it will cost for parts. There are two main parts you need, the VGA adapter and a USB cable. I get my supplies from Best-Buy and they are Apple equipment. The VGA Adapter is $29.99 +tax comes out to be $34 or $35 and change. The other part I get is the iPad charging kit which comes with the USB sync wire, wall charger, and a plug extension for the wall charger. It is also $29.99 +tax. If you just want the adapter with out the charger, the USB cable by Apple is $19.99 +tax.

Since your using it for presentations, I would recommend the whole kit with charger and extension. But this set up is $70 plus shipping.

But if you already have a charger and don't care for the extension, this set up is $58 plus shipping.

I use Apple products because the USB wire is soft enough for me squeeze in the VGA adapter when I put it back together. Also they are OEM parts designed for idevices and I know they will work.

Provide all the parts or money, I'll build it for free. I have a paypal account and I'll provide all my info. I use paypal only... for your and my safety.

This adapter seems to be really sought for as I have made quite a few for friends and co-workers. I have made four for a visual production company in California called Possible Productions.

I'm pretty sure your puzzled by why I would do it for free. Here's why..

1st: $70-$58 for parts for a wire is already expensive enough. I my self wouldn't spend $100 on a wire. Its just crazy to me.

2nd: I post my how to work online here and another idevice site so people can have the information for free if they want to do it. I believe productive information should be free.

3rd: I just want to help. People just don't help one another anymore. Everything comes with a price tag. Besides Apple has enough money already.

So, if your still interested, just hit me up.

Hello Matt,

Your looking at $58 US plus shipping (more if your outside the US). So more or less, $65 US. This is for the cable that u see in my pics. Now the one that ippp shows is the best you can get over mine. It looks awesome! But if you can't get a hold of them, PM me and we can exchange info.

But I recommend trying to get it from customgadz first.

phred.pui said:

Does this work with iPad 1 as well?

Click to expand...

I don't have an iPad1 but I'm sure it would work. But I can't confirm.

glen e said:

Received mine today from Nox and I am astounded. There is no way you can tell this is done by an individual, it looks like it comes direct from Apple. I strongly recommend this if you are using the VGA adapter and need power.

I am getting ready to do (8) 45 minute presentations in Vegas that goes on every hour on the hour. From prev experience, the pad would be at 20-25 % at the end of the day, and go dead on the way home on the airplane watching a movie. Now after a whole day of Keynote use, my pad gets on the plane with 100%

Thanks Nox!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words Glen. I'm glad everything is working for you.

Hello hrousseau,

I would be glad to help you with the cable. Let me know what you need.

BTW, I have a vga cable already made that has a little cosmedic damage on the 30pin connector head that goes into the idevice. It works as all the others just looks ugly to me. I can let that go for $40USD +shipping. It doesn't come with the wall charger. Let me known if your interested and I can send you a picture.

Also, I tried to send you a PM with more info but your profile wouldn't allow me to. Change your settings so we can exchange info.

Sorry for the late reply. I would be glad to help.


Change your settings so I can send you a PM with my info.