Adding power to MHL Adpater for Samsung S4

[ladorn]

Hello,

Sorry if this is not the right section but not sure where else to post. I am hooking up my Samsung s4 to my tv to mirror the image on my phone. I read that a lot of people are having problems finding adapters that can charge the phone while using the hdmi adapter. I was wondering if I took the cable going from the adapter to the phone and if I spliced into it and added another source of power that was 5 volts would that make up for the lack of power coming out of the hdmi adapter or would that damage my phone. I attached a picture for reference. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rukbat]

If the power jack on the adapter only goes to the adapter circuitry, you can "patch in" any phone charger to charge the phone. If it also feeds the phone's power wires, you're putting 2 charger outputs in parallel. You won't damage the phone, but you could destroy both chargers.

First make sure that, when the adapter is plugged into the phone, and the charger is plugged into the adapter, the phone doesn't show that it's charging. (Settings - somewhere in there, depending on the version of Android, is Battery. At the top, above the graph, it'll tell you if it's charging.) If not, I'd suggest that, unless you're experienced in electronics (you know to use heat shrink tubing to insulate the splice, you have a small enough soldering iron to solder the splice without melting 3 inches of insulation, etc.), you buy a "Y" cable. It plugs into the phone, gives you a connector to plug the adapter into AND gives you a connector to plug a charger into to charge the phone. Considering that the "expensive" ones are about $5-$10, and a $2 one works just about as well (the difference in price is usually in the looks of the connector covers), even if you know how to do it yourself, it's hardly worth the effort. (And buying a single connector will probably cost about as much as buying the "Y" cable.)