Hey folks,
This could have already been answered but I want to know if there is a charging solution for the iphone 3gs with current y-cable set up. When I went form 1st gen to latest gen I lost the charging ability of the y-cable, still plays but doesn't charge. Any idea if mini is on this? I contacted my dealer but got referred to big brother who had no answer. Also is there a cradle for the center arm rest I could use instead that both charges and plays the 3gs?
Thanks everyone,
Stretch (pepper white mini)

 

I was told it had to do something with the voltage. Coming from the car it's 5 volts not the 12 volts needed to charge the phone. I have the same exact problem. It would be great if it charged.

 

Hi Guys,

The power pins for the 2g and 3g are on different pins on the cable. That's why 2g accessories (like the Mini) won't charge the 3gs.

You need to get an adaptor like:
http://www.cablejive.com/chargeconverter.html

That should solve the problem.

Hope this helps, Cheers

Daniel

 

This sounds GREAT! Who's going to be the first to try and report back to the group?

 

I tried the scorshe solution for charging the iphone 3gs and it did not work.

 

This has been discussed ad-nausium in the NAV & Audio Section. Soem of these adapters do work and some do not. Go over to the audio section where this thread shoudl be in the first place and check up on what the best solution is. BTW there is also a new "Y-Cable".

 

That's pretty slick. Thanks!

 

Does this new Y-Cable charge an iPhone 3GS in effect doing away with the need for these converters?

If not, which of these converters are confirmed to work with the 3GS? There’s one by Griffin for $18 on Amazon that I’m looking at.

 

If someone could let me know where I can purchase the "new" y-cable so my 3gs can charge and play I would greatly appreciate it. My mini rep doesn't know anything more then me.
Thanks,
TheStretch

 

many have reported that it does but some have reported that it does not.

There is alos another problem with the car as well and part of the reason that the charging does not work. That is the car can only output up to approximately 450ma of current which is not enough charge the latest iPod/iPhone models. They require up to 1500ma of current. And when the iPod/iPhone need the full current to charge it can not get it so it shuts down the charging circuits because there is not computer to tell the iPod/iPhone to set for low power charging.

Some of the adapters force the phone to go in to low power charging and yet others just change the wiring.


I am not sure which ones work and which do not but there are a bunch of threads on this subject where people have tested them and stated if they worked or not.

MINI "Y-Cables" can only be purchased at the dealer. As from August 2009 all the "Y-Cables" should be the new ones.

Your MINI Rep is probably just like many of them and has no idea of what is going on with replacement or upgraded parts. Even the Parts departments do not usually know what is going on.

There are a number of threads that cover this subject and have the new and old part numbers in them. Check them out.

 

But please note that it very specifically states

"NOTE: For car audio, if you own any Pioneer system, or a BMW or Mini Cooper "Y-Cable" iPod Interface system, please see our Car Charge Kit to fix your charging issues."

So most likely this will not work on the MINI.

 

Mine charges fine in my '10 MCS (week 44 production). I can hook it up almost fully depleted, and it charges up to full charge at similar speed to if it's hooked up to the dock connector at home.

 

Are you using the MINI "Y-Cable"?

If so this is really good news that MINI has fixed the current draw problem on the MINI USB port.

 

Yup. Both my 3GS and Nano (5G) charge just fine, no different than if connected at home.

 

Thanks Schatsy for catching us all up.

Does any one know if MINI will allow you to swap your old Y-Cable for a new one? Or will you have to pay for a new one? And if so, how much?

 

Awesome news KevinC - can you confirm the part #?

 

It's marked 0440796, which is the last portion of full p/n 61120440796.

 

Mines a 2010 and it was made in 09/09. It does not charge the phone.

 

Yeah, that's the same as the one I got with my '10 MC which doesn't work with my 3GS, so it's still a crapshoot. I should poke at it some more tonight and see how much the OBC laughs at my 80gig iPod Video. (You have _how_ many tracks? Good luck with that!)

 

Odd. My MA also told me that he tried one on the lot, right after I'd picked up my car and confirmed to him that it was charging, and the lot car (apparently also had just come in) didn't charge. WTH?

I just went out to the car and messed with mine. I normally leave the iPod Nano plugged into it and haven't had the phone attached in a few weeks. When I plugged it in, for the first time it told me that it wasn't going to charge. Never happened before. I unplugged/replugged a few times, same problem. So then I started the car and plugged it in again - success. WTH? Repeated several times with car running, no problem. Shut down again, and first time it again was charging. Then subsequent tries, went back to not charging. The ignition being on *seemed* to make a difference, though it wasn't consistent when off.. but always charged when the car was running.

Somebody else give this a whirl and see if you have similar results.

 

My understanding is that the iPhone 3GS draws more amps if the when the battery charge is lower. So, it may charge fine when the batter is 3/4 full, but not when 1/4 full.

If you want your car to be able to handle a very low battery, you might consider carrying a USB car charger and using that to bring it up to the point where the MINI USB can handle it.

You could forego having it play music during that carge, or get a special Y-USB cable so you can plug in both the MINI Y and the USB car charger. There is a thread about doing this.

 

Eh, mine is almost always topped off, and I haven't had any better luck than the usual iPhone owners. It seems as though MINI is doing the usual booboo, which is sticking to the 12v firewire charging spec instead of the 5v USB charging spec that Apple told manufacturers to prepare for well before the 3gs generation of devices hit the scene (i.e. Touch 2nd Gen, Nano 4th gen, whatever the creaky old HD based Classic gen is on, etc). The odd thing is that's exactly what the Scosche devices are built to convert, so the fact that they still don't work is sort of troubling.

It's sort of a chicken and egg problem for me - if the interface worked, I would buy a dock extension cable in a heartbeat so my iPhone wasn't buried in the center console. And if I had an extension cable, I could determine what sort of voltages the adaptor is sending to the phone. But I'm not going to spend $40 on a cable that doesn't change anything. That said, when I decide I don't need to charge the phone, the fact that the MINI interface locks out the iPod app entirely is sort of a nail in the coffin for me. I suppose the mindset is that the iPod will be buried in the hidden compartment or armrest, or tethered to a barely long enough cable in the center console so you can't really use the iPod app the way it's meant to be used _anyway_.

I've attached some photos of what my iPhone 3gs complains about when I plug it in to my older iHome clock radio that only provides power on the Firewire pins. I'm _pretty_ sure that's exactly what it does in the car, too, right? I know that the mintyboost crowd has reported having charging problems with the iPhone 3gs, but I believe their current theory is that they aren't quite looking enough like a USB power plug to convince the iPhone to play along. My Griffin USB wall wart _occasionally_ throws up a "not a supported charging device" error, though, so I'll be the first to admit that the iPhone is a fragile charging platform. It hasn't been persistent enough for me to track down whether it's the adaptor or the cable or the color of my shirt or what, though.

There's a hefty discussion about the USB charging aspect on the pinouts.ru page for the Dock connector though, which rapidly goes beyond my enthusiastic amateur understanding of electronics. It seems to suggest that USB charging is more that stuffing +5vdc into pin 23, and instead involves driving the USB data lines high.

That's what my wife did in her Clubman, and it works well for her. Everything is buried down in the bottom of the center console, so it's not _really_ as hideous as it might seem.

 

it has NOTHING to do with the voltage. The MINI charges the phone with the 5v USB.

It has to do with the current draw of the iWhatever plugged in. I do not know how many times i have said this in these forums. 08 and 09 MINI's are confirmed to only put out a max of about 450ma and the new devices from Apple require up to 1500ma of current to charge. If that can not be supplied by the charging unit then the item WILL NOT charge. Also a note on this is that the iWhatevers are designed to go into Low Power Mode so as to be able to charge on the USB Low Power Specification under certian circumstances, and unfortunately the MINI does not provide the data stream required for the iWhatenver to be put into low power mode. The low power mode can also be initiated on some of the older iWhatevers via a resistor network in the cable itself but this does not work in some cases on the latest generations or iWhatevers.

Please note i have not had time or a 2010 car available to me to check on the current output capabilities of the latest ULF (drives USB port) module form MINI. Until such time as i can get to testing this I can only speculate that MINI has not changed the current capability of the ULF module.

But from what I am hearing here about the ability of some to charge their phones MINI may have made some changes. As to why someone can not charge a phone from that USB port while the car is not running may be a safety feature that MIN built in. I.E. this way the iPhone does not daring the battery on the car. This is the exact reason that MINI turns off the cigarette lighter sockets, so that anything plugged in does not cause a current draw and drain the battery while the car is not running.

Wrong see my information above.


There is a lot more to the dropping of FireWire support than I can explain here but suffice it to say droping that has caused a lot of problems for all manufacturers.

And BTW Apple DID NOT pass the information about dropping Firewire to manufacturers in a timely basis. In fact most manufacturers did not know until their product would no longer work.

 

I just called my local MINI dealer and asked about this new Y Cable. The service guy wasn't sure whether it would charge the 3GS, but he said I was welcome to come down and try it out first to make sure it works before he charges me....cost = $100. I don't think that's worth it just for charging = (

 

I've attached mine with the charge in the 20's, and about 90 minutes later it was in the high 80's when I returned home and disconnected. So I'm not sure that theory holds water.

I'd like to try again with it really depleted, say below 10%, and see if I can bring it up to a 100% charge state.