Wanting USB charging but NOT data connection

[C n C]

I'm posting this here rather than the car electronics sub forum, as I think this is possibly just a USB question at the root of it.

We recently bought a Skoda Octavia vRS (2014) which has both bluetooth and USB connectivity for phones.

Mrs CnC and I both have iPhones (a 5SE and a 12 Pro), which connect to the bluetooth in the car and work perfectly - phone, music via Spotify, and Waze or Google Maps for navigation.

The problem comes when I plug one of the phones into the USB port in the car via a USB to lightning connector, in order to charge the phone. The car picks up the USB connection to the phone and then wants to use this in preference to the bluetooth connection which had already been established. This results in the car audio now switching to iTunes on the phone (I don't have any music stored in iTunes and don't want to use iTunes), ignoring the bluetooth link and effectively disconnecting Spotify/Waze etc..

I've looked through the config options in the car entertainment menus, and there is nothing to tell it to ignore USB data connections.

Is it possible to get a USB lead which ONLY supports the power/charging aspect, and does not connect the data portion? As mentioned, one end of the cable would need to be iPhone lightning, and the other, a standard USB type A plug?

Looking at the USB type A specs, it appears the outer 2 connectors of the 4 in the plug are V+ and ground, with the inner (middle) 2 connectors data+ and data-. Would it just be a case of maybe opening up the cable and disconnecting the middle 2 (data) connectors?

My fallback may end up being to just use a USB powerbank in the glove compartment, but it's a bit of a clunky solution when there's what seems to be a perfectly usable USB socket already built in.

Many thanks for any thoughts..

[Drive Blind]

usb adapter into the cig lighter ?

[Sporky]

You can get a data-blocking adaptor - only has the power lines connected.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blocker-Adapter-Blocking-...

[C n C]

Drive Blind said:

usb adapter into the cig lighter ?

Whist an option, and thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately given where the cig lighter socket is, this would be a more clunky option than the power bank in the glovebox.

[C n C]

Sporky said:

You can get a data-blocking adaptor - only has the power lines connected.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blocker-Adapter-Blocking-...

That looks perfect.

Ordered, and will update with results when it arrives.

Many thanks.

[Sporky]

I used to have charge-only xsbles, but I cant find lightning ones.

[Monsterlime]

If using a USB A connector (which from your post it sounds like), all you actually need to do is to put non-conductive tape over the relevant data connections (which you have already identified).

This was a standard 'mod' done for certain 3D printers, you would put tape over the power pin (the opposite but the principal is the same) on the Type A connector, so when using a RPI with OctoPrint you didn't also try and (poorly) power the printer, which would result in various issues.

[C n C]

Monsterlime said:

If using a USB A connector (which from your post it sounds like), all you actually need to do is to put non-conductive tape over the relevant data connections (which you have already identified).

This was a standard 'mod' done for certain 3D printers, you would put tape over the power pin (the opposite but the principal is the same) on the Type A connector, so when using a RPI with OctoPrint you didn't also try and (poorly) power the printer, which would result in various issues.

Thanks for this simple, cheap, and no doubt very effective suggestion. As they say, the best ideas are often the simplest!

I would have gone with this if it wasn't for already having ordered the "data blocking" adapter mentioned by Sporky above.

[C n C]

C n C said:

Sporky said:

You can get a data-blocking adaptor - only has the power lines connected.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blocker-Adapter-Blocking-...

That looks perfect.

Ordered, and will update with results when it arrives.

Many thanks.

Adapter linked above arrived today. Tested it out and it works perfectly.

Thanks all.

[Sporky]

Ace!