iphone won't charge

[Brianc]

I couldn't get my iphone to charge this morning and tried several cables/wall-warts with no luck. Then I remembered a similar problem with a Brahma lock we have on our front door! The special key has a hole in its centre which locates on a pin in the lock and normally it works very well. It then stopped working and I eventually traced it to "pocket fluff" which had accumulated in the hole in the key which prevented it fully entering the lock. A crochet hook or similar hooked out a huge amount of compressed fluff after which it worked perfectly. A lead from a capacitor carefully inserted into the connector on the phone resulted in a similar harvest! The phone charges again so if you have a similar problem, out with a capacitor!

[ppppenguin]

Compressed air (or a quick blow) might be safer for the internals of the socket.

[AlanBeckett]

I've had that with the Micro-USB on several Phones. I usually resort to a Magnifier and a sharp Needle.

Alan

[EinsteinAGoGo]

With mine, I sharpen a matchstick to a fine 'wedge' to gently clean out any fluff.
Given the delicacy of the connections, I'd be very wary of using cap leads, or anything metallic.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
A little wooden toothpick is what I use. These micro USB sockets seem to love fluff

[ppppenguin]

The micro USB on my Samsung S3 has never caused problems yet in over 3 years. I can't imagine that my pockets are less fluffy than average.

I wonder how the new USB-C conecctors will fare in real life. They look like the answer to life, the universe and everything. A truly universal connector for almost any purpose from power to video.

[Nick]

I wonder how the new USB-C conecctors will fare in real life. They look like the answer to life, the universe and everything. A truly universal connector for almost any purpose from power to video.

I have a Google Nexus 5X phone with USB C.

Love it - no "right way up" to fiddle with and charges very very fast (up to 3 Amps).

So you don't completely waste your old micro-USB-2 chargers, you can get little micro-USB-2 to USB-C adapters - these work fine but obviously charge slowly

[Brianc]

The micro USB on my Samsung S3 has never caused problems yet in over 3 years. I can't imagine that my pockets are less fluffy than average.

It's carrying paper hankies around that seems to make the fluff for me!

[Radio Fixer]

I looked at the Brahma lock Brian with interest not knowing about them.  Not far from me actually.  

On the inner and outer doors we have Yale deadlocks and I particularly like the one on the inner door as its very large and the 'keep' (is that the right word for the part that screws to the frame) is a chunk of steel 7" long fixed by 5 big screws.   It can be deadlocked from inside before leaving whereas the outer can only be done from the outside.   I'm not sure how many levers it has, looks like 6 from the key.
Both locks are relatively new and I shudder at my old neighbour who has a small Yale that is original to the 70's house.  Possibly its so worn not much better that nail file would open it.

Its doubtful around here that any burglars go in for lock picking: it seems to be the jemmy or other brute force methods  .  But If I'm going past Brahma I will call in for a look and a chat.

Apparently wooden doors can still be as strong as UPVC against forced entry and they are very easy if fitted with the so called Euro lock which can be snapped and removed in 13 secs (think that's still the record).  Changed all of mine to snap proof ABS.

thanks Gary