recharging a PS3 controller

[SavannahLion]

I guess I must've played my twenty hours since my PS3 is squawking at me to recharge the controller.

Thing is I do not want to sit two feet from the damn TV with a wired controller. The thing is ridiculously short. Almost a joke really. I also don't want to leave the PS3 on just to recharge the damn thing every time and I'm not interested in watching a Blu-Ray. I'm not particularly fond in leaving a $400 piece of equipment on just to charge a $45 controller. That's nuts.

I did a little research and everything points to being able to recharge the controller on anything powered USB. Motorola phone chargers, your PC, a powered hub, even the USB port on the back of a cable box. I have all of these and not one of them will recharge the PS3 controller.

Do I have to use the stupid Sony provided cable? Did Sony modify their controllers to only charge with the PS3? WTF? Sony is really starting to irritate the hell out of me.

How can I charge the controller without resorting to plugging it in the PS3?

[hypernova]

The way the 360 works is if you connect it before powering down the system, THEN turn it off, the power brick still stays on to charge the controllers, but the entire system is essentially off.  (I say "essentially" as I've never actually touched it to test how much heat it's outputting while charging, but the power rings on the front all turn off.)  Once it charges the controllers to full, the power brick then shuts down too, indicating everything is off, even while the controller is still connected.

The PS3 doesn't function the same way?

[Bender]

I plug mine into my computer while I'm working and it charges fine (have you tried a different usb cord, like you said it should charge on any powered usb)
I also have a 10' USB cable incase it dies while I'm still playing

I do like the removable batteries on the xbox 360 better for just this reason, I always have a couple spares charged up, I've never had to use the USB cord

[Samstag]

Any USB port (that supplies power) and cable will do.  Since there's no data used you can ignore the cable length limits, too.  So you could cut up the short cable and splice in a 20-foot extension if you want to play while you charge.

I keep a 4-port hub in my entertainment center just to charge controllers and provide power to my infra-red to bluetooth converter.

[Malenko]

If youre in doubt, buy one of those PSP USB charger cables from gamestop. Its what I use and its a 6 foot cord. Ive never had a problem using any other cable in a pinch, but the 2ft sony supplies is a joke. Last time I checked the "Car/USB" PSP charger was like $7

[TOK]

I got the Energizer charger. I like it because it also holds the controllers like a rack. I rarely play games on the PS3, so this is nice just to keep them together and plug in once a month to keep the charged just in case.
http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-Energizer-Power-Charging-System-3/dp/B001H4NMNA

[northerngames]

regular male female ended usb cords work fine I had got a huge box of them at a garage sale and gave them all out to friends with ps3's that wanted longer cords.

any pc usb cable is fine.

[SavannahLion]

I don't know what the problem is. The damn thing will not charge on any of my USB powered devices (haven't tried the laptop or Wii) period. The only thing it will charge on is the PS3.

The only thing I can guess is that all the USB sources I tried actually follow USB specification and the device needs to negotiate for the above minimum 100 mA of power and the PS3 controller just expects 500 mA. That's the only thing I can think of other than Sony screwing users out with some firmware design change in their controllers. I have no idea how to test that theory though.

Things I've tried to charge are:
* Motorola power supply. Nothing happens.
* Sony Viao PC. The controller LEDS blink once, then the PC recognizes the controller HID but the controller is unresponsive after that.
* A 4 port Belkin USB hub. LED blinks once but nothing else happens.

I've considered gutting one of the extra 5v phone chargers that put out more than 500 mA and wiring up a USB cable to that. I just don't feel like hacking a USB cable for something that may or may not work.

[SNAAKE]

maybe its a faulty controller or something. I charge both of my controllers through computer usb and they work fine. you might wanna install dualshock3 driver and see if it works. http://www.motioninjoy.com/download

or just get a usb extension cable from ebay.

[HaRuMaN]

Mine charges on everything I have that's USB, including the Xbox 360, lol.

[Dazz]

I use the official charger from Sony.  It's a plug that allows for 2 usb cables to be plugged in and then plugged into a wall outlet.