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Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

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Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#121

Post by pja »

hedgehog wrote: post #55
agentultra wrote: post #14

I really hate how weak they made the strain relief. I found mine frayed within a year of use (in and out of bags and often hastily "wrapped up" in exactly the way the device suggests one should by form... but which everyone advises against). So I did what any enterprising hacker would and tore it open to strip and re-solder the connection... only I found super-thick solder points and don't have a strong enough gun to…

Their wrapping instructions are terrible. You'll kill either the cable or one of the prongs pretty quickly. To protect the end when it starts coming apart silicone tape is ugly but effective (also works for the USB cables).

A bit of Sugru works as an alternative to silicone tape IME. I’ve got a bunch of frayed cables which are still going strong thanks to a chunk of Sugru round the frayed part.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#122

Post by Bud »

throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip:

Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger naturally, perpendicular to the charger, make a small loop, and then wind the rest of the cable gently around the two plastic hooks that are provided. If you do this, the charger will last a LOT longer.

The simple fact is that there is no way to make a wire that gets twisted and yanked and bent at a 90-degree angle, and which will nevertheless last forever. That's just not a thing we can do.

Another tip is: own 2 of these chargers, one for home and one for walking around, so that you don't have to wrap up your only charger over and over, every day.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#123

Post by headwayoldest »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

I've owned Macbooks consistently for about 6 years now, I always use that little loop technique when winding the cord. I've never had a charger fray or fail on me.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#124

Post by tomcam »

twerkmonsta wrote: post #91
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I had an Apple charger fray and light my office on fire. Not much damage beyond burned carpet, but that was only because I was in the room and caught the fire immediately. After calling the company and escalating the issue up to a vice-president, they did nothing but replace the charger. It seriously disturbed me how unconcerned they were of a potentially deadly safety problem. It turned me off of Apple as a company…

You're smart not to work there. Lousy place for someone who wants a decent wage and a 40-hour week.

As for their ignoring your problem... I'm afraid I might do it too. This comes from a formerly idealistic person. If they admit to a problem, they open themselves up to lawsuits. I have been sued before and I learned that telling the truth was not in my favor. Feel a little bad to admit this, but there you are.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#125

Post by drdaeman »

jabl wrote: post #4

Fascinating. The magsafe connector is awesome in preventing something snagging the cable from dragging your laptop along with it. But, as the article says, reliability is a problem. The thing is definitely not toddler-proof. I have a 2012 Macbook Air, and I'm on, I think, my fourth charger.

Reliability: it's not only about connectors or components, the second picture in the article clearly shows a cat (probably) had a bite on the cable. ;)

I have a bunch of (non-Apple) chargers and cables that lost it to our feline overlords.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#126

Post by DanBC »

headwayoldest wrote: post #123
Bud wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

I've owned Macbooks consistently for about 6 years now, I always use that little loop technique when winding the cord. I've never had a charger fray or fail on me.

I use the loop technique. I've had two cords self-destroy.

I'd need some persuading that the rubbery sleeving was chosen for purely engineering reasons, and not mostly "it feels nice".

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#127

Post by yeukhon »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

Sorry, but I am really bad at following written instruction like origami... without visual instructions.. Is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRcszmX_p0 what you tried to demonstrate?

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#128

Post by madeofpalk »

tomcam wrote: post #120
toyg wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the new model? I got the 2012 version (UK) and got the modular charger with cord-to-wall-wart plus wall-wart-only...

Yes. It's the MacBook Air-like fanless one [1] with only 2 ports: headphone and USB-C. And half a power cable. And no MagSafe. Did I mention I'm a little bitter? [1] http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Well you got half a laptop, so you got half a charger!

But in all seriousness, if you consider the charging experience is very similar to an iPad (complete with the sound it makes when you plug it in), you start to see how they justified it.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#129

Post by miketuritzin »

throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I bought one of these about a year ago because I got sick of paying $80 for new Macbook chargers, and it has worked really well so far: http://pythoncords.com/

The idea is to reinforce the place that usually breaks. I'm not affiliated with this company in any way, just a happy customer.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#130

Post by harperlee »

tomcam wrote: post #120
toyg wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the new model? I got the 2012 version (UK) and got the modular charger with cord-to-wall-wart plus wall-wart-only...

Yes. It's the MacBook Air-like fanless one [1] with only 2 ports: headphone and USB-C. And half a power cable. And no MagSafe. Did I mention I'm a little bitter? [1] http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Not to mention (this is going offtopic): no usb-c to mini display port for Target Display Mode with an iMac, although it is technically feasible and a matter of having a passive cable. They just wont create the usb-c versions of most of the peripherals during an unspecified amount of time. Because Apple.
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