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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

#151

Post by thegayngler »

miketuritzin wrote: post #129
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.

I do this very thing myself and it just frays the cable in a different spot.

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

#152

Post by vacri »

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…

> Apple HAS implemented strain relief here

That's not the same as implementing good strain relief. I used to work for a company that made medical devices. One of our products started with a cable with strain relief, and it kept breaking (a wearable monitor). We 'implemented better strain relief', and it kept breaking. It was revision D where we got it right and the cables stopped breaking. And if cables can't survive a 90-degree bend, then stop them from being able to be bent that far in the first place (we had to).

And to be fair, other companies don't have this problem, because they engineer their chargers for how people will use them - basically what you're describing is another form of "you're holding it wrong".

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

#153

Post by mrosseel »

nostromo wrote: post #141
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…

My earphones kept breaking (I use them while working out) so I reinforced the sensitive area with a heat-shrink wire wrap, like these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008WWC6FU It works wonders. I'm not sure this would work for Mac chargers because you couldn't get the sleeve over the ends, but it also works iPhone charger cables.

I used Sugru (sugru.com) to fix my mac charger and other things, my earphone cable is next.

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

#154

Post by radlad »

jegutman wrote: post #113
mrmondo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of those annoying people that has never had MacBook charger perish or fray, until very recently I still had a 2011 MBP and its original charger was fine. But yes I've seen people with dangerously broken chargers before, I have noticed they're often people with cracked phone screens - I wonder if they're perhaps people that are either more physically active with their hardware or perhaps more careless with loo…

I have a cat. None of my other charging cables are vulnerable except my macbook pro one. I've already lost two! Even if they made it easier to replace just the cable that goes from the adapter to the macbook it would be a big win for me.

My cat destroyed mine just last night. :( He has, admittedly, destroyed some headphone cables already, but $15 + some soldering is nothing compared to $80 for my Macbook charger.

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

#156

Post by rdtsc »

> The charger uses an advanced design called a resonant controller, which lets the system operate at a very high frequency, up to 500 kilohertz.

Wonder what would happen if the 500 kHz signal would be fed to an antenna? Would that emit a signal, would it not work at all or become dangerous and probably highly illegal?

Here is an example what an antenna for 500 kHz looks like:

http://g0mrf.com/500kAntenna.htm

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

#157

Post by eropple »

Brakenshire wrote: post #82
msoad wrote: post #27

I'm so sad to see MagSafe was replaced with USB-C in the new MacBook. Hopefully they don't deprecate MagSafe for larger laptops. I won't mind USB-C + MagSafe charging capability though! ;)

I'd gladly exchange Magsafe for generic interchangeable chargers. One charger for a laptop, tablet, smartphone and e-reader, and provided as a matter of course in cafes, libraries, trains, workplaces etc would be superb.

I under no circumstances want my probably-not-very-secure peripheral bus accessed by things provided by a matter of course in cafes, libraries, etc. Magsafe is stupid and that is fine by me.

This is also why I carry my own USB adapters rather than relying on others', and have a USB condom (they call them SyncStop now, I think, but that one is big and weird) in my wallet just in case.

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

#158

Post by eropple »

alasdair_ wrote: post #116
XorNot wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the market at the moment is terrible. When buy genuine Apple or Samsung you know the quality is good. But when you pay something closer to what it should cost, who knows what you're getting? Could be a decent charger, could be heavily marked up Chinese junk.

I recently bought a VESA monitor conversion kit for an apple display (why Apple can get away with charging $1000 for a 27 inch display is beyond me) that turned out to be a knock off. It looked IDENTICAL to the official apple version on the outside but the screws didn't line up perfectly and it was clearly an inferior product. I'm not planning on skimping again, even for essentially just a hunk of machined metal.

I wouldn't buy one (I've got two Dell UltraSharps and I'm happy as a clam), but an Apple 27" monitor is also a Thunderbolt dock, most of which retail around $200. It's more expensive than its competitors, but I think that it's merely overpriced instead of exorbitant.

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

#159

Post by noja »

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 guess we're holding the phones wrong too.

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

#160

Post by makeitsuckless »

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…

It's so weird. Everything I have by Apple still works and still looks good. But all my Apple data and power cables are held together with Sugru.
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