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Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
211–220 of 353 posts
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thankfully USB-C charging on my laptops has made that less of an issue. Of course the good chargers are like $80 instead but still.
Yeah, the chargers get expensive, but then again I can power my laptop, portable monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone, soldering iron, flashlight, power bank, and about a dozen other devices all off the same standardized wall wart. It's a pretty good value. With the new PD spec going to 48V 5A I could even power one of my 3D printers off it with power to spare.
Have you been able to find non-manufacturer chargers with a ground connection?
Until now, the only USB-C chargers that I've seen with that are Apple, DELL, and HP (haven't come in contact with Lenovo, etc).
I was looking to buy a second USB-C charger for my HP laptop, but since it has a metal case, the ground connection is a must for me.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#213USB-C has solved about half the power adapter problem and could solve most of the rest with some more adoption.
Why do we not have universal batteries? In fact, we could probably just use USB-C directly. We are good enough at making small things that we could just choose a standard size, lile a Gopro battery, power bank form factor, with a male C connector sticking out one side.
Would it be slightly wasteful to throw out the whole pack with all the electronics? Yeah kinda, but better than throwing out a whole device. Plus, it would guarantee any battery powered device can be run without a battery at all plugged into the wall.
Failing that, they can just design a new futureproof chemistry-independant smart battery from complete scratch.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The Chinese market for eg baby formula might be a good example Um, what? The Chinese government executed people over adulterations of products. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna28... Sorry for the Amp link
Yes, and I am suggesting that regulation is lagging consumer sentiment (which is the driving force for both regulation and the market).
Well yeah, laws are supposed to generally follow the will of the people as much as possible without seriously harming minority groups.
But without the regulation, the trust wouldn't be there, and people would use imported formula, and likely occasionally get contaminated stuff from fly by night vendors.
Grocery stores would probably refuse to stock the poison in some cases, but there might be more subtle contamination that went unnoticed.
Regulations are written in blood and there still seems to be cases of doing the legal minimum even when it's not enough to be safe. As far as I know there are plenty of coin cells with no bitter coating or childproof packaging.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But lo and behold: the brick-to-wall cord is detachable. And funny that, that one never breaks… Yup. But that shows they're willing to pretend to be recyclable...
It’s easier and simpler to supply the country specific brick-to-wall cable (either IEC 60320 or IEC C13 to local) than it is to manufacture county specific power bricks.
Plus, as a user, it's great to be able to only change the cable when traveling to a different country, instead of having to haul around adapters and stack them.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#216It's not even just batteries. Every laptop I've ever owned comes with a AC to DC converter. Every laptop I've ever owned has outlived that AC-to-DC converter. Every converter that has failed has failed in exactly the same way: the plug/cord connection at the laptop end becomes unreliable. And every single one of them, across a range of manufacturers, has had the cord not be detachable from the brick. So what could ha…
Same experience here. That's why my current laptop is a https://frame.work - USB-C to USB-C adapters means that the part that will fail is changeable - All four USB-C are able to charge the laptop. And the power brick also has detachable USB-C AND power cord cable. (And just for fun I ordered an upgrade to the motherboard, will use the old motherboard as always on PC in my home)
Funnily, the same is true for some Apple laptops and bricks.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same experience here. That's why my current laptop is a https://frame.work - USB-C to USB-C adapters means that the part that will fail is changeable - All four USB-C are able to charge the laptop. And the power brick also has detachable USB-C AND power cord cable. (And just for fun I ordered an upgrade to the motherboard, will use the old motherboard as always on PC in my home)
Personally I hate the trend of only charging over type-c. It's an order of magnitude less robust and far more prone to falling out than, say, a ThinkPad connector. Having the option is nice but I despise having to babysit my $100 Asus charger lest I stomp it flat by accident.
I don't know what you mean. I plug my USB-C dock with dual monitors into my laptop, I don't even have the option to not charge my laptop while I'm using it at work.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vape shops have li-ion batteries from known brands
Perhaps, but some "known brands" like Vapcell just re-wrap something else (and they can change the underlying cell at any time, without you knowing where it actually came from). For example, the Vapcell G50 I purchased a year ago is actually ... a Sumsung SDI 50G. Whether that still holds today is unknown. Some people have had more recessed terminals, which would hint at Samsung 50E. Why do they do this? Because many…
> Why do they do this? Because many high quality manufacturers (Samsung, LG) don't approve their cells for usage in vaping devices
Interesting. In France, there's a vape shop that advertises batteries as Samsung, Sony, etc.
For instance: https://www.lepetitvapoteur.com/en/batteries/5185-samsung-30...
Although, I do have a pair of these in front of me right now, bought a few years ago, and I can't find any mention of Samsung, or any other manufacturer, on them.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#219It's not even just batteries. Every laptop I've ever owned comes with a AC to DC converter. Every laptop I've ever owned has outlived that AC-to-DC converter. Every converter that has failed has failed in exactly the same way: the plug/cord connection at the laptop end becomes unreliable. And every single one of them, across a range of manufacturers, has had the cord not be detachable from the brick. So what could ha…
Recent Macs have cords that come in three parts: brick-to-plug, brick, brick-to-laptop. It’s one of my favorite changes in the newer MacBook models.
That has been available in Macs since 20+ years. It depends on the model, as not all get this.
Re: Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been using this magnetic USB-C adapter on my laptop to reduce the wear and tear on the port: https://a.co/d/4JCadfi . I've been using it since March with no complaints. It'd be great if manufacturers could standardize on something like this so that the port could be flush.
They can't; Apple has a patent on Magsafe.
Since they already make it and sell it, they can (standardize too).
They just can't call it Magsafe (trademarked) or use the patented Magsafe design.