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Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

chargerlab.com

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Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#51
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you manage that with magsafe/qi 2 chargers if you want to benefit from the greater efficiency and magnetic alignment? They’re all USB-C, and you can’t trivially buy USB-C chargers that are good for only 5W.

We have a bunch that are USB-A to micro-USB to the charger? If you want to use the newer chargers, I’d think you’d want cooling and airflow. At some point, I want to build a MagSafe stand with a low RPM silent fan on it.

Well I want the newer chargers because they have better efficiency, but I still want them fanless and limited to 5W, which is why I ask.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#52
post #16

Is there a way to slow down these high power chargers? Sometimes I want a fast charge but mostly I want slow to getting hot. I realize overnight charging phones are smart enough to do this but otherwise seems to be impossible without having two different chargers.

You could convert from USB-C to USB-A and back. MicroUSB adapters are popular to chain for devices that only charge on USB-A. There are also adapters just force legacy USB charging for same problem devices. Then your phone will only charge at 12W.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#53
post #8

There doesn't really seem to be anything interesting about this. Also while the US plug makes some pretty compact power adapters, the effect is largely ruined in the EU and UK with their wider more cumbersome plugs.

> There doesn't really seem to be anything interesting about this. Agreed. Seriously, am I missing something or are the compact chargers from various other companies at least as compelling as this? I've got a nice one from Lenovo with high output and a smaller form factor than this. (Several other manufacturers have a similar size and output so nothing special about Lenovo here). The Apple one, while maybe smaller th…

It’s slightly interesting in a “look how much stuff they crammed in there” way, but that would be true of a lot of other tiny chargers too.

Having read the article, I’m a little surprised this hit the front page. It’s well done as a tear down. But that’s all it is.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#54

This is very cool, I might actually get one to charge my laptop. That being said... I can't be the only person who consciously avoids fast-charging my phone. My whole apartment is full of wireless charging pads intentionally plugged into weak chargers (wireless charging avoids putting wear on the USB port). 60 watts can't possibly be healthy for a battery small enough to fit into a phone.

Wireless charging may avoid putting wear on the USB port, but it typically does negatively impact battery health due to higher heat while charging. I suppose with a sufficiently low power charger this may not be a factor, though.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#55
post #41

Its so classically Apple that just when most brands are starting to standardize on PPS (Programmable Power Supply) to allow any voltage to be used, they come with an alternate standard AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply) just to force people to buy their certified chargers. The sole benefit of AVS over PPS is that AVS goes beyond 100W. But these chargers only do 60W. And it would have cost Apple almost nothing to also ad…

AVS was created by the USB PD specification team (the USB Promoter Group/USB-IF), not Apple. AVS was introduced as part of PD 3.1 in 2021, albeit for >100W only. I believe Google was technically first out of the gate with a charger that supports the PDS 3.2 flavor of AVS.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's interesting about it is that it supports SPR AVS, which is a new USB power delivery spec. I'm not aware of any other chargers that support this. https://www.chargerlab.com/complete-pd-3-2-spr-avs-specifica...

A lot support PPS, which seems like it offers a superset of SPR AVS's functionality? http://spravs.com/iphone-17-spr-avs-vs-pps

Apple will invent PPS for iPhone 18. /s

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#57
post #42

I wonder what temperature this thing hits. I have an even smaller 65 W GAN charger[0] that gets pretty toasty under load. I can't really see Apple wanting to ship a toasty charger, though. [0]: https://rollingsquare.com/products/supertiny-the-smallest-65...

Chargers that get to hot then thermal cut off (out of action for an hour) are so annoying.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#58
post #16

Is there a way to slow down these high power chargers? Sometimes I want a fast charge but mostly I want slow to getting hot. I realize overnight charging phones are smart enough to do this but otherwise seems to be impossible without having two different chargers.

If you really want to, you can plug a USB tester (e.g. AVHzY) between your charger and device and manually force the charging mode.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#59
post #41

Its so classically Apple that just when most brands are starting to standardize on PPS (Programmable Power Supply) to allow any voltage to be used, they come with an alternate standard AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply) just to force people to buy their certified chargers. The sole benefit of AVS over PPS is that AVS goes beyond 100W. But these chargers only do 60W. And it would have cost Apple almost nothing to also ad…

AVS was created by the USB PD specification team (the USB Promoter Group/USB-IF), not Apple. AVS was introduced as part of PD 3.1 in 2021, albeit for >100W only. I believe Google was technically first out of the gate with a charger that supports the PDS 3.2 flavor of AVS.

You're completely ignoring that Apple is purposely choosing not to also add support PPS and instead use AVS so they can push people from generic Anker / Belkin / Baseus PPS chargers to their own Apple chargers. For a while anyway.

It would make more sense if they used it for their MacBook chargers, but AFAIK the sole charger they having going beyond 100W is the 16" Pro charger at 140W. Every other Macbook charger is between 45W-96W.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#60
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current thinking is that the phone shouldn’t negotiate a higher wattage than it wants. Hypothetically, you could bolt it to a 1000W charger, and if it only asks for 30W, that’s all it’ll get.

The concern isn't that a 9000W charger will fry a phone expecting 30W, it's that charging at 30W subjects the phone/battery to more stress/wear than charging at 5W.

My device A55 has a fast charging yes/no option. I think that might help tame things?
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