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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

#121

Post by tecleandor »

jstrieb wrote: post #69

This teardown is great! At my work, we have an X-ray machine for PCB reverse engineering. On Fridays we throw in random stuff from around the office, and sometimes make videos about what we find inside. A few weeks ago we released an X-ray teardown of several other, older chargers. Very interesting to compare with these fancy new ones! https://youtu.be/4h4qabPsPfI

Ha! I laughed at the "my left ear enjoyed it" comment.

Note that the audio mix for the microphone fell in the left channel only.

Apart from that, interesting images!

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

#122

Post by arvinsim »

jwr wrote: post #114
arvinsim wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I started using wireless charging with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. After a year of use, I am already near the 80% max capacity. My previous phones never even got below 90% in their lifetime.

Are you using high-power wireless charging? Does your phone heat up significantly? As a counterpoint, I've been using low-power wireless charging (5W adapters) with my phones for the last several years (three phones at least). The battery degradation was minimal, I was able to pass my phone to my kid after 3 years of use with near perfect battery. The key here is to prevent heat buildup.

Yes, I am using the high powered ones.

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

#123

Post by madeofpalk »

bArray wrote: post #115

Amazing tear down and such compact design, but it's such a shame that these devices are glued together. Every time you see a glued device, just think "future e-waste".

This criticism seems fair of devices with consumable parts, like batteries. But of a charger? How can this be anything other than waste once it's no longer useful?

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

#124

Post by oulipo2 »

bArray wrote: post #115

Amazing tear down and such compact design, but it's such a shame that these devices are glued together. Every time you see a glued device, just think "future e-waste".

Exactly! Shameless plug: we do a repairable design for e-bike battery which uses no glue (https://gouach.com)

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

#125

Post by jcgl »

Spooky23 wrote: post #77
ryukoposting wrote: post #34

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.

You aren’t, but that concern is mostly superstition. I work at a place with a huge phone fleet. We have interns study our telemetry and records because I kids like phones and they find ways to save us money. We allow for low friction replacements of phones at 12 months — the average replacement is ~27. The most common issues are cracked screens and excessive scratching on iPhone 16 and a Samsung I cannot recall. Batt…

> Unless you’re trying to keep the thing going 5 years, you’re likely seeing marginal benefits.

Not GP, but yes: that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I think that people should generally expect 5+ years out of their devices. And in a world where user-replaceable batteries are decreasingly common, it makes increasing sense to change habits to preserve the built-in battery.

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

#126

Post by fuzzfactor »

oulipo2 wrote: post #124
bArray wrote: post #115

Amazing tear down and such compact design, but it's such a shame that these devices are glued together. Every time you see a glued device, just think "future e-waste".

Exactly! Shameless plug: we do a repairable design for e-bike battery which uses no glue ( https://gouach.com )

Not bad, I thought the folding prongs on this Apple adapter made it a fairly shameless plug itself :)

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

#127

Post by quickthrowman »

londons_explore wrote: post #103
Reason077 wrote: post #13

Hopefully Apple releases a UK version of this adapter soon. The design looks very similar to my beloved Apple UK 20W charger [1]. I’d buy a 40-60W version in a heartbeat! [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-20W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B0...

China makes a 50 watt PD version with 2 ports already. https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuPD4j8 It can deliver 50 watts entirely to 1 port, unlike most others where they mean 25 watts per port. $5.50 with free shipping.

Please do not save money by using unlisted electrical equipment. Spend the extra $20 for a product that is tested and listed by UL/CE/ETL, it’s not worth burning a building down over $20.

You couldn’t pay me enough money to plug this into a building’s electrical distribution system, it’s drawing ~3A at 120V (60W at 5V plus inefficiency) and in a very small form factor, I sure hope the engineering and QA of that $5 charger is up to par. Did they include an internal fuse or did they forego that to save $0.03? Who knows!

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

#128

Post by fuzzfactor »

londons_explore wrote: post #101
chvid wrote: post #100

Great that Apple is making smaller chargers. I use a 65w anker 715 charger which weighs 120g for my laptop - ridiculously small compared to the massive 140w charger the laptop came with.

I use a tiny 15 watt charger for my laptop. It can just about charge the laptop whilst web browsing, but if anything CPU heavy happens then the battery discharges a bit. But over a whole workday I find the charger is enough, and I prefer a smaller lighter charger over the ability to run a game 24x7.

I have one of the first Thinkpads to have a USB-c socket, and the PC can be recharged slowly that way using a low-wattage adapter, but then it will not draw any power at all from the charger when you turn the laptop on, you get a message informing you of this.

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

#129

Post by fuzzfactor »

sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #81
geerlingguy wrote: post #76

Apple has a history of some quality and extremely compact power supplies. I have to wonder if they have a team with an EE paired with an origami artist, with how creative some of the layouts get.

Does Apple even design their own chargers? I know previous chargers have been built by Samsung, Flextronics, and other power electronics companies. Apple sells Anker chargers from within their online store and possibly retail too so I figured they threw in the towel long ago. Honestly it seems quite overpriced when you can get a similar Anker GaN charger for much less. And no, this isn't 2004 anymore, non-OEM charger…

>Does Apple even design their own chargers?

Good question. For this one it says right on the package, designed by Apple in California.

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