It seems Gallium Nitride are quite the revolution in power density for charging equipment
GaN doesn't actually change the capabilities, just the size required.
240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
11–20 of 138 posts
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#12Is it possible for a (laptop + USB-C PD power charger) to support multiple charging rates? My Lenovo Legion 5 has a 300W charger. Caveats: (a) I'm not sure if that's input power or output power; and (b) it's not a USB-C PD connector , but my question isn't specific to this laptop. Airplane A/C power outlets aren't willing to deliver that much power. And even if I was willing to slow-charge the laptop on an airplane o…
Yes, this is what USB-C PD is for. If you have a laptop capable of charging at 100+ W but you plug it in to a 45W charger, it will charge at 45W and maybe give you a notification about slow charging. (Sometimes you'll run into weird exceptions where either the charger or laptop doesn't support a particular voltage or has a lower current limit for some voltages so charging power can end up lower than you'd expect.)
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#13Is it possible for a (laptop + USB-C PD power charger) to support multiple charging rates? My Lenovo Legion 5 has a 300W charger. Caveats: (a) I'm not sure if that's input power or output power; and (b) it's not a USB-C PD connector , but my question isn't specific to this laptop. Airplane A/C power outlets aren't willing to deliver that much power. And even if I was willing to slow-charge the laptop on an airplane o…
My Lenovo Thinkpad X1 has a specific setting that allows it to charge off a lower power that you can access through a setting in windows.
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#14Is it possible for a (laptop + USB-C PD power charger) to support multiple charging rates? My Lenovo Legion 5 has a 300W charger. Caveats: (a) I'm not sure if that's input power or output power; and (b) it's not a USB-C PD connector , but my question isn't specific to this laptop. Airplane A/C power outlets aren't willing to deliver that much power. And even if I was willing to slow-charge the laptop on an airplane o…
Wouldn't airplane outlets just limit how much watts come out? I'm not an electrical engineer, I don't know much about these things, but I'd assume they have protection built-in to just cap out instead of blow a fuse if something draws too much power.
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#15Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#16why was 240W picked as the upper limit for PD? Why does there even need to be an upper limit?
I'd assume it's not specified as a upper limit but that it's just the highest voltage/current-pair currently defined.
On a more fundamental level, there's the physics of how much power you can pass through a cable/connector safely.
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#17why was 240W picked as the upper limit for PD? Why does there even need to be an upper limit?
Because you have to size the cables based on amperage. The highest voltage supported by USB-PD is 20V. At 20V to deliver 240W you need 12 amps. That's already a fairly high number. At 300W you'd need 15 amps.
So unless you want to drag around an NEC type cable as thick as one of your fingers, you need to set a limit.
Edit: Fixed math. I haven't had caffeine yet.
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#18why was 240W picked as the upper limit for PD? Why does there even need to be an upper limit?
I know that increasing voltage at those minuscule distances that usb-c opeates can cause electric arcs which is dangerous
Increasing current on the other hand heats stuff up which... is also dangerous
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#19Is it possible for a (laptop + USB-C PD power charger) to support multiple charging rates? My Lenovo Legion 5 has a 300W charger. Caveats: (a) I'm not sure if that's input power or output power; and (b) it's not a USB-C PD connector , but my question isn't specific to this laptop. Airplane A/C power outlets aren't willing to deliver that much power. And even if I was willing to slow-charge the laptop on an airplane o…
Wouldn't airplane outlets just limit how much watts come out? I'm not an electrical engineer, I don't know much about these things, but I'd assume they have protection built-in to just cap out instead of blow a fuse if something draws too much power.
The trick with my Lenovo 300W notebook in the airplanes is as following.
At first, with the adapter disconnected from the notebook, I charge the capacitors inside of the adapter by connecting and re-connecting repeatedly (1-2 seconds intervals). The first 5 times the breaker trips, but eventually the capacitors are charged, so no initial high current is drawn from the socket, and the breaker is happy.
Only then I connect the notebook to the adapter. I never tried to draw too much power from the airplane socket by playing GPU/CPU intensive games.
Wish you productive flights!
Re: 240W USB-C PD chargers are nearly here, says Framework CEO
#20Waste heat seems like it would be a thing? Even at 95% efficiency (which is unrealistic), we're looking at a 12W heater.
Apple's M1 in the MB Air is 10W TDP afaik. The PSU would be more constrained space-wise but it'd probably get somewhere about as hot as the passive cooled MBA at full load.