
Apple Lightning Connector Serial Access (2015) - walterbell
http://ramtin-amin.fr/#tristar
======
walterbell
From [https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/apple-usb-c-european-
com...](https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/apple-usb-c-european-
commision-3525764)

 _> The European Commissioner for Competition ... is considering clamping down
on tech companies who have made “unsatisfactory progress” towards common
charging standards ... Apple is now the biggest player to have not adopted the
USB Type-C standard for its flagship phones ... This is no idle threat ... the
European Commission were recently behind the record €4.3 billion fine levied
on Google_

[https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2018/9/...](https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2018/9/10/17841152/apple-
ipad-pro-2018-usb-c-lightning-charger-rumor)

 _> Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro rumored to switch from Lightning to USB-C ...
Ming-Chi Kuo says that the next high-end version of the tablet will switch
over to USB Type-C_

~~~
LocalH
The EU mandating which connector the actual _phone_ has is a huge overreach.
All Lightning-supported devices can be plugged into USB ports appropriately.

~~~
pfranz
This all started because of the incredible amount of e-waste because every
brand used their own standard. Things didn't seem much better when USB started
becoming standard on the other end of the cable for data and charging. Apple's
original compromise was to offer lightning to micro-usb adapters[1].

[1] [https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD820AM/A/lightning-to-
mi...](https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD820AM/A/lightning-to-micro-usb-
adapter)

~~~
swiley
I feel like micro USB may have actually made it worse because the connector
has small springs which bend and fatigue very easily.

~~~
ghusbands
Do you mean USB-C, which is what people are now using? Micro USB is the much
older, non-reversible tech.

~~~
akvadrako
In either case it's wrong - the newer standards are rated for more abuse than
the older ones.

------
exabrial
Apple is kinda put into a tight spot with lightning; they spent a bunch of
money developing the connector an accessory platform. Now usb-c is taking over
and they've moved to 100% usb-c on their laptops. it'll be interesting to see
if the lightning connector gets The Chopping Block anytime soon

~~~
dwighttk
There isn't much need these days to plug a phone into a Mac. If you need or
want to, there are lightning to USB-C cables.

I would be surprised to see them switch anytime in the next few years. I would
be less surprised if they removed lightning altogether from a new phone than
if they switched from lightning to usb.

~~~
SippinLean
But if you want to _quick charge_ your iPhone X (or 8) you need USB-C. The
included USB-A to Lightning cable won't do it (neither will the 5W power brick
included with the iPhone X).

You'd need a lightning to USB-C cables and a USB-C PD power brick, neither are
very cheap. Apple's USB-C cables start at $19 and the charger at $49!

~~~
ryanianian
I've purchased a large number of USB-C cables, and the Apple one is the only
one that seems to charge a macbook pro at full-speed (87watts). All the others
(Anker, Amazon Basics, a few others) only charge at 30w or 60w which can leave
your computer out of battery after a full day of use even when plugged in if
you're doing compute-heavy things. Not saying the $19 price-tag is "fair," but
at least it's a high-quality cable.

~~~
rvense
"High quality" in this case probably means that the microcontroller embedded
it spits out the right sequence of bytes to make the laptop enable full-speed
charging.

~~~
reaperducer
Surprisingly, no.

Google around for tear-downs of Apple charging gear. They usually have
comparisons with tear-downs of the generic "equivalents."

It's fascinating how different the engineering is from one brand to another,
and the (sometimes terrifying) shortcuts the non-Apple chargers take.

~~~
hrktb
Aren’t we talking about the cables here ? I’d be curious to know what in the
Apple cable is so high quality that it allows it faster speed than the other
decent brands.

Otherwise my Google-fu is failing me on the USB-C charger teardown, do you
remember where you saw one ?

~~~
brigade
Sufficiently low resistance wire; in particular, USB power over 60W needs >3A
current, so a high-gauge high-resistance wire can cause voltage to drop below
the minimum specs.

Since everything 60W and below uses a max of 3A, that’s the common maximum
design target.

~~~
hrktb
This basic anker cable seems to fit the bill:

[https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerline-3ft-usb-
c-t...](https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerline-3ft-usb-c-to-
usb-c-2-0/A8187091)

it might have been rarer when the macbook pro got out, at this point I think
it’s decently common.

~~~
selectodude
"This cable will not charge Nexus 5X, Moto Z, OnePlus 3/3T, Huawei Mate 9,
Helio X20/X25, or MacBook Pro 87W at full speed."

Guess I'm still going to Apple.

~~~
hrktb
good point, I read too fast

------
doe88
Previous discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9049113](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9049113)

------
sebslomski
Impressing, that's real engineering. That persistence astonishes & impresses
me!

------
jtaft
"Hit enter to break into the command prompt..."

I wonder what's there.

~~~
saagarjha
Probably astris or some other serial debug interface.

------
hughc
In talking about a switch to USB-C, one point seems to be missing - Lightning
gives Apple absolute control over which devices can connect. If you don't pay
up your MFI fees, and get your device blessed, then there's a chance it can be
blocked in a later firmware update, at Apple's discretion. This extends all
the way down to charging cables, (tho I'm not sure how well it's enforced /
easily sidestepped for charging cables).

Maintaining that level of control, and maintaining the licencing revenue
stream, over USB-C, might prove difficult?

Either that, or they change the connector, and leave all the handshake
protocol / custom chipset at both ends in place, in which case we will end up
with devices that are USB-C in connector only.

~~~
dcbadacd
USB-C standard has a s __tload of DRM built-in with quite a bit of crypto
protecting it. You can even ask the country code where the power is from! I
've yet to hear about Lighting possibly being region-locked D:

------
jordache
usb-c is a POS... the USB-C power connection on my MBP was noticeably looser
after 1 yr of use.. lightning never exhibited this degradation.

~~~
SargeZT
So what you're saying is that Apple's implementation of the USB-C connector is
terrible? I don't see how that's a legitimate criticism of the standard.

~~~
jordache
I suspect the hollow USB C male connector is more susceptible to this
degradation. The lightning male connector is not hollow

------
myrandomcomment
I have no wish to see a usb3 on my iThings anytime soon. The lighting
connector just works. There are 5 iPads and 3 iPhones in my house and I have
never had any issue with the lightning connector. On the other hand everything
that I have that has usb3 type C ends up becoming loose. USB is great, I just
wish they made it with a good connector for once.

------
Lomaxing
interesting, it would be nice if there was a Mod, so you could replace the
lightning port to usb c.

