
Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter - robin_reala
http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surprising.html
======
throwaway420
Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good
job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger
wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate
person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other
similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time.

Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculously durable products that I use for years on
end. It's just weird that their charger's wire almost seems purposefully
designed to break in this manner.

This isn't just a minor annoyance and monetary concern where I'm just annoyed
at having to buy a new charger every year or so - there's a real safety issue
here with this wire being so fragile - it could be both a shock and fire
hazard.

Shame on Apple for ignoring this very real problem with their product.

~~~
Bud
I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here
is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger
cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their
best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip:

Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as
possible, let the cable come out of the charger naturally, perpendicular to
the charger, make a small loop, and then wind the rest of the cable gently
around the two plastic hooks that are provided. If you do this, the charger
will last a LOT longer.

The simple fact is that there is _no way_ to make a wire that gets twisted and
yanked and bent at a 90-degree angle, and which will nevertheless last
forever. That's just not a thing we can do.

Another tip is: own 2 of these chargers, one for home and one for walking
around, so that you don't have to wrap up your only charger over and over,
every day.

~~~
jeffcox
I've owned Macbooks consistently for about 6 years now, I always use that
little loop technique when winding the cord. I've never had a charger fray or
fail on me.

~~~
DanBC
I use the loop technique. I've had two cords self-destroy.

I'd need some persuading that the rubbery sleeving was chosen for purely
engineering reasons, and not mostly "it feels nice".

~~~
knowaveragejoe
The sleeving was chosen because the springy quality makes it easier to
untangle.

------
weland
This is a pretty interesting article! I raised more than my fair share of
eyebrows by telling people I'm not really surprised with this kind of
complexity (note: I'm an EE by formation, I took a frickin' two-semester
course on power supplies) _but_ that it doesn't fully justify the price
difference.

Also, Jobs was a blatant liar :-). The SMPS in any modern computer is based on
a standard topology that Rod Holt -- though a brilliant engineer in his own
right -- didn't invent. I don't remember the specific details, but it's based
on a flyback design that was certainly well-known at the time.

~~~
abritinthebay
I think this isn't so much Jobs _lying_ as it is him doing his normal
embellishment.

Rod Holts design wasn't electrically unique, but it was extremely light and
small. The Apple II wasn't the first computer to use a switching supply but it
was _shockingly_ light of a power supply which really helped the Apple II's
reputation.

Which... as far as Jobs was likely concerned was all that mattered, but it
wasn't the rip-off he claimed, it was just the start of the trend and Holt was
at the right time to be one of the first on that wave.

~~~
somedudethere
Yeah. When Apple claims to have invented something, they don't mean that they
invented the very first instance of it, they mean that they invented a
practical and transformative consumer implementation, which depending on who
you are can be viewed as just as important (because what use is a technology
if it can't be used on a practical level?)

~~~
ksk
"popularized" and "invented" are two words which would be useful in this
situation. Hopefully, we can all agree on the distinct meaning of those words.

>because what use is a technology if it can't be used on a practical level?

I know you meant it in a general sense, but the act of demonstrating something
can also be useful. It could be that its not very profitable to manufacture or
that it could serve as an inspiration for others to improve upon the idea
itself.

------
Analemma_
My takeaway from this is that the $80 Apple charger is definitely safer and
has higher-quality components than the $12 cheapo Chinese charger, but not
nearly so much better that it solely explains the price difference, and that
Apple is making a healthy margin on these things. So my question is, is anyone
selling a quality charger without the Apple tax? Is there anyone making, say,
$40 chargers that have the components of the real thing?

~~~
mikepurvis
I doubt it, since the magnetic connector itself is patented, and they
apparently don't license it— which is why the BatteryBox connector is such an
awkward hack:
[https://www.getbatterybox.com/shop](https://www.getbatterybox.com/shop)

~~~
shade23
Wow.I never gave much thought to Apple's magnetic connector till.The battery
box does look like an ugly hack.But what I dont get is.Its magnets
attracting.What and exactly what have they patented?

~~~
noonespecial
Magnetic self-locating connectors have been around forever. I have a waffle
iron from the 60's that's got one. The patented part is the specific size and
shape (and pinout I guess) of that particular connector that prevents 3rd
parties from making compatible adapters. Apple is far from alone in trying to
profit from that shenanigan. It is, of course, _profoundly_ wasteful for
manufactures to pursue "nickle-and-dime" profits in this manner at the expense
of the public and the environment. Something the cellphone charging standard
in Europe tried to address.

Just goes to show that there are plenty of places where Apple doesn't do much
thinking different after all.

~~~
cxseven
I wonder how patenting a specific implementation of an already-known thing is
allowed. Why is this considered an original invention?

Among other things, it violates the intent of patents "To promote the Progress
of Science and useful Arts".

~~~
tim333
I think they've patented innovations in their thing like you can put it in
either way up and it's got a chip with little lights in the end. They waffle
on for pages in
[http://www.google.com/patents/US7311526](http://www.google.com/patents/US7311526)

I'm not sure they should be able to patent fairly simple upgrades like that
but I guess that's the US patent system.

------
tomcam
You know what's not surprisingly complex? My feeling about how screwed I felt
when I got the Macbook and its charger consisted only of straight-to-plug wall
wart, power cord to Mac, as opposed to cord-to-wall-wart, wall wart, power
cord to Mac. They halved the length of the cord while forcing you to stick
your wall wart right into the socket, crowding out other cords if it's on a
small power strip. That and the fact that it's not MagSafe anymore.

~~~
toyg
Is this the new model? I got the 2012 version (UK) and got the modular charger
with cord-to-wall-wart plus wall-wart-only...

~~~
tomcam
Yes. It's the MacBook Air-like fanless one [1] with only 2 ports: headphone
and USB-C. And half a power cable. And no MagSafe. Did I mention I'm a little
bitter?

[1] [http://www.apple.com/macbook/](http://www.apple.com/macbook/)

~~~
fgandiya
That sucks. May I ask why you got the MacBook? The air always liked like a
better deal to me.

~~~
thenewwazoo
Not OP, but I bought one because of the HighDPI screen. Looking at the Air's
low-res screen makes me feel like there's something wrong with my eyes. With
that said, it's far from a perfect laptop.

~~~
realeyes
Can I ask what makes it far from perfect? I'm really considering buying one
but I'm afraid it might be too slow for my liking.

~~~
tomcam
In my option it's quite close to perfect. I do dev work using Go, JS, and
markup so speed is not a problem at all--if you're doing heavy compiler work
YMMV. The fanless thing is incredibly important to me. I find the new keyboard
harder to use than that of the Macbook Air, but I'm sure I'll adapt.

I'm not creating music on it so the lack of a USB 2 connector doesn't matter
to me. I have to admit just the USB C and the headphone cord are plenty.

Its slimness and lightness are also important to me. My inviolate rule is that
the more portable a laptop is, the more I'm likely to carry it with me to do
extra work.

Wall wart & magsafe issues are not deal killers for me.

I'd recommend it if it fits your requirements exactly, as it did mine.
Otherwise, I'd go with a high spec MacBook Air, because they're faster and,
with the extra USB port, more practical for many uses.

------
agentultra
I really hate how weak they made the strain relief. I found mine frayed within
a year of use (in and out of bags and often hastily "wrapped up" in exactly
the way the device suggests one should by form... but which everyone advises
against). So I did what any enterprising hacker would and tore it open to
strip and re-solder the connection... only I found super-thick solder points
and don't have a strong enough gun to de-solder them.

Ended up just blowing cash on a new brick.

I was rather impressed by how many components they stash away in these things.
I just wish the cables themselves were a little more reliable. They're
otherwise fine devices.

~~~
hedgehog
Their wrapping instructions are terrible. You'll kill either the cable or one
of the prongs pretty quickly. To protect the end when it starts coming apart
silicone tape is ugly but effective (also works for the USB cables).

~~~
pja
A bit of Sugru works as an alternative to silicone tape IME. I’ve got a bunch
of frayed cables which are still going strong thanks to a chunk of Sugru round
the frayed part.

------
woah
Hidden gem in this article is a comically bald-faced lie from Steve Jobs:

> "That switching power supply was as revolutionary as the Apple II logic
> board was. Rod doesn't get a lot of credit for this in the history books but
> he should. Every computer now uses switching power supplies, and they all
> rip off Rod Holt's design."

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
It may not quite be true, but it's not necessarily a lie. People often don't
realise where an invention came from.

~~~
weland
It's more likely a bold overstatement made by a superficial onlooker. Wozniak
describes the same power supply here:
[http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/35.html](http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/35.html)
, in these terms:

Other hobby computers of the day used inefficient power supplies. The Apple ][
was the first computer ever to use a plastic case. The heat buildup using even
my own power supply design (inefficient type) would have been too great. Steve
tapped an Atari engineer, Rod Holt, to design a switching power supply that
was much more efficient and generated less heat. Rod also keyed us into the
fact that the plastic case wouldn't conduct heat well. At this point in time
we took pride in being the first computer to use a switching power supply.
Steve was proud of the fact that we didn't need a fan and seems to hold to
that ideal to this day.

So:

* Holt designed a switching power supply which employed a patented addition to an otherwise well-known topology (it's a flyback power supply).

* Computers nowadays "rip off" the same design that Holt ripped off, they all use flyback PSUs.

* I doubt that the Apple II was really the first computer to use a switching-mode power supply, _but_ linear supplies were pretty common among hobby computers back then. The Commodore 64 had one, for instance.

The downvoted comment about Jobs being an ignorant liar is probably spot-on.

~~~
vonklaus
interesting. i was thinking about that quote before reading the article, and
did not realize it was incorrect.

how inportant was/is a switching supply, and was incorporating it really as
simple as copying a well-known design?

also, i think that in this case Job's has to characterized as ignorant _or_ a
liar.

he almost had no idea how power supplies work and this "invention" gave him
the ability to credit someone other than woz for the Apple II success. which
is how i read this qoute, as jobs usually didn't publicly praise people
without a motive.

or.

he did realize how this work and lied to rewrite the books on what company
made this contribution. i think it was a bit of both, but the ignorance allows
one to attribute some of the mischarachterizations to lack of info rather than
simple disingenuousness.

~~~
weland
> how inportant was/is a switching supply

Fairly important. Linear power supplies are pretty large and put out a lot of
heat. It was commonplace back then for most appliances, including computers,
to have a linear power supply. A switching-mode PSU was an improvement over
the status quo _in general_.

> and was incorporating it really as simple as copying a well-known design?

Yes, it was.

------
zik
One thing which bugs me about this article is he conflates "complex" with
"good". As an electronic designer I spend a huge amount of effort trying to
make things as simple as possible. Complexity may be required to meet certain
requirements but in general keeping it simple makes things more reliable and
more cost effective.

~~~
tajen
Yes I wondered whether this complexity is a factor of enterprise design: Each
engineer is responsible for a subsystem, ending up with x^n pieces, whereas
the counterfeit one took 1 or 2 engineers.

~~~
dfox
There are two sources of complexity in the charger:

PFC and efficient resonant converter, which is to be expected of high-quality
charger.

The whole magsafe handshaking mechanism, which looks like an afterthought to
solve reliability problems caused by arcing on the pins, that also got used to
block counterfeiters.

------
Sakiina_
Anyone here heard of the Magsafe saver?

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lightning-magsafe-
saver-p...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lightning-magsafe-saver-
protects-your-cables#/)

This is what I got-- took an eternity to get to me, but it works well enough.
I wrap my cables. I had my Macbook Pro for two years, abused it, charger was
fine. I sold it with the Macbook when I moved back Stateside after living
abroad.

My next charger broke, because my kitten decided it made a great teething
chew. Cha-ching. $80. I noticed a bit of wear, so I got the dinky plastic
protectors. They seem to be working well. I use it on my lightning cable, too.

~~~
Gracana
How does that not just move the point of strain further down the cable? It
looks like a rigid extension of the strain relief boot.

~~~
Sakiina_
It is fairly rigid, but there's some flex. It just seems to make it so there's
not such a sharp "curve", if you will, if you wrap the cable, at the end,
where it seems to fray the most, and where I noticed the most wear.

------
tomcam
The embedded TI MSP430 microcontroller can easily be had for $.15 in quantity
1 compares to the original Mac's 68K, but using 1% of the power of the 68K.
From the article:

 _The 68000 microprocessor from the original Apple Macintosh and the 430
microcontroller in the charger aren 't directly comparable as they have very
different designs and instruction sets. But for a rough comparison, the 68000
is a 16/32 bit processor running at 7.8MHz, while the MSP430 is a 16 bit
processor running at 16MHz. The Dhrystone benchmark measures 1.4 MIPS (million
instructions per second) for the 68000 and much higher performance of 4.6 MIPS
for the MSP430. The MSP430 is designed for low power consumption, using about
1% of the power of the 68000._

------
specialp
All Apple needs to do to stop their cables from fraying at very high rates is
to use a continuous flex cable like these:
[http://www.igus.com/wpck/15029/productoverview_CF?C=US&L=en](http://www.igus.com/wpck/15029/productoverview_CF?C=US&L=en)
I used to work on amusement rides, and we had a problem with cables on bumper
cars breaking very often due to movement. After replacing them with these they
never failed again.

------
jupp0r
Mine fail on me every 9 months. I think there is just no way you can avoid
that if you just roll/unroll the cable several times per day. Their AppleCare
program takes care of for "free", but the downtime is really annoying, that's
why I keep one of those fake adapters around to bridge those gaps.

~~~
hk__2
I roll/unroll the cable several times per day and my charger is completely
fine. I got it with my Air mid '13 two years ago and use every day. It has
probably a lot more to do with the way you roll it (and/or the one Apple
thinks you should) rather than an inherent cable weakness.

------
msoad
I'm so sad to see MagSafe was replaced with USB-C in the new MacBook.
Hopefully they don't deprecate MagSafe for larger laptops. I won't mind USB-C
+ MagSafe charging capability though! ;)

~~~
Brakenshire
I'd gladly exchange Magsafe for generic interchangeable chargers. One charger
for a laptop, tablet, smartphone and e-reader, and provided as a matter of
course in cafes, libraries, trains, workplaces etc would be superb.

~~~
eropple
I under no circumstances want my probably-not-very-secure peripheral bus
accessed by things provided by a matter of course in cafes, libraries, etc.
Magsafe is stupid and that is _fine_ by me.

This is also why I carry my own USB adapters rather than relying on others',
and have a USB condom (they call them SyncStop now, I think, but that one is
big and weird) in my wallet just in case.

~~~
kens
Magsafe actually isn't stupid - there's bidirectional communication with the
laptop over the data pin in the middle of the connector, using the 1-Wire
protocol. The protocol is _probably_ simple enough to have no security issues,
but now I wonder if a malicious connector could carry out an attack (buffer
overflow, bad data, etc). Some security engineer might want to investigate
this...

~~~
eropple
Stupid has degrees. I'm a lot more confident in the ability to secure Magsafe
than something that has to support such functionally open things as Alternate
Mode.

------
jabl
Fascinating. The magsafe connector is awesome in preventing something snagging
the cable from dragging your laptop along with it.

But, as the article says, reliability is a problem. The thing is definitely
not toddler-proof. I have a 2012 Macbook Air, and I'm on, I think, my fourth
charger.

~~~
engi_nerd
Had a 2011 Macbook Pro. Was always very nice to the charger, never abusing or
dropping it. But Apple's decision with all their cabling to not incorporate
strain relief was frustrating. I went through four chargers in four years.

Why does Apple continue to ignore strain relief on their cabling?

~~~
spike021
Odd. I have a 2011 MBP as well and over four years of constant use in school
(plugging in the charger at the dorm, unplugging and throwing it into my bag,
plugging it in in class, removing, etc. in various places) it's held up. I use
it now with my newer Macbook (just needed to get the magsafe 2 adapter
dongle).

~~~
engi_nerd
It wouldn't have been so bad if you weren't paying for the high-quality
engineering inside the charger itself. You get really nice, clean power out of
them, but when you go through a charger every year, $80 is a little painful.

------
mpg33
I actually find Apple's charging cables to be pretty flimsy and not very
durable.

~~~
riffraff
having had 5 chargers' cables of 3 kinds break on me in less than 10 years, I
agree wholeheartedly.

But I think TFA is about the charger internals, rather than the cables per se.

------
tptacek
The LED in the Macbook power connector is programmable? Has someone written a
tool to make it blink or something?

~~~
kogepathic
It's not programmable, there are two LEDs (well, 4 total) in the magsafe
connector: one orange, one green.

The same guy did a write up on the protocol used to communicate with the
magsafe tips. It can also be used to trigger the above LEDs:
[http://www.righto.com/2013/06/teardown-and-exploration-of-
ma...](http://www.righto.com/2013/06/teardown-and-exploration-of-magsafe.html)

------
silveira
All this and the thin wire is what is going to break. I was around my 4th
charger when I lost count.

~~~
nevereverreg
I have had 4 or 5 power supplies. Never had to replace any of them. Ended up
giving the Macs and original adapters away, as I upgraded to new systems.

------
grandalf
While it's clear that Apple attempts to limit the production of junk
peripherals by patenting its connectors, it would be great if licenses were
made readily available to companies wishing to make high quality stuff.

Even just putting a magsafe connector on the brick itself would allow the
cable to be easily replaced if it frayed.

Does anyone know if Apple laptops contain enough protective circuitry to be
used safely with inferior power adapters? It appears that some of that
sophistication is actually just moving parts out of the laptop and into the
adapter.

------
jloughry
An interesting feature of switched-mode power supplies like this is that
they'll run on DC input, if that's all you have! DC passes right through the
bridge rectifier into the chopper---not sure how happy the PFC circuit would
be about that---and the rest of the circuitry works as usual. If the DC supply
voltage is high enough, it'll work.

~~~
yourapostasy
Please forgive the ignorant questions of a software guy that probably have
blindingly obvious answers to a EE. Does this mean that theoretically, I could
attach a 18V/18.5V [0] DC power source (like a solar panel array running into
a DC-DC converter) to the prongs and as long as I can supply about 100W/8.5A
my MacBook Pro will boot?

[0] [http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/111250/how-to-
charg...](http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/111250/how-to-charge-the-
macbook-pro-from-12-volts)

~~~
kens
Chargers require a minimum voltage to work. They typically say 85V and might
work with lower, but I expect 18V is way too low. I'd also be very nervous
about feeding DC into a PFC circuit (which is designed to track the AC
waveform) - does anyone know for sure what PFC does if you feed it the wrong
frequency? (Someone else asked about 400Hz aircraft power too.)

~~~
TD-Linux
It probably won't blow anything up, but the active PFC might not be very happy
as it tries to track the AC waveform to control the current draw. It might
just not work.

You'd be better off getting one of the cheaper clone adapters with passive or
no PFC if you want to make a dedicated DC power supply.

------
pfooti
Fraying on the charger (dc-carrying) cable is definitely an issue, but my
biggest gripe about these chargers is the form factor of the AC-carrying part
of the power cord. I can't speak to non-US chargers, but the three-prong cord
that plugs into the wall has no coiling shape. If the plug itself had a self-
clip (like at the end of the charging cable), at least I could keep my cord
from unrolling in my bag and expanding to fill the entire free space. I'm
usually torn when I'm leaving the house with my macbook: do I bring the long
cable and deal with bag disorganization, or do I hope I'm close enough to a
plug and the plug orientation doesn't make me regret my lack of regular power
cord?

You'd think with all this industrial design effort spent (pretty successfully
IMO for the most part), there'd be an improvement in that particular cable.

~~~
tburch
I'll just leave this here... [https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-
media/image/upload/s--HwBqLe3...](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-
media/image/upload/s--
HwBqLe3c--/c_fill,fl_progressive,g_north,h_358,q_80,w_636/1992se3paqpt8jpg.jpg)

~~~
bartvk
Looks like the DC part of the adapter is very tightly wound. It's not even
visible coming out of the adapter itself. This looks like a good way to fray
the cable.

------
joeyspn
> The ironic thing about the Apple Macbook charger is that despite its
> complexity and attention to detail, it's not a reliable charger.

Maybe that's what they want...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence)

------
joshmn
Now do the cord, and find out why they always turn to shit.

------
chmaynard
Here’s my approach to the MacBook flimsy cable problem:

1\. Sometime during warranty period, purchase AppleCare extended warranty.

2\. Don’t worry about cable strain, just treat cable as if it were well made.

3\. When cable frays, return power adapter to Apple Store for a free
replacement.

4\. Rinse and repeat.

AppleCare also comes in handy when the $800 display fails.

~~~
johansch
You really tricked them! Had them replace their faulty product!!

------
swiley
You can tell they're non trivial if you do any kind of HF radio stuff. When
you plug one in the higher end of the spectrum fills with one kind of wideband
digital looking noise for about a second, and then another noise there after.

~~~
kens
That's interesting. What frequency range are you looking at, and how do you
examine it? The charger waits one second after being plugged into the laptop
before enabling the output voltage, so that would explain some of the behavior
you see.

------
ageofwant
No mention of Dave's eevblog ?

Its both entertaining and informative:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE)

------
seesomesense
"most of the circuitry is covered by the metal heat sink, held in place by
yellow insulating tape."

This sounds a bit dodgy to me. Could someone with domain expertise comment on
whether this is normal ?

~~~
sdk77
It's normal. Actually the part mentioned that wraps around the power supply is
not only a heatsink but also a shield for reducing radiated noise. PSU like
this are very noisy and without (a.o.) this shield it may not be possible to
get it approbated. The shield has transparent plastic foil beneath it to act
as an insulator (barely visible on the first photo, but on the picture with
the shield removed it's clearly visible). The usage of yellow tape is
perfectly normal.

------
rdtsc
> The charger uses an advanced design called a resonant controller, which lets
> the system operate at a very high frequency, up to 500 kilohertz.

Wonder what would happen if the 500 kHz signal would be fed to an antenna?
Would that emit a signal, would it not work at all or become dangerous and
probably highly illegal?

Here is an example what an antenna for 500 kHz looks like:

[http://g0mrf.com/500kAntenna.htm](http://g0mrf.com/500kAntenna.htm)

~~~
zik
Switch mode power supplies are notorious emitters of radio frequency
interference. There are regulations they have to pass and passing them is
often one of the hardest parts of power supply design.

------
mosdave
> There's a lot more circuitry crammed into the compact power adapter than
> you'd expect, including a microprocessor.

microcontroller.

------
_sword
Has anyone else ever had the cord of their magsafe charger start sparking or
catch on fire (as it burns through the insulation and rubber) right behind the
adapter? I've had it happen with I believe three chargers across two different
computers.

~~~
justinsaccount
From the article:

Problems with Apple's chargers

The ironic thing about the Apple Macbook charger is that despite its
complexity and attention to detail, it's not a reliable charger. When I told
people I was doing a charger teardown, I rapidly collected a pile of broken
chargers from people who had failed chargers. The charger cable is rather
flimsy, leading to a class action lawsuit stating that the power adapter
dangerously frays, sparks and prematurely fails to work. Apple provides
detailed instructions on how to avoid damaging the wire, but a stronger cable
would be a better solution. The result is reviews on the Apple website give
the charger a dismal 1.5 out of 5 stars.

------
bdcravens
I haven't had wear and tear issues, but I rarely use it (have Thunderbolt
monitors home and office, with built-in power) and I keep it in a Quirky
PowerCurl when I do use it (usually only when traveling)

------
blhack
>It enables the output when the charger is connected to a Macbook, disables
the output when the charger is disconnected

I don't think this is actually true...

I found out by doing something really stupid. The pins on my charger get
really dirty, which makes the charger connector get REALLY hot (like burn your
finger hot). One day, I was cleaning the pins off with a wire brush, but I
[stupidly] forgot to actually UNPLUG THE CHARGER. I knew this because when I
applied the brush, (the end of it looks a lot like steel wool), it started
sparking against the brush.

------
pi-rat
I wish Apple used magsafe connectors for both ends on their charger cables.
Sucks to throw away a perfectly good charger, just because a tiny length of
cable (usually near the brick) is frayed.

------
praveenweb
I guess there is a similar problem with the lightning connector for iPhones. I
had to change my iPhone cable multiple times in the past 4 years. Be it the 30
pin connector or the new lightning connector, its so fragile. Always been an
ardent fan of Apple and its products, but disappointed with this strategy of
making money through intentionally designed fragile cables that won't last
more than a year leading to accessory sales.

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mschuster91
What I wonder: EVERYTHING is available as China knockoffs, but I have yet to
see a fake, replacement MagSafe connector...

~~~
Kluny
I have. I bought a replacement magsafe from one of those little outfits that
buys "old macbooks in any condition! ca$$h today!" and refurbishes them. I
paid almost full price for it thinking it was OEM, but when I got home and
matched it up to my extension cable, it was obviously a cheap knockoff. Worked
well enough even though it was unsightly and difficult to use (the extension
cable was really hard to slide on and off), but at $85 compared to OEM at $90,
why bother?

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outworlder
The Thunderbolt display is handy to avoid carrying chargers around - except if
you own a Macbook Air (and even more so on the 13" model).

You see, a Macbook Air charges on one side, but the Thunderbolt port is on the
other side. It creates a lot of strain. No such issue with Macbook Pros.

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swingbridge
The detail of engineering inside of Apple's products is impressive. A lot of
attention paid to things that one almost never sees. Like others though the
cable ends on computer and iPhoje chargers do always get frayed. I wish they
could make that bit better.

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ctz
> the imitation leaves out the ground connection

Genuine Apple adaptors come with plugs with plastic earth pins. You can feel
the tingle from leakage current with such plugs.

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mcv
Very interesting. So why do these expensive things keep breaking all the time,
and how can I fix them? I'm on my third charger for my Macbook.

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nvcken
Technically , have anyone can give me advice that we should keep charger plug-
in when using macbook or plug-out when full-charge?

~~~
frankiechh
Keeping the battery always topped off isn't healthy for it.

I keep my charger in during the day then take it off when I leave.

~~~
nvcken
So you mean we do not worry decayed battery or cell memory effect when plug-in
charger during the day working although battery still 100%. Is it right ? Why
is it possible ?

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capitan417
There's no way that the cost of these individual components can be used to
justify the price tag. That's pure delusion.

~~~
doYouEvenHalt
Hmm. Any citations to back this up?

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kens
At the end of the article, I price out most of the charger components . I also
estimate reasonable R&D costs. Based on these numbers, it's the profit margin
that makes the charger expensive. See also this detailed analysis of Apple's
profit margin: [http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-cost-what-
apple-i...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-cost-what-apple-is-
paying/)

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mindo
Need to change MBP charger every 6-12 months because of the crappy cable. It's
super fustrating.

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frankiechh
Queue the Hacker News Noobs complaining that the charger isn't "open" enough.

Zzzz...

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sethkontny
tear down and data transmission reverse
[https://www.instagram.com/sethkontny/](https://www.instagram.com/sethkontny/)

