Why do we still use cigarette-lighter adapters?

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I have tested these… lab setup unlimited supply.

Then i must have a similar looking one. Anyway doesn't do 65W and i need 65W for ipad Pro. It works with less but that damages the battery longthermed and if its not get charged full with min 65W.

So is there any that supplies 65W or better 85W this style and if yes do i need to run it on 24V?
Otherwise i just get one of these AC megachargers posted before with the 120W, the 3kw Multi is anyhow running 24/7

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Not old at all. You feel like the end of the cable has to be the same on both ends? I use this. Just stick the little end into your MacBook and the big end into the USB charger and you are good to go.

The beauty of that cable is you can also stick it into an android phone and charge that.

I use a lightning cable (USB to Lightning) for the phone only

That is USB-A so it has no PD nor QC and only 5V, no 9, 12, 15, 20 and 48V.

It doesn’t look like an Apple cable though because those are all white. See my original power adapter for my MacBook Pro: you cable doesn’t fit, it’s USB-C.

Also, the second picture is the label of the power supply listing the PD modes it supports: 20.2V 4.3A (86.9W) as well as 9V 3A (27W) and the regular non-PD 5.2V 2.4A (12.5W).

As you can see, those are huge differences between modes and this is why the world switched to PD and QC modes.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

That is USB-A so it has no PD nor QC and only 5V, no 9, 12, 15, 20 and 48V.

It doesn’t look like an Apple cable though because those are all white. See my original power adapter for my MacBook Pro: you cable doesn’t fit, it’s USB-C.

Also, the second picture is the label of the power supply listing the PD modes it supports: 20.2V 4.3A (86.9W) as well as 9V 3A (27W) and the regular non-PD 5.2V 2.4A (12.5W).

As you can see, those are huge differences between modes and this is why the world switched to PD and QC modes.

The only thing that’s difficult to understand is that you make it sound impossible. When all I do is plug in the cable and it charges my MacBook.

You are telling me the cable that I put in the picture is not USB-C. But clearly you can look at it and it fits perfectly into the MacBook. I don’t really know what you’re talking about there.

It also keeps up with the MacBook when you use the MacBook and it charges it just fine.

Doesn’t matter if it’s 5 V or 48 V. It works.

Why do you claim it does not work?

Why do you keep saying it won’t fit? It just plugs right into the USB-C port. It’s a USB A to USB C cable. I’m having a hard time understanding why your brain doesn’t see this. How can you possibly say it doesn’t fit when it clearly is a male USB-C connector on one end of it?

I know you are quite an expert with electrical connections and what not. So I am not just coming out and saying no way. But if I plug the cable I showed into the USB A port and then into the USB C port n the MacBook it works just fine.

Is it maybe that you are just looking for some super fast high powered charging and I don’t care much about that? All I care is that it keeps up with the MacBook in use?

The 5v 12W connections charge just fine. I’m not producing CGI movies on my MacBook. Any compiling you are doing is brief enough that if it did drop under 100% battery charge, it would come back within a minute once the code is compiled. Although it never has dropped below 100% when using the MacBook.

Maybe I just don’t understand your requirements. I think they are different than mine. Maybe you require a Lamborghini to charge things very very quickly from a dead battery. I only require a simple vehicle that is adequate to keep up with the power usage of the device. If I’m charging something that’s kind of low on power I can do that in the background while in use or just put it on the usb A to C cord for an hour or two while doing something else.

Not sure I understand your need for this incredibly high powered USB charging. That’s not even what it was intended for originally. And there’s no need for it. I can’t see the need.

I mean, it’s 61 watt hours in a MacBook Pro battery.

If you are doing 12 watts and it keeps up with usage, what’s the big deal? 5 hours to full from absolutely dead.

Also from the numbers in my last two sentences, you can clearly see that the 12W USB A keeps up with the power consumption of a MacBook Pro. With a 61 watt hour battery, the MacBook Pro lasts nine hours of use.

That is 6.7 W per hour consumption when you are using the computer.

No problem for 12 W to keep up with that. That’s why all of this works just fine.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

The only thing that’s difficult to understand is that you make it sound impossible. When all I do is plug in the cable and it charges my MacBook.

You are telling me the cable that I put in the picture is not USB-C. But clearly you can look at it and it fits perfectly into the MacBook. I don’t really know what you’re talking about there.

It also keeps up with the MacBook when you use the MacBook and it charges it just fine.

Doesn’t matter if it’s 5 V or 48 V. It works.

Why do you claim it does not work?

Why do you keep saying it won’t fit? It just plugs right into the USB-C port. It’s a USB A to USB C cable. I’m having a hard time understanding why your brain doesn’t see this. How can you possibly say it doesn’t fit when it clearly is a male USB-C connector on one end of it?

I know you are quite an expert with electrical connections and what not. So I am not just coming out and saying no way. But if I plug the cable I showed into the USB A port and then into the USB C port n the MacBook it works just fine.

Is it maybe that you are just looking for some super fast high powered charging and I don’t care much about that? All I care is that it keeps up with the MacBook in use?

The 5v 12W connections charge just fine. I’m not producing CGI movies on my MacBook. Any compiling you are doing is brief enough that if it did drop under 100% battery charge, it would come back within a minute once the code is compiled. Although it never has dropped below 100% when using the MacBook.

Maybe I just don’t understand your requirements. I think they are different than mine. Maybe you require a Lamborghini to charge things very very quickly from a dead battery. I only require a simple vehicle that is adequate to keep up with the power usage of the device. If I’m charging something that’s kind of low on power I can do that in the background while in use or just put it on the usb A to C cord for an hour or two while doing something else.

Not sure I understand your need for this incredibly high powered USB charging. That’s not even what it was intended for originally. And there’s no need for it. I can’t see the need.

I mean, it’s 61 watt hours in a MacBook Pro battery.

If you are doing 12 watts and it keeps up with usage, what’s the big deal? 5 hours to full from absolutely dead.

Also from the numbers in my last two sentences, you can clearly see that the 12W USB A keeps up with the power consumption of a MacBook Pro. With a 61 watt hour battery, the MacBook Pro lasts nine hours of use.

That is 6.7 W per hour consumption when you are using the computer.

No problem for 12 W to keep up with that. That’s why all of this works just fine.

You good, calm down, USB type A is all you need.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

You good, calm down, USB type A is all you need.

I am calm. Lol. I think I am misunderstood (often). Ha ha

I’m trying to understand your perspective.

Is it just that you want very very fast charging?

Remember I am a scientist at heart (and actually going back to it). So I enjoy a conversation like this. You have facts. I have facts. It’s interesting to come to a conclusion from them.

This is much different than opinionated subjects that often are on the forum. We are talking about facts only here. The only part that is opinion is our usage might be different and I’m trying to understand your usage.

You have spent much more time analyzing all of the options in USB than I have. You know every detail and every option. I have not gone that deep. It’s just a conversation. I am quite calm.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I am calm. Lol. I think I am misunderstood (often). Ha ha

I’m trying to understand your perspective.

Is it just that you want very very fast charging?

Remember I am a scientist at heart (and actually going back to it). So I enjoy a conversation like this. You have facts. I have facts. It’s interesting to come to a conclusion from them.

This is much different than opinionated subjects that often are on the forum. We are talking about facts only here. The only part that is opinion is our usage might be different and I’m trying to understand your usage.

You have spent much more time analyzing all of the options in USB than I have. You know every detail and every option. I have not gone that deep. It’s just a conversation. I am quite calm.

Okay. That you have a USB-C connector at one end doesn’t mean you have USB-C. The only thing you get is the legacy fall back mode.

Say you have a USB-C PD3.1 port. When you use an adapter to USB-A then you only get USB-A and that PD3.1 port is just rolling it’s eyes, like I was in my previous post.

If your Macbook is a new type then I expect it to have come with included power adapter and cable and that this was conform PD standards. That you think it works just fine on USB-A is because your work on the laptop isn’t using any serious power. Your laptop may not even have high powered features like fast graphics adapter etc.

The Macbook Air comes with a 70W USB-C PD adapter and the Macbook Pro comes with a 140W USB-C PD adapter.

[Chotu]

OK. Understood. I’m just curious about your use case also.

Do you mostly carry the laptop around with no cord at all and then expect a fast recharge from zero?

I usually leave mine plugged in. I know that’s not supposedly the best for the battery. But that’s just what I do. So I don’t need the fast charging. It’s always between 40% and 100%. That’s why I am able to get away with USB A.

Then, other times if I did happen to bring it way down near zero, I would just put it on the USB A charger overnight.

I am not producing any CGI films on my MacBook Pro. No high power video games either. The biggest workout it gets is doing compiling computer code. Which is quite a work out. But it does not last for a long time.

I assume you are doing other things that are graphics intensive?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

OK. Understood. I’m just curious about your use case also.

Do you mostly carry the laptop around with no cord at all and then expect a fast recharge from zero?

I usually leave mine plugged in. I know that’s not supposedly the best for the battery. But that’s just what I do. So I don’t need the fast charging. It’s always between 40% and 100%. That’s why I am able to get away with USB A.

Then, other times if I did happen to bring it way down near zero, I would just put it on the USB A charger overnight.

I am not producing any CGI films on my MacBook Pro. No high power video games either. The biggest workout it gets is doing compiling computer code. Which is quite a work out. But it does not last for a long time.

I assume you are doing other things that are graphics intensive?

Yes, my laptop would drain on a USB-A adapter…. I don’t even think it would start charging or using it at all and run on battery instead.

I do a lot of CAD design, like the front panels, PCB boards etc. as well as drawing diagrams. Not much rendering video, but I do play games with it too.

I believe my Macbook Pro (older) has an ATI Radion HD 5870 graphics card in addition to the Intel integrated graphics system. When software switches to the ATI display, fans go on and don’t spin down until I quit the program

[Chotu]

Ah!!!! Yes! Now I see why you need the extra power.

I have basically the same MacBook Pro . And it’s the same age. I think mine is 2018 or 2019. Same transformer and USB cable from the factory.

CAD can use an awful lot of power. No question about it. I’m not sure which graphics package I have but I really don’t use it. It is basically rendering text. Ha ha. Maybe some websites.

So this is the difference. We have different use cases. That’s what I suspected from the beginning.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

That is USB-A so it has no PD nor QC and only 5V, no 9, 12, 15, 20 and 48V.

It doesn’t look like an Apple cable though because those are all white. See my original power adapter for my MacBook Pro: you cable doesn’t fit, it’s USB-C.

Also, the second picture is the label of the power supply listing the PD modes it supports: 20.2V 4.3A (86.9W) as well as 9V 3A (27W) and the regular non-PD 5.2V 2.4A (12.5W).

As you can see, those are huge differences between modes and this is why the world switched to PD and QC modes.

QC works via USB-A.


I've never seen PD via USB-A so maybe that doesn't exist, but QC for sure.


Maybe not every version of QC, but at least the popular QC3+, like what my phone needs.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

QC works via USB-A.

I've never seen PD via USB-A so maybe that doesn't exist, but QC for sure.

Maybe not every version of QC, but at least the popular QC3+, like what my phone needs.

I may have this wrong, but I seem to remember you use a BlueSea USB outlet. This is USB-A 5V only, 2.4A maximum per port. So no matter what you connect, it will never charge at more than 10-12W.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I may have this wrong, but I seem to remember you use a BlueSea USB outlet. This is USB-A 5V only, 2.4A maximum per port. So no matter what you connect, it will never charge at more than 10-12W.

Well, sure. That's simply not a QC charger. Plenty of QC chargers with USB-A, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Durab...zcF9hdGY&psc=1

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, sure. That's simply not a QC charger. Plenty of QC chargers with USB-A, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Durab...zcF9hdGY&psc=1

Fair point. QC 3.0 while proprietary is not that uncommon and can do up the 36W. The prior post though was saying they could charge a laptop from a usb-a port which seems dubious. Anyone heard of laptops using QC 3.0? Macbook is even less likely as pretty sure Apple isn't supporting the proprietary standard of a competitor.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, sure. That's simply not a QC charger. Plenty of QC chargers with USB-A, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Durab...zcF9hdGY&psc=1

Okay, sorry, I mixed you up with Chotu as you jumped into that conversation

Chotu has the BlueSea outlets, you have QC capable ones. When I wrote about the USB-A outlets not supporting QC and PD, it was in the context of the BlueSea outlets that Chotu was using.

I like USB-C a ton more than everything that came before. USB-A, B, mini, micro and that weird one with two sections… USB 3? USB-C is much better: user friendly, capable and no corrosion problems up till now. I believe they have gold plated contacts.

[Chotu]

I would like to point out that one of the USB ports that I put a picture of on here has USB Qualcomm 3.0 QC charging. Through a USB-A connector.

It was not BlueSea, however. This doesn’t appear to be Blue Sea’s area of expertise.