08-10-2020, 11:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-10-2020, 11:24 AM by moonwalkers.)
IMHO from purely technical perspective the best scenario would be:
1. run laptop off the AC adapter when it is connected, using excess power to charge the battery (or supplementing lacking power using battery, if AC adapter is not powerful enough) similar to other laptops, instead of running off battery only and using AC only to charge the battery, resulting in the 3A limit on the battery charging lead also imposing how much the machine can draw from AC adapter.
2. Support USB PD specification beyond 5V/3A - this would make USB-C charging useful enough to hold its own against barrel plug (unless said support is already there but is limited by the point #1).
3. Keep both ports - this adds versatility, making PBP into more of an "ultimate road warrior" machine - but allow people not to purchase the barrel plug AC adapter, especially if it's only 3A instead of at least 4.5A.
I imagine though this may make it more expensive, especially the USB PD support. I would be willing to pay the extra - I'm probably paying more in shipping costs anyway - but I'm not going to speak for everyone else.
P.S.: KC9UDX's quip about sticking wires into power jack reminded me when one time my 170W power brick for ThinkPad W510 failed and all I had to replace it was a 90W PSU intended for ThinkPad T6x series, with which my W510 throttled to a crawl. I ended up putting a piece of sticky tape over the contacts on the power connector on its motherboard, then over that tape inserting a staple to short-out two signal wires that are used to communicate the PSU power output and putting another piece of sticky type as a makeshift insulator. That fooled the machine into thinking it got a much more powerful PSU connected to it and allowed me to get the work done much faster. The 90W PSU did get hot, but since the work I was doing didn't need GPU the power draw was still within its limits. The reaction on the customer's faces was priceless when they saw me pulling out my multitool, popping the keyboard open and doing the whole hack in about 5 minutes.
1. run laptop off the AC adapter when it is connected, using excess power to charge the battery (or supplementing lacking power using battery, if AC adapter is not powerful enough) similar to other laptops, instead of running off battery only and using AC only to charge the battery, resulting in the 3A limit on the battery charging lead also imposing how much the machine can draw from AC adapter.
2. Support USB PD specification beyond 5V/3A - this would make USB-C charging useful enough to hold its own against barrel plug (unless said support is already there but is limited by the point #1).
3. Keep both ports - this adds versatility, making PBP into more of an "ultimate road warrior" machine - but allow people not to purchase the barrel plug AC adapter, especially if it's only 3A instead of at least 4.5A.
I imagine though this may make it more expensive, especially the USB PD support. I would be willing to pay the extra - I'm probably paying more in shipping costs anyway - but I'm not going to speak for everyone else.
P.S.: KC9UDX's quip about sticking wires into power jack reminded me when one time my 170W power brick for ThinkPad W510 failed and all I had to replace it was a 90W PSU intended for ThinkPad T6x series, with which my W510 throttled to a crawl. I ended up putting a piece of sticky tape over the contacts on the power connector on its motherboard, then over that tape inserting a staple to short-out two signal wires that are used to communicate the PSU power output and putting another piece of sticky type as a makeshift insulator. That fooled the machine into thinking it got a much more powerful PSU connected to it and allowed me to get the work done much faster. The 90W PSU did get hot, but since the work I was doing didn't need GPU the power draw was still within its limits. The reaction on the customer's faces was priceless when they saw me pulling out my multitool, popping the keyboard open and doing the whole hack in about 5 minutes.
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