They are not so expensive these days. I bought a 2 pack for $10 on amazon and it is legit and works well.
It would be nice if this adapter allowed passthrough access to either the USB 2 or 3 signals from the laptop. Currently there appears to be 0 products that can pass through even the 140W or 180W with USB running so you end up completely losing one of the USB ports to the framework charger. Even if the USB spec isn’t high end you would want to be able to at least connect a mouse/keyboard into the charger so that when you plug in the laptop to the charger on the desk you also get the USB/Keyboard on the same USB port. Would also be nice to get a single Display Port 1.4 as part of a premium adapter option.
The power lines are going to be at 48V, that will be a very sparky but short fun for your keyboard.
To get this working you’d need a dock - maybe a bit much for a DIY project.
I think a 240W dock would be pretty cool to have. I’ve used my FW16 with some of the USB-C docks at work (I don’t know what the output is) and it’s awesome only having to use one cable to hook up 2 displays and some peripherals while also charging the laptop. I’m also not running the GPU or CPU very hard for those so no need for my 180W charger (mostly work/email through a browser). I would like a dock with 240W PD for home so I could game without worry of draining the battery. I saw a post earlier talking about an idea for a Framework dock with expansion cards for ports. Luckily none of the games I’ve played so far on my FW16 drain my battery while plugged in with my 180W so that’s a future problem.
To get back on topic I’d like for a portable 240W charger for when I’m out of town. It would likely be needed for a future Framework GPU. Like I said I’m doing fine with the current 180W charger. So I can wait for a bigger company to release one. I do really like how small and light my 180W is compared to my old laptop’s 165W charger. Plus having the cable to the laptop be detachable is great!
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The 180W charger is framework branded, but made by Chicony. It is not listed on their product page, but that company has been around a long time. If they see the demand, they should come up with a product. As it’s still 5A, just a higher voltage, it might even fit in the existing case. Without the dGPU, I don’t need even the 180W charger (albeit having two of them).
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I doubt it will fit in the same case as the 180W. Don’t forget that a 240W supply is a third more power than a 180W supply, so the magnetic components will need to be a third bigger - and equivalently heavier, so the total weight will probably go up about 25% on the existing 180W supply. Now it may be possible to reduce the magnetics by operating the switching part at a higher frequency, but that affects the losses in the semiconductors used, creates problems with spike filtering and requires more specialised winding methods on the transformer, so there will be limited gains going that route. All up I would expect the supply to be similar in the larger two dimensions and around 50% thicker, and 25% heavier.
What would be great though is if they could add a USB-A port for phone or other older device charging as well, at a fixed output current capability that doesn’t take away from the 240W. Older devices are going to be around for a significant length of time and it isn’t always convenient to charge them by plugging into the laptop and occupying a port there.
I’ll back a kickstarter for a 240w PD3.1 supply. Given the lack of laptops needing 240w PD on the market, this may be the only way to get one soon. I have no doubt that current suppliers in China can make one, they just don’t have a market for it. The Framework 16 is brand new and the only commercial device that can use it right now. That will likely change in 12-24 months, if your patient, but I’d like to cook a grilled cheese on the chassis while running FurMark, so someone send me a link. I’ve wasted money on far sketchier crowd funding endeavors.
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Devils advocate here…
Instead of trying to create a USB C 240 watt charger would it be possible to create a module that would convert USB C to a barrel connector or similar and just get a 240 W charger that is already available?
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That’s already what this project is. They explained it in one of their posts above. This an adapter, not a charger.
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ah I must have missed that. Thanks for the clarification
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Some progress here.
The adapter will not be smaller then the 140w one i showed above, but it won’t be a lot bigger. The 240W Fosiaudio charger rated at 48v is weighted 0.804KG (16.5x7.8x3.5, all in cm). It is a bit heavy. But it will be quite viable to be the one that sit at your home and provide sufficient power, and use the 180W FW charger on the go. I have discussed with the designer, they said that it is impossible to make it into the size of the expansion port (Bay is possible, but why would you need that), so that route is already closed for minimalism.
And they think that a Downvolt (i guess what that is in English) is less frightening then Upvolt, thus it is the reason we are using a 48v one instead of the regular 20/19.5v laptop chargers. If we are using the 20v, the Upvolt will need a lot of work on the cooling, inevitably increase the size (by a lot). Thus the weight loss by having a 20v source will be nulled by the things that handle upvolt, and it also increase instability.
The device itself will not consume a lot of power, so do expect very minor power drop from the output, (Tho i don’t know the down volt from 48v to laptop voltage will results what kind of waste) But it will surely provide more charging power than the 180W from FW.
I guess what you have called a ‘downvolt’ would be referred to as a buck converter, whereas an ‘upvolt’ will be a boost converter.
I don’t altogether go with the logic that a buck converter is less frightening than a boost converter. There are enough converter chips around that will do both buck and boost conversion, they just don’t have the required power capability.
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In that case 48V is laptop voltage, the laptop handles it from there.
You have my interest. If this turns out I will definitely be looking to get one for my desk so I can stop moving the 180w charger every time I leave.
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There is a 240W charger around, albeit not yet in series production:
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I have considered such thing. In order to mass produce a all in one power brick or just make it as a DIY product that can be sold in China (specifically). The investment into getting the required certification is too much. In order to get all these certification, in need to invest 10x money and build a factory. I don’t have that capability.
The key is that in order to get certification for selling any thing for 220v input is difficult, it require at least 10000 unit to be produced. But anything other (48v, 5v, etc.) is easy, there is no such ludicrious requirement for DIY. That is why we are going the adapter route.
Going illegal is not an option unfortunately.
240W PD brick will be available from major companies. But not very soon tho.
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I think that into mid 2025 there may be more laptops with 240W PD. Right now though there is really nothing outside of this framework laptop.
This is part of the reason why companies don’t care to make higher wattage power adapters. Even the 140W Plugable unit that I have is not very popular on Amazon just due to the lack of people who have devices that can utilize it.
There are inline tools that allow you to read e-marker chips on USB cables.
I use this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BJ24PVNJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If you don’t really want to use something like this, you could always just buy quality cables that are certified like CLUB3D cables. They aren’t braided pretty, but they’re certified to work at whatever ratings they claim (if its not a counterfeit, watch out for those). USB4 cables are kinda chunky, but work up to 240W and e-marker chip also verifies that claim.
I’m just going to echo the concerns of some others here. If it only cost $8k to develop and get a 240W adapter to market, Framework would have done it. I’d be hesitant to trust in those quotes. Assuming a salary of $150k, that’s enough to pay 1 engineer for a little less than 3 weeks of R&D.
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That’s not even enough money to produce the same 5V 1A adapter as always and put it into a new case.