I consider ground to be mandatory for anything above 20W (unless it’s a car adapter, of which you won’t need to care). You can hold your own beliefs.
But, however, I do have the super-beefy PW7015L 65W power bank and I do use that because it does not connect to mains voltage in any way, the circuits are relatively small (and hazard free) and DC-DC converters do not have issues with floating ground planes (even if cheap DC-DC converters have large ripples in output).
But as I said earlier, the framework brick is quite nice since it’s not cumbersome, is USB-C (and a connector, that is) with full range PD (5V to 20V) and have a ground. Yes, the connector is cumbersome but that’s ok because they are connectors so you can remove them before they snap off in your bag
Since many people will have a IEC C5 cable, it would be useful to have an option to add the power adapter sans AC cable. Even if it were the same price it would be good to reduce the wastage.
i have 3 floating around. One of them is from dell and another is a 20 year old one from molex
But usually when you purchase a brick they just give you one since those things are a) not expensive and b) highly useful so there’s no reason to send one to a landfill.
Will using an IEC C5 cable without ground pin cause any problems? In Japan the standard mains plugs don’t typically have any ground pin - sometimes they’re not even polarized.
You can occasionally find sockets with a grounding panel for appliances (you just screw the protruding/separate ground wire into a panel beside the socket) but obviously that’s not convenient.
Going back to the restricting charging percentage.
There’s the “ASUS Battery Health Charging” software on the Asus website.
No idea if it works on other brands (I doubt it).
I’m not a software person, but I’m sure there’s people here who are. That can figure out something.
Question about the USB-C cable itself that comes with the adapter. Does it support 100W (20V @ 5A), or just the 60W that the brick adapter can output?
Also, would framework consider creating a 100W power adapter (or maybe more once the new USB-C PD spec becomes more common, which might be useful for a higher-powered device/framework laptop)? I’m having trouble finding one that I would feel confident in using (not some low quality adapter or one with vague specs given).
Dell’s modern BIOS support a plethora of battery charge config. Other BIOS is quite restrictive.
There is a app you can install in windows to configure those settings, but you can always configure them inside bios directly.
Will the charger run extremely hot under full load for extended periods? Will any component run extremely hot under full load?
I know that my Dell 45W can deliver 45W but about an hour later the overheat protection will kick in. It will be very warm at about 20W for extended periods (e.g., 16 hour).
Any big advantages of the framework adapter over whats already out on the market? in terms of power/efficiency/speed. Is this a replace all your charges kinda thing?
I don’t know what’s on the market for comparison, so here is a different opinion.
It is a 65watt USB-C PD charger. It should charge anything that meets those specifications.
I have used it to charge my Note 20 Ultra, both fast and slow charging.
Also my Galaxy Tab 6 and older Samsung phones. It would charge a Samsung chrome book.
The benefit I see other the other chargers that I have is that this charger has a standard input plug for Mains current. So you can replace the supply cord, the output cord, also.
Since there is a cord to the wall socket, there is not a block potentially covering the other socket, or making difficult to use.
There are posts in the blog indicating that the Framework computer meets USB-C PD specs.
I have used a 20 watt charger, a 30 watt charger and a 45 watt charger with my computer.
The 20 watt would not be able to supply charge current and power the computer, but it will boost the charge when shut down.
The 30 watt boosted the charge slowly while in use.
45 and 65 were faster and fastest.
I think I remember seeing that they supported up to 100 watt USB-C PD chargers, so you could go even higher.
For the DIY bundles, the charger is optional, so as long as you have something compatible, you do not need to get it.
Like everything, a compromise.
Big enough to get the job done, smaller than most.
Charging speed is reasonably fast, limiting effects of charging on battery life.
If you are wondering if it can be disassembled and upgraded, then I would say not easily. It’s not designed to be easily disassembled like the laptop and it doesn’t have what most manufacturers would call “user serviceable parts” inside. I’m sure someone with electronics repair knowledge and experience could probably de-solder and replace components, but it wouldn’t be super simple.
There is also the potential for enough energy to be stored in capacitors to be dangerous. Not super likely to be a problem, but enough that companies don’t make most power supplies/power adapters easily serviceable. There is probably a bit of liability there. And while the risk is low, it is still real.
I have one of these on order (was discounted over Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend). Works great charging the framework from the strongest port solo, or in combo with other weaker ports. I haven’t maxed it out with all 4 ports yet.
Probably a lot better / easier / safer to buy a dedicated higher power or multi-port charging solution than to try to modify one…
I’m loving this USB-C PD world where a single adapter can charge all my devices. The fragmentation in cable capabilities and protocols each device/port can support is a bit confusing for the uninitiated consumer, but overall adoption of the standards should reduce waste in the long run since we don’t need a different set of chargers and cables for each device.
