What's the minimal power adapter that will charge the laptop?

LOL! It’s not really released yet… Garuda is an Arch Linux based distro that is relatively similar to Manjaro but has more unusual desktop environments. Hyprland is a tiling window manager for Wayland. Very hardcore/niche stuff…

My t480s runs perfectly happy on 20w so I’d hope a much newer more efficient device would too.

The framework has buck-boost charging circuitry (as most pd powered laptops these days do, gone are the days of buck only) so if the ec would let it it could also run off 5a of 5v but there isn’t really a negotiating standard for that.

IIRC there was one generation of framework that had different mosfets than intended (component shortage and all that) in the buck/boost converter and was not capable of 15v pd.

If you’re looking for the smallest decent watt charger, the Anker 715 is among the smallest I’ve seen. Similar in size to the 47W charger previously linked but pushes 65W. Only one USB port though, which I understand could potentially be a sticking point.

The minimum I’ve used with my Batch 1 11th Gen FW13 is a 25Watt Samsung charger that come with my Note 20 Ultra.
I’ve also used a 30Watt MacBook Air Charger that came with my daughters Last Intel Version MacBook Air.
Any lower wattages don’t really work well, even with the computer shut down.
Tested a 15 Watt charger, once, and didn’t charge fully, even overnight.

@TvE I own this unit and can vouch for it working. Your battery may drain if you are charging two devices while also putting the laptop under heavy load.

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A little bit a tangent but related to “small power supplies”: why, oh why, does the FW power brick have a three prong cord? Is it not double insulated??? And why, oh why, is the power cable shipped with it (at least to the US) three times as big as the power brick itself? And why is the USB-C cable that comes with it thick and stiff?

Fortunately there are remedies, like:

image

Of course Amazon.com … - BTW: your fault if you buy & use this! Also it may not fit due to the size of the brick. If you’re not in the US no worries, they have alternates for other countries. And if you think that the ground somehow connects through to your laptop that’s not what my multimeter indicates, but I may have not stuck the probe into the USB-C connector correctly…

I think you’re the first person I’ve seen that is unhappy that the FW power supply is grounded. I have seen people say that they’ve experienced some laptops give the sensation of an electric buzzing / tinging & that a grounded power supply stops it. Grounded laptop power supplies seem relatively rare. Personally, I’m glad FW has it.

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Do you have any indication that your laptop is in any way grounded? There doesn’t seem to be any continuity between the ground prong and the USB-C cable. Maybe there’s a 1MOhm resistor, I didn’t check for that.

(I’m actually more annoyed at the size and clunkyness of the power cord. It completely defeats the purpose of a small brick. In fact, with the larger old-style laptop bricks it’s easier to wrap the whole thing into a neat package…)

I don’t yet have a Framework laptop so I can’t check, but Framework’s CEO has said it’s grounded:

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If I recall, the shell of USB plugs are not supposed to be directly grounded. It should be done through a resistor of some value instead. I don’t have a Framework on hand to check, but even if only the power supply itself is grounded, I’ll still take it over no ground. You can of course replace the cord if you wish. Though, I wouldn’t recommend removing the ground, you are never supposed to remove or defeat a ground that was put in place.

I wonder if it just means it’s a remedy / compensation for some poor laptop designs / engineering.

…just think about all the 2-prong 65W USB-PD power adapters from Lenovo…globally.

It’s not. I’ve done exactly zero optimizations beyond whatever comes built into Ubuntu. Currently using a 20W charger as I type this because I’m too cheap to buy a higher wattage when I got this one lying around (plus I have my eGPU dock for when I’m gaming). At say 25-30 percent on the brightness bar and the KB backlight turned on, the laptop still charges. For any kind of office work or video watching, 20W is sufficient. It won’t ever be accused of being speedy but it is charging.

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When I travel I only bring my 18w PD charger that came with my Pixel 3a. It is sufficient to charge my MacBook Pro to 100% overnight and I don’t even need to shut it down. With a computer that has enough battery for a whole work day I prefer to give up fast charging in exchange for less weight and size.

Thanks for the comments about 20W chargers. My experience has been a bit different. I ran the battery empty. Dead, laptop didn’t turn on at all. Plugged in a 20W apple ipad charger. No yellow charging light. Waited a minute, nothing. Plugged in a 65W charger, yellow light came on immediately, turned laptop on a few seconds later. Dunno whether leaving the 20W charger connected for a bunch of minutes would have fixed it…

I’ve used a range of chargers from old 5v 2A ones to 16/20W/30W and 100W ones.

They all put charge in but anything below 25W will struggle (YMMV due to inherent charging tech inside) to add charge while the laptop is running to any degree.

I keep a small cube like Anker 30W in my laptop bag for on the go use. That will hold the charge where it is (even during heavy use) and up it slowly at idle. Charges nicely when switched off however.

The lower wattage chargers do get rather warm though as they are working really hard.

Side note I still have my new One+ Nord3 80W mega fast charger to test with it…

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Does that charger support USB PD? Just wondering if the laptop wasn’t able to negotiate a compatible voltage/amperage from that charger, rather than 20W simply not being enough.

I only ask because I have a tiny, GaN, 20W charger and it charges my Framework 13. I got it because it is barely larger than just a normal cord end, but can charge pretty much anything I have, as long as I’m okay with the laptop charging slowly.

I get that this is a preference, but I have to be honest, that Framework gives us a grounded power supply says a lot about the quality and longevity they are trying to represent. This is one of many gold stars I see from Framework.

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I have charged my 11th gen framework 13 laptop off a 5V 1A usb type A port on a portable battery pack made before usb type c was a thing (using a usb type A to usb type C cable). Naturally the laptop has to be off to actually charge off such limited power.

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Did it take 11 hours to charge the 55wh battery at 5w?

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Hah! I left it charging over night so I don’t know how long it took, but the portable battery pack died when my framework was only ~60% charged, so it never finished the full charge anyway.