Magnetic power cord for PC like a Mac.

kgruber

kgruber

Final Approach
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I'd like to buy a magnetic conversion for my PC power cord. So that instead of plugging in a socket, it would be like a Mac......magnetic...........and not self destruct if accidentally kicked.

But.............I don't seem to find one. I have an Acer.
 
My Microsoft Surface has magnetic power cords.
 
kgruber said:
I'd like to buy a magnetic conversion for my PC power cord. So that instead of plugging in a socket, it would be like a Mac......magnetic...........and not self destruct if accidentally kicked.

But.............I don't seem to find one. I have an Acer.
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When you say "PC", are you referring to a desktop or laptop?

Magnetic "MagSafe"-like USB-C adapters are being made. For example, https://www.lacomputercompany.com/accessories/ios-accessories/lmp-17219-643-detail.html

But at those pin spacings, it has to be low DC voltages only. I'm not aware of anyone having tried making a magnetic breakaway AC cord though!
 
rpadula said:
When you say "PC", are you referring to a desktop or laptop?

Magnetic "MagSafe"-like USB-C adapters are being made. For example, https://www.lacomputercompany.com/accessories/ios-accessories/lmp-17219-643-detail.html
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That was going to be my suggestion. If you have a PC that has USB-C, you might* be able to use an Apple MagSafe power adapter and one of the MagSafe-to-USB-C adapters. If you don't have a machine that charges via USB-C, or a Mac, you're out of luck.

* caveat: I've heard that HP actually has a check to ensure you're using only an HP-branded power adapter. If you plug in anyone else's USB-C power adapter, it will simply refuse to charge, even though it's perfectly capable. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
Hard to believe I can't just order one from eBay or Amazon.................

My laptop is a Acer E5-575G-57D4, and yes...the power cord.
 
kgruber said:
Hard to believe I can't just order one from eBay or Amazon.................

My laptop is a Acer E5-575G-57D4, and yes...the power cord.
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I think you're out of luck.

Apple has a patent on laptop power adapters with a magnetic connector, and while I think an adapter gets around that by not being a power supply itself, I don't think you'll find adapters like that for the style of cord the Acer uses.

Standards are a wonderful thing - I look forward to USB-C becoming the ubiquitous standard for power.
 
I do have a USB-C connector. But don't know if it will power the laptop. I wonder how to tell?
 
flyingcheesehead said:
That was going to be my suggestion. If you have a PC that has USB-C, you might* be able to use an Apple MagSafe power adapter and one of the MagSafe-to-USB-C adapters. If you don't have a machine that charges via USB-C, or a Mac, you're out of luck.

* caveat: I've heard that HP actually has a check to ensure you're using only an HP-branded power adapter. If you plug in anyone else's USB-C power adapter, it will simply refuse to charge, even though it's perfectly capable. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
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Kent, look at that pic again. It has two parts. The first one plugs into the USB-C port of the laptop. It has the MagSafe pins on it and would accept an Apple power adapter directly. If one doesn’t have an Apple charger, then attach the second piece. That second piece is also magnetic and accepts a standard USB-C power adapter connection.
 
Thanks for looking that up!!

I might have to make one. Or not. I made those stupid Garmin battery chargers in my signature, and still have 500 left. But, I "think" it's over the break even point.
 
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I wonder why Apple went away from the mag safe. I like it and suspect it has saved me a time or two.
 
Topper said:
I wonder why Apple went away from the mag safe. I like it and suspect it has saved me a time or two.
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USB-C standard.

Which overall is a very good thing, but yes, it's still unfortunate. I wish USB-C standardized an optional magnetic connector as part of it. At LEAST they standardized reversible polarity, which finally gets us out of this mess:

upload_2018-5-23_19-38-11.png
 
rpadula said:
Kent, look at that pic again. It has two parts. The first one plugs into the USB-C port of the laptop. It has the MagSafe pins on it and would accept an Apple power adapter directly. If one doesn’t have an Apple charger, then attach the second piece. That second piece is also magnetic and accepts a standard USB-C power adapter connection.
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Yep, I did. Still need either USB-C powered laptop or a Mac though.

I think I'm going to just get used to USB-C power when it comes to replacing my current (MagSafe) laptop, though. I also have an HP Spectre with USB-C power, and I always have to be careful which edge goes in my backpack first because I don't want to put the side with the USB-A down, since a Logitech unifying connector lives there and I don't want to jam it into the port hard enough to crack it off the motherboard or cause any other internal damage. Same concern would apply with the MagSafe unless I left both halves on the power cord when I packed it up, which sounds like a recipe for losing it. :(

Still, I'm looking forward to the day when I can just plug everything in with the same adapter. Right now I have MagSafe, USB-C, Lightning, Mini USB, and Micro USB and I have quite the assortment of bricks, cords, and adapters to facilitate powering all that. Rumor has it that Apple will be switching the next generation of iThings to USB-C from Lightning. In fact, it sounds like the only reason they created the Lightning connector in the first place is that USB-C wasn't finalized yet and they wanted to have a reversible connection.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Yep, I did. Still need either USB-C powered laptop or a Mac though.

I think I'm going to just get used to USB-C power when it comes to replacing my current (MagSafe) laptop, though. I also have an HP Spectre with USB-C power, and I always have to be careful which edge goes in my backpack first because I don't want to put the side with the USB-A down, since a Logitech unifying connector lives there and I don't want to jam it into the port hard enough to crack it off the motherboard or cause any other internal damage. Same concern would apply with the MagSafe unless I left both halves on the power cord when I packed it up, which sounds like a recipe for losing it. :(

Still, I'm looking forward to the day when I can just plug everything in with the same adapter. Right now I have MagSafe, USB-C, Lightning, Mini USB, and Micro USB and I have quite the assortment of bricks, cords, and adapters to facilitate powering all that. Rumor has it that Apple will be switching the next generation of iThings to USB-C from Lightning. In fact, it sounds like the only reason they created the Lightning connector in the first place is that USB-C wasn't finalized yet and they wanted to have a reversible connection.
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You don’t think it has anything to do with them being able to force you to pay $29 for a cord that costs $10 without the apple on it?
 
If you really want a magnetic power cord like a Mac buy a Mac. My laptop has one, though its getting old.
 
Salty said:
You don’t think it has anything to do with them being able to force you to pay $29 for a cord that costs $10 without the apple on it?
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You can't buy a MagSafe cord for $10. That's kind of the point of a patent is to protect one's inventions from being stolen.

I guess hardware patents must actually hold up in court. Apple sure has an awful lot of other patents on ideas that have been ripped off anyway, but I think they're mostly software and design patents, which seem so be a bit mushier.
 
I've got a magnetic power cord for my deep fryer you probably could make some sort of adapter to make that work. Unless Apple has patented magnetic power cords for deep fryers. Of course that deep fryer is older than the Apple magnetic power cord so I don't know how they patented something that was already in existence.
 
steingar said:
If you really want a magnetic power cord like a Mac buy a Mac. My laptop has one, though its getting old.
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No longer true. My new MAC has exactly 4 ports, all 4 of them USB-C. Nothing else.
 
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