Hacker News Reader

Comment by diffeomorphism | Hacker News Reader

What is your opinion on magnetic usb c adapters? For about 10€ you get 140W charging and 40Gbps.

Compared to magsafe it is not recessed (though that has not been an issue in my experience), but on the plus side it also does data, video and is universal. Currently using the same type of adapter for my laptop, phone and tablet with the ends on various chargers and docking stations.

View on HN

I had a number of them from two or three different brands.

They had tendency to cause sparking and I lost at least one phone due to it. The phone was fine but it lost ability to be charged through the USB port. And because it did not have wireless charging, when the battery ran out it became an expensive brick.

Yikes. Haven't had an issue yet with the ones I use. Good to know.

Yup, I lost a chromebook that way. I think magnetic connections are fine for 5V power with no data line, but as soon as you add more connections and try increasing voltage/power you are asking for trouble.

My deep fryer has a magnetic connection for the power cord. That's high voltage and wattage, and works just fine.

Because the only two pins are hot and neutral, which are designed to have high voltage across them.

Put 20 V Vbus on a CC line and see what happens.

That seems more likely to be because that design was bad rather than that the concept is bad.

can't it be repaired?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com