2016/02/29
Hacking a thinkpad slim tip adapter to output more than 90W (required to charge a Thinkpad P70)
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2016-02-29 01:01
in Computers, Electronics, Linux
The thinkwiki power connector page explains very nicely how Lenovo power supplies come in round and slimp (rectangular) tip, and can be 35, 45, 65, 90, 135, 170, and 230W. The way the laptop knows how much power it can draw, is by measuring a resistor between the center pin and ground. So far, most of my power supplies had been 90W, and all my thinkpads, including the T540p, were ok enough with that, even if maybe they were not always charging at full speed.
However, when I got my thinkpad P70, although it also uses around 25W in typical use, which means plenty of extra wattage on a 90W power supply to charge the battery, the P70 was unfortunately designed not to charge under any condition unless it recognizes a power supply that's at least 135W (it ships with a 170W power supply, and it's a huge monster brick). I'm pretty mad at lenovo for that because they could totally have designed the P70 to charge at a slower rate from a 90W power supply, or at least when the laptop is sleeping, but no, even when it's sleeping, it will just not charge at all.
Sadly, this means that the RAVPower 23000mAh Portable Charger Power Bank External Battery Pack I bougght, was able to power the laptop, but not charge it. I guess in this case, it's not a huge issue since energy would be wasted trying to charge the laptop battery instead of just powering it, but still, that was disappointing.
here, the pack is powering my laptop at 20V, 2.1A
