[PConline Miscellaneous Talk] If the laptop launched by Compaq in November 1982 is regarded as the prototype of the earliest laptop computer, then the notebook has been with us for 35 years since its birth. As an important productivity tool to promote human development, notebooks

[PConline Miscellaneous ] If the laptop launched by Compaq in November 1982 is regarded as the prototype of the earliest laptop computer, then the notebook has been with us for 35 years since its birth. As an important productivity tool to promote human development, notebooks have now become an indispensable role around us. After decades of development, whether in terms of form, portability, security, stability, performance, etc., the power supply that was born with the notebook seems to rarely attract people's attention. Today, the editor will talk to you about the laptop power adapter .

Today's thin and light notebooks have become one of the most popular notebook categories. Of course, there are two-in-one notebooks designed for mobile and portable above them. In the era of mobile Internet, the demand for mobile office has also made laptops thinner and thinner. When the size is fixed, the portability of a laptop is usually divided into two parts: one is the weight of the bare metal and the other is the travel weight (bare metal + power adapter ). Often, some products have excellent bare metal weight, but the power adapter has become a big and small stumbling block, which is embarrassing. Is there no way to make the laptop's power adapter smaller?

TOSHIBA T1000 (some people say this is the first laptop)

In 1985, Toshiba (TOSHIBA T1000) took the lead in externalizing the power supply of laptops, creating the world's first independent laptop power adapter, and began to commercialize and popularize laptops. After careful calculation, it has been 32 years since then, and the notebook has undergone earth-shaking changes. In comparison, the change of the power adapter is much slower. Because the design of hardware circuits and the size of components cannot be reduced in a short period of time, this is contrary to the basic physical principles. So, what are the difficulties in reducing the laptop power adapter?

This was the case ten years ago, why is it still like this ten years later?

Laptops require a stable constant voltage DC , while the power supply in our home is usually around 100V-240V ( AC , referred to as AC), while on aircraft and other means of transportation, it is usually around 12V (DC 3 DC for short). Generally speaking, unstable power supply cannot directly charge the laptop, otherwise it will damage the battery and laptop. So we invented the great laptop power adapter. Its working principle is to turn unstable power supplies into the constant voltage DC power needed by the laptop through the conversion circuit, and power and charge the laptop. But is this over? Of course not. Among them, there must be various protection circuits such as overcurrent protection circuit, overvoltage protection circuit, short circuit protection circuit and other protection circuits to prevent the laptop from burning.

What I need for this laptop is a 19V 3A DC power supply. Just talking about the voltage transformation process, the 220V AC first becomes high-voltage DC through the rectifier circuit , and then passes through the switch tube to a high-frequency high-voltage pulse, and then converts it into a low-voltage (such as 19V) pulse through the transformer. The 19V low-voltage pulse is then passed through a rectifier, voltage stabilization circuit, and becomes a 19V stable DC power... You are already dizzy...

It should be noted that once the laptop power adapter is damaged, it will be very costly to repair it. Of course, it is not expensive, but difficult... So, no matter whether you are a little expert or a DIY master, you must think twice before you repair the power adapter yourself. What? You don't believe it? OK, I would talk nonsense without an example? You can click on the portal to see how netizens who left messages on the forum made a fucking death. Put a picture to scare you first!

does not have a unified standard, and laptop power adapters have such complex classifications

At present, the most difficult problem with laptop power adapters is that there is no unified standard, and various power adapters are growing wildly, so the laptop power supplies we see are all kinds of, which are difficult to classify.They can be classified by brand, such as several international manufacturers we are familiar with (by alphabetical order): Acer (Acer), APPLE (Apple), ASUS (ASUS ), DELL (Dell ), HP (HP ), LENOVO (Lenovo ), TOSHIBA (Toshiba). It is divided into AC (for example, for household use, and AC used in office use are called AC), and DC use (for example, DC used in cars and aircraft use are called DC).

is divided into output voltage and current (the label behind the charger is generally written behind OUTPUT, how much V and how much A are written). Among them are 12V series, 15V series, 16V series, 18.5V series, 19V series, 19.5V series, 20V series, 24V series, etc. This is just the voltage, and the current of the same series can be very different~ In addition, even if the voltage and current are the same, the probability of their interface size being the same is very small. In terms of the shape of the interface, it is long, flat, square, and round, but the circle is divided into large and small circles... So it is really difficult to do anything about it?

If your power interface happens to be plugged into another laptop, then congratulations on how to charge this laptop even if the current is different (large current and short charging time, small current and long charging time). Of course, the mismatch of current will damage the hardware inside the laptop, so don’t play like this even if you have to. but! Compared with current, what you need to pay more attention to is voltage. Different voltages will cause irreversible damage to the product, and even... Forget it, I won't say it, just make up for it yourself~

For us ordinary consumers, the editor prefers to classify them according to their appearance, such as "brick shape", "clip-shaped" and "flat (bian) flat (bian) shape"... During use, you will occasionally encounter all the designs that designers have turned on incorrectly. After understanding the difficulties of reducing power adapters, let's complain about the weird power supplies that the editor has seen!

"Black-shaped" power adapter is very common in gaming notebooks. You can even distinguish whether this laptop is specifically used to play games by just looking at the power supply! There is no doubt that its size and weight are much larger than the latter two, and it is a must-have product for traveling at home and robbing at home! Look at this thick and heavy power supply, it is better than bricks! It can easily deal with emergencies and add a sense of security to you. Of course, there are also some huge notebooks with super powerful and super abnormal configurations on the market, and two power adapters like this are their standard configurations.

Although it is very difficult to make laptop power adapters smaller now, some smaller power adapters have emerged in recent years. For example, the power supply of Microsoft Surface series is the best among "clip-shaped" power adapters. Not only is it a little smaller than traditional ones, but it also has a very user-friendly charging port. However, the charging head is obviously not a standard shape, so it can be attached to the laptop, so why do you have to insert it? Whether it is plugging in front or back, it looks like an antenna. Alas, it’s still a little short of perfection, which is a pity.

Speaking of "flat (bian) shape"... Well, it is the most common power adapter in laptops nowadays. Most of them are cubes, with large and small sizes. However, the design of their power plugs is often anti-human. Take the two power supplies in my hand for example. The plugs are often fixed and protrude from the entire plane. It is very easy to squeeze out scratches or push a hole into other devices in a backpack, and it is also very abrupt (occupying space) on the plug-in board, which is hindering the view.

In addition, the power cord that is more than one meter long is also a very headache-inducing problem. I think many people have experienced the feeling of laptop power cord + HDMI cable + mouse cable + keyboard cable, which is simply a mess.Both the mouse and the keyboard can enable wireless connection, so is it possible for a laptop to achieve wireless charging? Not to mention, this is really the case!

Dell recently exhibited a laptop with wireless charging design, which looks very similar to the design of wireless charging for mobile phones. In my opinion, short-term mobile office is pretty good, but if I go on a long-term business trip... do you want me to bring such a charging disk out (black-faced question mark)? Therefore, wireless charging of laptops is still in a testing stage at this stage. Unless there is a substantial breakthrough in battery technology, it is difficult to have an excellent experience.

Literacy time is up: I won’t say these, do you know?

People with an exploration spirit will ask, will the charger of electronic devices such as mobile phones and computers consume power when they are left on the socket? I have to say that people who can ask such questions are good kids who carefully observe the things around them. The answer is consumption! The charger needs to perform a series of processes such as step-down, rectification, and filtering. Transformer equipment is generally used. Even if there is no load, there will be corresponding "no load loss". For mature and reasonable industrial product design, this loss will generally be less than 1W. I think it might be more intuitive if I change it to money.

The editor roughly estimates that if the no-load current of a single electrical appliance charger is 0.5W, then the electricity consumption in one hour is 1*0.5=0.5W·h=0.0005 kWh. In other words, it would be 365*0.012=4.38 kWh. According to the average electricity price of 1 kilowatt-hour electricity, 50 cents will be calculated. The no-load loss of a laptop power adapter for the whole year is about 2 yuan~10 yuan, which is more than 20 yuan. Although not even a cup of Starbucks is enough, we should remind everyone to save electricity.

Finally, let me give you some popular science, "Can the charging head of a laptop or mobile phone charger be electrocuted by someone in the mouth?" This is a very serious question, so please read it carefully! Please don’t try it easily, because it will die! It is said that some people don’t believe that they can’t die, so they insist on keeping their mouths and biting them. Later he starved to death.