Engineer creates first USB-C AirPods charging case

AppleInsider

The same engineer who put a USB-C port onto an iPhone, has now done the same thing with an AirPods case -- specifically so all his Apple devices charge the same way.

Engineer Ken Pillonel with his USB-C-charged AirPods

YouTuber and engineer Ken Pillonel replaced his iPhone's Lightning port with a fully-functional USB-C connector in October 2021, then sold it for $86,000. Now he's repeated the feat with an AirPods charging case.

"Don't you find it annoying that you have to carry multiple chargers with you every day?" he asks in his new, brief YouTube video. "Let's do something about it."

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The video is a short teaser for a fuller one which promises to go into more detail about the specific steps Pillonel took. But it shows him removing the Lightning connector, using an engineering drawing app to model what he wanted, then turning that into a component.

"And now I finally have all my Apple products charging with USB-C," he concludes. "It took a lot of effort but it was worth it."

It's previously, and widely, been reported that the European Union is pressing for all smartphone manufacturers to adopt USB-C as a charging standard. However, those same proposals are expected to cover other devices too, potentially including AirPods.

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darkvader

The idiotic Lightning connector is obsolete, and Apple should have dumped it for USB many years ago.

Cesar Battistini Maziero

Apple should have went. with all USB C in 2016. 

sbdude

I think, by now, we've established that anything with a lightning connector can be replaced with usb-c. The only difference being there is no MFi certification for usb-c, and your chances of picking up a nefarious, fly-by-night usb-c cable is much greater than with a lightning cable.

auxio

darkvader said:

The idiotic Lightning connector is obsolete, and Apple should have dumped it for USB many years ago.

Selective memory is nice isn't it?  Remember the uproar when Apple changed from the dock connector to lightning?  Remember the utterly stupid number of connector types and power levels that USB had before USB-C existed?  Remember that USB-C didn't even exist until a couple of years after lightning (and took a couple more years to be adopted)?

I'm glad that everything is finally sorted out now with USB-C, and Apple has changed most of their products over to it for compatibility, but they have no apologies to make for showing the rest of the industry how a connector should be designed.

I'll never forget the quote from the Linux IEEE-1394 (aka Firewire) developer mailing list back when the USB 2.0 specification was introduced: "Polishing a turd".  Such a convoluted specification.  Which isn't surprising given that Intel was subsidizing USB in order to sell more CPUs (i.e. you couldn't use a USB device without having a computer to connect it to because it's so complicated to control the bus).

DangDave

First, Apple is already 100% in on USB-C power adapters.

Second, Apple will switch to USB-C ports on all iPhones and iPads when Apple feels the time is right, not before. The sooner the better. 

Having said both of the above, we are still stuck with all of the old USB-A power adaptors in hotels, cars, busses, planes, and our homes, meaning that we may have to carry multiple cables or use various adapters on our cables for several years. 

lkrupp

Yeah, we already know Apple COULD do it. It doesn’t take some DIY dude to prove it can be done. What’s important is why Apple doesn’t WANT to do it until they are ready. And on tech blogs the mantra is all about forcing Apple to do something it doesn’t want to, not about what’s good or bad. The shear joy of and wet dream of the nerd herd is to force Apple into something, anything, to take ‘em down a notch, become the tech lemming that crowd wants them to be.

sflocal

I'd rather every electronic/battery manufacturer start building their products with USBc charging instead of using their proprietary, or generic wall-wart AC adapters.  It's a royal pain in the backside.  If USBc can deliver 100w of power, there is zero excuse why my big, bulky studio strobe batteries, or my little rechargeable hair trimmer can't use USBc.  That is where the big savings will come from.  

But no... "Apple!"

bbh

Amazon has nifty little Lightning to USB-C adapters that take up almost no room, Just a "cap" that covers the Lightning tab.

MplsP

darkvader said:

The idiotic Lightning connector is obsolete, and Apple should have dumped it for USB many years ago.

Why? What does USB (not USB C, plain USB) do that lightning doesn’t or can’t? 

The lightning connector is far superior to mini and micro USB. Even if you move to USB C, there is little to no advantage of USB C over lightning for AirPods and most iPhone use cases. On the flip side, there is a very large established base of lightning cables. 

You do realize that in the time the lightning connector has been in use, other phone makers have gone through 2-3 other connectors, right?

MplsP

Cesar Battistini Maziero said:

Apple should have went. with all USB C in 2016. 

Why?

I agree it would be nice to have everything on USB C, but even now there would be minimal advantage for most people. 

Few people use the lightning port for data transfer at this point. As a connector, lightning is still superior to USB C. For charging, USB C supports higher power but that makes no difference for AirPods and rarely makes a difference for phones. Hell, half the time people are using a lossy wireless charging protocol. 

byronl

sbdude said:

I think, by now, we've established that anything with a lightning connector can be replaced with usb-c. The only difference being there is no MFi certification for usb-c, and your chances of picking up a nefarious, fly-by-night usb-c cable is much greater than with a lightning cable.

there are countless brands making reliable usb c cables and they are all over the place. i would say it’s quite difficult to find a nefarious usb c cable