AirPods mod ditches Lightning port for USB-C

Robotics engineering pupil Ken Pillonel has adopted up his USB-C iPhone mod with a modified pair of AirPods with a USB-C port for charging — changing Apple’s proprietary Lightning port. Although the result’s easy (USB-C cable goes in, energy goes up), it was an engineering problem that Pillonel says consumed “pretty much all my weekends for a few months.” It comes round a month after he accomplished a mission that introduced a Lightning port to an Android phone.

Pillonel plans to launch a full-length video explaining the mission within the coming weeks, however for now, he’s put out a brief clip exhibiting his modded AirPods being charged with the identical USB-C cable as a MacE book and his beforehand modded iPhone. He plans to open supply the mission like he did with the USB-C iPhone for others to observe in his footsteps.

In an e-mail, Pillonel explains that he began by making a proof-of-concept with out regard to the looks (the outcomes of which he printed a few months ago), earlier than step by step refining his work to suit inside Apple’s case. Eventually, the coed says he designed a customized versatile PCB containing the required charging {hardware}, which he was capable of bend to suit into the AirPods case. In photographs, the USB-C port appears to be like nearly as neatly built-in because the earbuds’ native Lightning port.

Apple already makes use of USB-C ports for charging its laptops and an rising variety of its tablets, nevertheless it continues to ship Lightning ports on its smaller and extra moveable gadgets like iPhones and AirPods in addition to Mac equipment like its mouse, trackpad, and keyboard. It means even somebody who’s totally purchased into Apple’s ecosystem of merchandise can’t get away with carrying only one charging cable round. As mods like this show, there’s little stopping Apple from switching to a extra handy common charging customary, a selection that most likely has one thing to do with the management the proprietary Lightning interface provides Apple.

EU regulators are trying to alter issues with new laws that they hope will pressure firms like Apple to make use of the common USB-C charging customary on telephones, tablets, and headphones, with the intention of decreasing e-waste. But till such laws comes into pressure, mods like Pillonel’s are probably the most effective we’re going to get.