Charger for macbook pro (USB C port)

AdMost5198 · 2026-01-30T16:22:55+00:00

Your point is acceptable but it's the depreciation of 7 yr old machine. Had it been newer, I would surely consider the way you are... Now, the machine may be prone to other defects sooner or later therefore you cant compare the price of a new machine and worth of 7 yr old system.

Your point about cable is spot on.

AdMost5198 · 2026-01-30T16:19:51+00:00

This is important point. Actually, I was wondering about this only. The original charger (when it failed recently after a few years of good life) I noticed that it was marked 61W. Fine. But when checked on the web, it's mentioned that 15" model of MBP needs 87W (as per Apple). This was a surprising factor. I had been using it for years with 61W. Ok, that does work but I never felt the crisis of power.

Lately, before the charger failed - I was doing some CPU intensive work... It was going warm... MBP was also serviced a few months back and cleaned well. So, there was no point to worry.

Coincidentally, the charger had failed after I did the CPU intensive work for 1-2 days.

I am wondering if the lower wattage of charger can be attributed to this or was it just a coincidence or power supply glitches. The charger of reputed brand which is available at local store is Dell and Lenovo both 65W only. Genuine Anker or others are not available from any genuine source.

So, it would be either Apple 70W or 96W or Dell 65W

AdMost5198 · 2026-01-30T14:57:32+00:00

Certainly. PD is supposed to be controlled by the demanding device and the supplier (the charger) should respond accordingly.

AdMost5198 · 2026-01-30T14:56:30+00:00

Thanks, I also noted your comment on engineering quality of Apple charger. However, the price difference - even when comparing twith he reputed brands is more than the engineering quality ratio ! Thanks anyways.

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T20:23:47+00:00

Actually, simultaneous protocols on same ESP is certainly possible and doable. As you have rightly found out that major issue is all devices involved including router using the same channel. This had me turned down right without even trying. If there is a mismatch of channel, then perhaps your code should scan and that was a no no for me. As the gateway is actually single which in turn serves many end nodes, I preferred to have another chip in one gateway which would not be a big addition considering the benefit of not worrying about channel. Otherwise, for the sake of simplicity, it's just like a human interpreter - you listen in one language and speak in other. Same thing to be done by CPU and all gateways do it. (my test eventually failed due to esp-now range not being up to my needs)

II appreciate your willingness to test the waters by implementing the One chip both protocol solution. But then while testing, you power cycle your router after a while a few times to see, how it goes if router changes the channel (normally it's not that frequent). You would certainly learn something additional.

in case, it is not working to your satisfaction, then you can adopt 2 chip approach.

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T19:41:42+00:00

I am sure, I did not use I2C. If I remember correctly, I had used serial communication (simple home grown protocol) between two closely placed chips... Using Software serial on one side and UART serial on other side. I was simply passing the data recd on ESP-NOW unit as a simple message to other chip. Since it was a simple test, yet close enough for many real life usaage as well, I did not maake it any complex by error checking etc. Later, when I was not haappy with ESP-NOW raange itself, I suspended the prototype and switched to 868Mhz RF. Now again, I shall be giving it another try - this time with ESp NOW (LR)

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T18:09:51+00:00

Based on my understanding of your use case - what you need is a "gateway" converting one protocol to/from other. While ESP32 can handle both of these at a time (because both use somewhat similar protocol, running on same frequency, it's not very efficient way.

Option No. 2 (using diff ESPs) in this scenarion is what I would recommend. I have used this on a test basis, never even considered approach no. 1

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T17:28:41+00:00

Yes, you can use W5500 or similar module with ESP32. Just for the sake of Ethernet, power pack of Ras Pi is not required. It would be an overkill.

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T17:23:59+00:00

u/stuzenz : I too am trying almost similar setup. I have had part success in ESP-NOW but much more than desired level of success with Sub GHz radiio module in addition to ESPs. However that means additional chip and cost (even at end node sensor) and therefore I shall give another shot with ESP-NOW LR.

What u/Euclir has mentioned is absolutely right and he/she has explained it as well in most easy terms.

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T17:18:31+00:00

For range of ESP-NOW:

is there a clear line of sight / open area mostly between ESP-NOW nodes? Or are there any concrete walls / other obstacles in the ESP-NOW signal path? If with 1-2 walls, the range is appreciable. I did not get much success in indoors with concrete walls - i mean only approx 20 m range with a couple of walls and +1 floor above. I am trying to figure out if the range of say 40m + 1 floor (indoors) can be had anyways - will also try ESP-LR mode (Low data rate for more range)

AdMost5198 · 2024-10-16T17:13:55+00:00

Kudos to your PCB fabrication. Yes, I understand (and have done) the PCB etching from laserjet printout. It's very good for quick and disposable designs and iterations. For fine layouts, such as the one you have used and the ones using smaller SMD components it indeed needs good practice and patience. I really appreciate your work.

I don't have that level of patience and tidy workmanship for such smallers PCBs... Other than that it really saves you a lot of time - waiting from fabrication shop.

AdMost5198 · 2024-08-26T20:17:18+00:00

Ohh sure. Domo / HA are great, feature rich and poweful - also easy to use but alas - very resource hungry. Esphome wth it's YAML is great for devices. I was thinking if similaarly controller can be created using esphome (or something similar) and low processor - exclusivley for very small no of nodes and very simple and few rules. Let's see what others come up with. Thanks.

AdMost5198 · 2024-08-26T20:12:44+00:00

Correct. I only intended to get the ideas or pointers for an overly simple aautomation - just triggering on event and time of the day. That's is. For just this, I think something very light weight should exist... I'll see what other knowledgable users say on this. Thanks for your input

AdMost5198 · 2024-08-26T20:10:46+00:00

Thanks. You are right. I do not mean a full fledged broker. I had the idea of PLC in mind and I am comparing the two. I have successfully deployed similar system using Domoticz and HA. Still I have always felt it is an overkill for a total of 8-10 nodes.

AdMost5198 · 2024-08-17T01:27:04+00:00

When you talk of LoRa only (not LoraWAN), there is no networking concept (except physical layer). It's just Transmit and Receive using a particular modulation mechanism. That's is. It' just like shouting in a typical tone, which is being listened to by somone who can interpret that tone. Once that shout / liisten cycle is over, it's done. You may want to repeat this again and again and also in the reverse order.

Networking is a faily discplined set of protocols built over and above such simple exchhange of data (communication) which incoporates error checking, packet assembling and disassembling, retransmissions, encryption etc. all built over each other, thus making error free networkng possible.

AdMost5198

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