

#HP ADAPTER DETECTION HACK PRO#
I have just taken a magsafe cable and applied 20V to it, and haven’t had a problem with my 2015 macbook pro up to now. So the 85(?)W adapter starts at 16V, and as the current draw increases it ramps up the voltage, so that the power loss over the cable decreases (more voltage = less current for the same power, and less current at the same cable resistance = less power loss). Basically it says “Hi, this is a 45W charger and let me know when I should change the LED colour” While the magsafe adapters don’t have any communication between the charger and the laptop, the magsafe connector has a chip and a one-wire communication (center pin) to let the laptop know the power and to light up the charging LED. I know this is 5 years later, gonna post a reply nonetheless :) Posted in Repair Hacks, Security Hacks Tagged 1-wire, charger, dell, reverse engineering, spoof Post navigation With this working, you could power the laptop from any supply that can meet the requirements for current and voltage. The demo shows off a 90 W adapter pretending to run at 65 W. This passes power through the board, but uses the MSP430 to send fake data to the computer. Next, a custom PCB was made with two Dell DC jacks and an MSP430. After reading the data and verifying the CRC, it could be examined to find the fields that specify power, voltage, and current.
#HP ADAPTER DETECTION HACK SERIES#
In the four-part series ( 1, 2, 3, 4), the details of reverse engineering the communications and building the spoofer are covered.ĭell uses the 1-Wire protocol to communicate with the charger, and sniffed the communication using a MSP430. built a device that spoofs this identification information for Dell chargers. While this is a good safety measure, ensuring that a compatible charger is used, it also allows the manufacturers to increase the price of their chargers. Genuine chargers communicate with the laptop and give information such as the power, current, and voltage ratings of the device. Many laptops require you to use a ‘genuine’ charger, and refuse to boot when a knock off model is used. If you’ve ever had a laptop charger die, you know that they can be expensive to replace.
