Travel Adapter For MacBook & MacBook Pro
No, it’s not a trick photography, it’s a magsafe power adapter using a off-the-shelf power adapter. I know this is a blog about Ruby and Rails, but since so many of us are using Mac as the tool of choice, I thought I post this here.
Here’s how this all started. I wanted to get a travel charger for using and charging my laptop on plane as well as in the car. However, because of the stupid magsafe crap, I couldn’t get anything that will work. Sure, Apple released air power adapter, but it won’t charge the battery and I sure didn’t want to risk damaging anything by plugging it in a car.
After looking everywhere, I came across http://www.mikegyver.com. However, I just couldn’t justify paying for their modified adapter. Considering the fact that I have all the skills necessary to take things apart, I decided to order their DIY manual for $10. The instruction was so simple that I couldn’t believe it. It was well worth the price I paid for and after a short visit to local Radio Shack, I got it all working.
The key is the cable shown here. With a generic in-line DC jack, I can use just about any power supply out there. HOWEVER, you have to know the voltage or you can potentially blow up your MacBook, literally.
Since iGo Juice does not have enough watts for MacBook Pro, I just ordered Kensington 120W adapter for using and charging my MacBook Pro ANYWHERE! I now only need one power supply to carry around for any and all occasion, all at a fraction of what Apple charges for their POS. The best part is that it also charges my battery, not just power the computer. This is also so much better than carrying an inverter. I never even considered that as a solution.
Here’s a big WARNING!!! This operation is not for a beginner. It may cost you more if you make a single mistake. If you don’t know how to solder, don’t even try it. My recommendation is to purchase the cable from MikeGyver.
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[...] About a week ago, I came across this link (via RubyHead) to Mike (MikeGyver) Lee’s website where he sells both turn-key solutions as well as instructions to build your own DC-DC power adapter for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. The great thing is that I already owned one of the third party power adapters that he recommends, so all I needed was about $7.00 worth of radio shack parts. Awesome! So, I bought the do-it-yourself instructions from Mike Lee, and gave it ago last night. So far it works great! [...]