UPDATE:
The standard Lenovo adapter is now included with any purchase of a V88 Laptop Battery Pack or any of our solar laptop chargers.
—–Of course, if you want to hack your own, here’s how to do it. ——
We like the Thinkpad X1 Carbon from Lenovo, but we aren’t into their proprietary rectangular adapter. Unlike the MagSafe’s magnetic connector, it doesn’t offer much functional advantage over the standard barrel adapter. The adapter just seems to force customers to buy their power cables from Lenovo.
At a customer request, we built a custom cable for their X1 so that they can charge it from our V72 laptop battery (now our V88 Laptop Battery) and solar chargers. Here’s what the power cable and adapter look like. We took measurements from the adapter before chopping it up. The outer sleeve and inner pin were ground, the inner sleeve measured 20.3 Volts.
The X1 adapter uses a coaxial cable. The inner cable is positive, outer is negative. We connected these wires the positive and negative of our Laptop Output Cable (5.5×2.5mm Wire).
We then soldered the connections and covered in heat shrink tubing and tested the output to make sure it matched the original.
Here’s the finished product!
So the white wire is positive
LOL, sorry, I completely missed item #1, I guess that answers that, until the new plug becomes more widespread and available elsewhere than Lenovo.
Would that allow me to charge both the V60 battery and use the V60 to power the Yoga?
Wouldn’t that also mean using the T430 charger for hotel room-charging?
I can’t tell what adaptor specifically you linked to, but without seeing it, am I stuck with the charger for the T430 (or, in a pinch, the charger for my old X230)?
It’s just, that the charger for the Thinkpad Yoga is so nice to pack because it takes up so little room.
Man, I hate that they can’t stick to something. Even if the newer rectangular plug seems a bit more “secure”.
Now the Thinkpad Yoga also has this plug (we just bought one, and will buy another Thinkpad Yoga (it’s not the Ideapad-version) so it looks like they are going forward with this. The reason I am buying a Yoga too, is that it is small and light and easier to carry when bicycle touring than my T430 or worse, my T530.
In any case, I would like to charge the Yoga (or X1 if I had one of those) from the battery, but I would also like to be able to charge the V60 battery from the Thinkpad charger. I am at a loss how to go about this. Will I have to send you my charger and you then chop that one up, or can I perhaps get a cable from somewhere that I can chop up myself?
Sincerely,
Andre
Hi Andre,
I know, it is frustrating how all the providers keep coming up with new adapters. I’m writing this on a T430 which I like but probably wouldn’t want to take on a bicycle tour either.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Use your T430 charger
2. Get one of these Converters on eBay for $5 that goes from your T430 charger to the Yoga / X1 style – http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Charger-converter-Cable-Adapter-For-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-0B47046-/271283416241?_trksid=p2054897.l4276
2. Get this adapter that connects from your T430 to the V60 – http://secure.voltaicsystems.com/cgi-bin/UCEditor?merchantId=VOLTA&ADD=5521-F795609
Jeff