Universal power adapter for various laptops

[nickpunt]

I've got a collection of a bunch of old laptops (Powerbooks, Sony Vaios, Thinkpads, etc) and I don't like having to keep all the power adapters along with them. Two questions:

1. Is there a high quality universal power supply with selectable voltage and swappable plugs that anyone recommends? I see a lot of cheap ones on Amazon but I've learned not to cheap out on power-related things.

2. Has anyone ever modified their old laptops to convert them to USB-C PD plugs? Obviously a lot harder than #1, but would be an interesting hack.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I mentioned this a while ago, but I've thought about building my own at some point using a benchtop supply. Obviously not very portable, but would be convenient. Maybe if I got the right skills, I could even make a custom firmware with presets for each laptop. That would be nice.

For now though, I don't have the skills to do that, so for the time being, my plan is to do what I did for my 500 series PowerBooks, which was to create an adapter out of an old dead charger in order to be able to power it from a ThinkPad charger.
I may do the same for my 486 WinBooks at some point, which also use a strange 4 pin connector, although my original supply for that one still works.

 

[nickpunt]

@3lectr1cPPC haha I was thinking about tagging you in this post since I know you've got a big collection! Yeah some kind of benchtop supply with presets and swappable plugs is an ideal solution. I think the connectors are all sourcable from Mouser et al with a little bit of searching around, so its mostly elbow grease to make cables out of those and then figure out if there's a way to make presets.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I have been told that it may be a bad idea though - mainly because of the possibly of setting something wrong and causing the smoke to be let out.
Way I see it though, that's more of my problem than anything else if that were to happen.

One of my future plan ideas is to build a custom supply for the mid 90s Dells. They used a VERY similar connector to the 3-pin one they used for the C-series Latitudes/inspiron clones, but with a different keying and voltage. You can modify a c-series supply to fit an older one, but the voltage difference would have to be made up. Problem is that I'd have to cannibalize a working original for this, unless someone would sell me a dead one. I had a dead one years and years ago but I threw it out. I have another dead one now, but it died because the connector broke! Gah.

 

[nickpunt]

I bet you can find that connector part number if you spend some time on parts websites. I found those weird Winbook ones in <10mins of searching. I doubt any connector is really bespoke to a manufacturer and isn't in supply somewhere in the parts universe, you just gotta want it enough to keep digging I've almost never come up empty on a curiosity when sleuthing between archive.org, mouser, google images, etc.

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/winbook-486slc-laptop-quit-posting.43533/page-2#post-479752

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I know generics were available at some point at least because generic adapters for the c series laptops were made, I have one. But it’s a piece of crap that doesn’t make a good connection. Makes it feel like it was a cheap clone. It’s certainly not a bad idea to have a look though. I have a feeling though that finding the earlier keyed version for the Latitude LM, XPi, would be difficult. I’ll take a look tomorrow

 

[bigmessowires]

I have been told that it may be a bad idea though - mainly because of the possibly of setting something wrong and causing the smoke to be let out.

This is why bench-top power supplies have a current-limiting setting!