[NTLK] Power Adapter Developer's Guide

[Elias Basse]

Jake,

What test equipment do you have?

A circuit like this is fairly simple in components and should be able to be tested with a good digital multi meter on ampere settings into a load resistor.

If you have a current and voltage limited adjustable bench power supply it could be mimicked from that document without anything other than a wire and connector.

For a simple usb charger, I use a buck boost board that has a current limiting function.

While I have not done so with the Newton I will look over the spec sheet and see if I can get you a bit more information.  The sense pin that is limited to 10ma seems strait forward and can likely be done with a resistor of calculated value similar to a current limiting resistor for a simple LED.

I like the idea of the charge and sync board via usb or usb c.  A 1 amp usb circuit would charge a bit slower but be safer as usb c is thousands of times faster than any port on the Newton could go and has a higher voltage.  At 5VDC you can buck boost to the required 7V range as long as it’s current limited into the ranges as described in the document and be a bit safer.

I will throw this on the bench here and see if I can grab some info from testing that may help you out.  I do lots of electronics as I work on arcade equipment, computer equipment, and do board level repairs for work.

Best Regards,
Elias

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 13, 2018, at 5:49 AM, Jake Bordens <jake at allaboutjake.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi folks.  Are there any “real” electrical engineers out there that would be willing to chat with me on Slack about the N2 Power Adapter Guide?  (I’m just a hobbiest maker at best)
> 
> http://www.unna.org/unna/apple/documentation/n2platform/n2-padg.pdf
> 
> Specifically, I’m exploring the ability of some pins on this port to accept a charger input.  I’m exploring the idea of whether a board could be made that provides a USB-C port that can both provide a standard serial port as well as charge the Newton.   USB-C can provide 9v 3a, and that can be regulated down the 7.5v needed by the Newton.
> 
> I’ve played with it a little bit so far, but I don’t have a good way to test that this input is working properly and not in fact doing damage or overcharging the battery.  I had hoped when power was applied to this port, the newton would show “charging” in the battery meter, but it doesn’t see to do that.  Either it doesn’t work that way, or I’ve already damaged the port on my test newton ☺
> 
> Also they talk about using a 100k resistor to signal to the newton that there’s an charger present.  In a final design, I think you need more than just a resistor. Since unfusedPsVin provides battery voltage with no adapter is present, putting a 100k across to PsAdaptIn when no power is present seems wrong to me, as the battery voltage could trigger the PsAdaptIn signal when no adapter is present.  I think you need a diode at the minimum such that when the power supply is disconnected, no voltage appears back to the PsAdaptIn pin from unfusedPsVin.
> 
> It anyone has any idea on how this might work, how to test safely without destroying a Newton, let me know.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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