I suggest you get another charger and... this time... take care of it.
I could do something like paste a heat sync onto the new L-adapter.
Today I performed an autopsy on the charger that died last night. All through the head and about an inch into cable the insulation on the inner wire had melted through, so shorts a plenty, unfortunately.
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"what am I missing?"
What you're "missing" is that you could quite possibly ruin the MacBook's internal charging circuitry with a jerry-rigged setup like that.
It's just that things are to the point where it's not cost effective to buy replacement magsafe 1's. They're lasting about four months before succumbing to heat damage. So, be it $110 to have a new authentic magsafe 1 shipped from Singapore or to pay $16 to have a (pretty sure they're bootlegged) repair pigtail sent from China, it's just not worth the expense of proprietary parts to keep a machine from 2009 alive. But if I could give it a new lease on life through a hardware hack then it'd still be useful, either to me or to a struggling student in this country who wouldn't mind the age and the ugly back-yard-mechanic hack. That's why I thought to ask for ideas.
Thanks again!
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If you tinker with that stuff and get your wiring wrong, you will most likely fry your logic board.
That sounds like a bad thing
I knew I'd be sacrificing the one-wire protocol. Basically there'd be no more switching, just a constant higher voltage. That shouldn't hurt the logic board, but if any of the circuitry on the DC-in board controls signals or cleans the power or any such thing, bypassing that might kill the board.
It's interesting how many online schematics there are for the magsafe adaptors, but not so much for the dc-in boards. Probably because they don't die at the rate of the white bricks.
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It's possible some kind of voltage regulator could help, if the issue is to do with a fluctuating power signal. Make sure they are genuine too of course.
I'm not deeply experienced with these things however, but I don't know if the voltage would drastically effect the charging. They are designed to work between 120v-240v on the AC end, with up to 20v supplied to the laptop (The laptop has a resistor built in which negotiates correct charging voltage depending on the model, I think this is also what the other cable is for). So all the AC adapter is doing is converting AC into usable DC at a set voltage. It is plausible that constant (quick) variations in input voltage could lead to the device heating up, however this shouldn't affect the DC side (You mentioned the issue was on the Magsafe connection?).
So I would lean towards there being something else amiss here. You could try a regulator to smooth out the voltage (I remember they used to at least be a thing for audiophiles, so look there for simple solutions) and see if it helps. It may also be worthwhile taking a look at your home wiring to see if that's outdated, as your board should include a lot of this stuff already.
Easiest thing to suggest however is to just buy a genuine Apple charger and use that. Making modifications to the actual device or trying to hack a 3rd party charger would likely cause further damage unless you were an experienced electrical engineer (And the fact you're asking here leads me to assume you're not). You could also get into a pattern of trial and error with various other devices along the circuit to try find the problem. In the end, you may just find it easier/cheaper to replace the charger and/or cope. Obviously in the long run you'd be better to solve the issue, however how long were you planning on keeping it vs. how low these chargers are currently lasting?
I feel blasphemous sharing it here, but we actually do have a couple of lenovo webbooks, two samsung tablets, and a handful of malaysian manufactured cellphones. None of them get hot like our Macs do when they charge. My MBP is from 2009 and even with fans spinning there are times I have to take it off of my lap because it's too hot. My wife has a 2017 air (with the magsafe 2, of course) and heat isn't a problem at all. I've gotten similar heat from OEM and aftermarket chargers (but not off of battery power). Could be the battery is old and heats everything up while it's trying to fill up decaying cells; could be the DC in board; could be something else. I'm just weary of spending so much on proprietary parts. On one level, maybe, it would just feel good to start cutting into the thing
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Hey, everybody!
I mentioned this was my first forum post ever at macrumors. I've read here but never wrote here. When I did write, a lot of people took the time to jump in, share ideas, ask questions, etc.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their contributions. Should my MBP turn into a working Frankenstein like thing I'll be sure to come back here and share how it went. But first I'll try that barrel adapter that goes on the outside of the machine.
Cheers!
