Why Power Adapters Are So HUGE
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
1,068 words · ~5 min read
0:00
so the trend for everything these days is to make gadgets smaller lighter and
0:05
more portable i mean we even have smart watches because we decided that checking
0:09
your already pocket-sized phone when you get a text was simply
0:14
too much work but there's one rather fat fly in the
0:17
ointment when it comes to portability those huge power bricks that still
0:22
accompany many of our electronic devices now
0:26
many of them have gotten a fair bit smaller since the days of the original
0:30
xbox 360 ac adapter like i'm sure you could use that thing as a murder weapon
0:35
but the question remains as to why we need them at all
0:38
even those relatively small wall warts for mobile phones can still be
0:43
inconvenient due to how much they stick out of the wall or how they can block
0:47
other outlets well the basic reason for these clunky
0:51
boxes is that our modern electronics cannot use the raw ac power that comes
0:57
directly from the wall instead it has to be converted to direct
1:01
current or dc you can learn more about the differences
1:04
between ac and dc right up here but the important thing to know is that unlike
1:09
dc ac power uses a current that is
1:12
constantly switching direction so because the transistors that lie at
1:18
the heart of contemporary electronics need the current to flow one way only in
1:23
order to work properly they need extra equipment to convert or rectify ac power
1:29
into one way dc this is why simpler electrical devices
1:33
like a desk lamp work just fine without a space hogging adapter
1:38
but that doesn't explain why they need to be
1:41
so big and why they can't just be built into our electronics
1:45
well as it turns out a fair bit of equipment is actually needed for this
1:50
simple ac to dc conversion now back in
1:53
the day many electronics used linear adapters which could turn the 110 or 220
1:58
volts from the wall into a specific smaller voltage that the electronics
2:03
needed but their drawback was that they gave off a great deal of waste heat i
2:09
mean i guess that's no problem when the number of people on your city's power
2:12
grid is measured in thousands but in the modern world the more efficiently that
2:17
we can perform these operations the better
2:20
also all that waste heat would have been really bad to have inside the same
2:24
chassis as a bunch of sensitive electronic components
2:28
so nowadays most power bricks are switching adapters which means that they
2:33
themselves use fancier electronics to switch voltages and current depending on
2:39
what exactly is coming out of the wall and what the device specifically needs
2:43
not only does this allow your electronics to work in countries with
2:47
different voltages as long as you've got a simple plug adapter it's also a lot
2:52
more efficient than the older linear power bricks which is why some devices
2:56
do have integrated power supplies like some monitors
3:00
with that said switching adapters still give off a fair bit of heat because they
3:05
aren't nearly 100 efficient and the
3:08
electronics inside them can create interference meaning that it can be
3:13
helpful to separate the adapter itself from whatever it's trying to power if
3:18
it's susceptible to that kind of interference on top of that they often include rf
3:23
shielding which can add still more weight and bulk
3:26
making matters worse even though modern electronics tend to be a lot more
3:30
efficient than what we had a couple of decades ago some gadgets still do need
3:36
lots of power and generally speaking the more power a device needs the larger its
3:41
adapter will be as larger components and wires are needed to safely carry the
3:46
additional current the thinner smaller components just have too much resistance
3:51
and can't handle all of that juice this is also part of the reason that
3:55
internal power supplies for desktop pcs which can consume hundreds or even over
4:00
a thousand watts are bulky and heavy
4:03
with often large cooling fans in them
4:06
back to our mobile electronics for a moment though these two have a lot going
4:11
on but in a much smaller space and building power delivery directly into
4:16
something like a phone or a gaming laptop would not only add undesirable
4:21
bulk but possibly make the whole system too hot to function and increase the
4:27
price of replacing the power adapter in the event of a failure so the good news
4:32
is that while we won't be getting rid of them outright anytime soon as
4:36
electronics continue to get more efficient with processors becoming more
4:40
powerful while simultaneously needing less energy ac adapters should generally
4:46
keep shrinking or at least stay smaller
4:49
and lighter than they used to be good thing too because
4:53
i never have enough room in my suitcase speaking of room in your suitcase i'm
4:57
sure you could make some room for mass drops sennheiser hd 6xx headphones these
5:01
things sound fantastic and they are one of massdrop's all-time best sellers with
5:06
over 50 000 units sold and no wonder
5:10
they've got an unchanged driver and sound structure compared to the hd 650s
5:14
which are a modern classic delivering balanced mid-range and natural sounding
5:19
bass and they've got a couple of improvements including a detachable six
5:22
six-foot cable instead of a 10-foot cable so you don't have quite as much
5:26
wire to manage it comes with an eighth inch plug that's versatile for everyday
5:30
use and a quarter-inch adapter and includes sennheiser's long-term support
5:35
so check out the link below to join the drop today
5:39
so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other videos if you have a
5:43
comment please do leave one especially if you have a suggestion for a future
5:47
video you'd like to see covered and don't forget to subscribe and follow so
5:51
you never miss a Techquickie never not
5:54
even once not even if you were like you had food
5:58
poisoning and you were throwing up you'd be like you'd be there on your phone like
6:01
i'm wiping off the screen i gotta watch my Techquickie
6:07
that sounds very awful maybe don't throw up on my face