Thinkpads Forum

Crazy thought-
I want to retrofit one of my "older" Thinkpads (think X61/62, X201/210) with USB-C charging.

The USB-C spec allows 20V at 3A or 5A, so if one adds a USB-C Power Sink such as this or this, that should be enough to replace (or add to) the standard barrel connector.

Is this a silly idea and / or has someone tried this already?

Cheers,
R

You've actually got a good question!

The quick answer is that at the moment I don't know of any maker for USB-C directly to barrel-type right now--and ThinkPad/Lenovo has no plans to make this either.
(You can petition them, and if enough folks ask for this...)

1) USB-C to slim-tip (rectangular) type of power adapter tip:
~Right now, the only Lenovo way for to convert USB-C to slim-tip (rectangular) type of power adapter tip is to buy this expensive Lenovo USB-C Laptop Power Bank (14,000 mAh).
~It contains this USB-C to slim-tip (rectangular) power tip converter inside. Apparently Lenovo has no plans to sell this part separately.

www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and-mo ... power-bank
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X1 ... -p/3938034

2) From USB-C >> slim-tip power adapter tip, you can then find lots of adapters that in turn connect to your barrel power adapter tip of X210 (or our T410) series.
For example:
www.insight.com/en_US/shop/product/4X90 ... rrelPowerC

[Disclaimer: I'm a fellow ThinkPad user; I do not work for any of above organisations!]

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Personally, I don't feel comfortable with this adapter of an adapter approach.

Only time will tell; perhaps in the future there would be a direct USB-C to barrel power adapter tip in the future!

This is a great idea - Assume if the parts are not likely to burst into flames it will be fine

Look at the unit in the upper left corner of the image in this listing/select Thinkpad from the dropdown menu; does this fit the bill? (I dont own an classic/legacy model thinkpads unfortunately- my oldest is a T450s; however this appears to be the same socket as the one my T450s uses) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Laptop-Charger ... 87IsFXd4YA

I also found this- this appears to be the same socket as the T61 no?

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/33024868797.html