Robotics engineering student Ken Pillonel wowed the Internet just a few weeks ago with an a priori crazy stunt. After hours of observation and research, and many attempts, the kid managed to put a USB Type-C port on his iPhone X, and get it to work.
To clarify, USB type C are the ones that come by default in some mobile brands such as Xiaomi. It is true that compatibility is not a big problem either because there are a lot of adapters that allow us to recycle our chargers when they break or when we change phones.
At first, this American student uploaded a short video to YouTube where he disassembled his iPhoneX, soldered some cables and inserted a USB type-C, but without delving into the details. The video, of course, quickly went viral, and now Pillonel has posted a much more detailed video showing how he managed to pull off the trick, along with a Github repository with technical details, instructions, and a massive amount of information on the trick. piece he designed and built, and so anyone brave enough to try this trick has all the details at their fingertips to pull it off.
High engineering available to everyone
The 13-minute long video shows the gist of the Pillonel mod, which is theoretically simple: combine a Lightning connection to USB-C into a daisy chain to mimic a fully functional, iPhone-compatible USB-C port.
The video shows practically the entire development process. It’s quite a journey, going from test prototypes, reverse engineering the Lightning connector, ordering a custom flexible circular plate, and machining the iPhone case to fit the USB-C connector, which is physically larger than the original iPhone.
The video also demonstrates how difficult it is to fit the extra circuitry, with the board bent around both sides of Apple’s Taptic Engine hardware so that all the necessary components are fixed and can work. Because that is one of Pillonel’s main concerns in the video, that since they are different pieces, with different sizes and not approved by Apple, when putting everything together and trying to fit it inside the phone, the components will not work, since he had to file and cut parts of some of them to fit inside the iPhone case.
Pillonel is also auctioning its original prototype on eBay, where bids have already reached $ 3,600 (and it will likely end up selling for much more). Considering how carefully designed Apple devices are , the fact that someone amateur managed to insert external components into an iPhone and make it work is quite a feat.
Of course, and true to his philosophy, Pillonel has carried out the entire project using open source so that other users can take advantage of his knowledge and his work, either by adapting more iPhone X models or developing the same strategy for other models of the iPhone. Mark.
