A hacker does Apple’s job by sticking a USB-C port on Airpods Max

Have you purchased an Apple headset, but would like to charge it with your USB-C cable? This is entirely possible thanks to a new hack.

According to the latest rumors, Apple is preparing a version of its AirPods Max equipped with a USB-C port. But if you don’t want to wait, you can install a USB-C port yourself on the model currently on sale. It will cost you 40 and some euros and a little patience and dexterity.

A screwdriver and a little force

Ken Pillonel, a Swiss engineer already responsible for a DIY project allowing a USB-C port to be attached to 1st generation Airpods Pro, has done it again and manufactured a part allowing the Apple audio headset to be charged with the now required universal charger by the European Union. Good news in addition, the spare part is on sale over the counter for around forty euros and the Swiss tinkerer has detailed step by step how to replace the Lightning port of his headphones with a homemade USB-C port.

The operation is not too complicated if you have the right tools. You will certainly have to open the headset and carefully dispose of all the parts, but the Lightning port itself is simply attached to the motherboard via two small cables and as many screws. Removing it from the helmet itself, however, requires a bit of brute force since it is attached with extra-strong glue. Nothing that cannot withstand a blow from a hammer and screwdriver, but you will still have to be delicate so as not to damage anything.

Soon a native USB-C headset

Then, all you have to do is stick the newly ordered part onto the printed circuit board, reconnect all the cables and screw in all the screws and, miraculously, you are equipped with a perfectly functional AirPods Max USB-C. Unfortunately, for cost reasons, it is not possible to pass sound via USB-C, so you will have to make do with the Bluetooth connection on your new headset.

If this DIY is not exactly within the reach of the first comer, it still shows how swapping a Lightning port for a USB-C port on the AirPods Max is not too rocket science. At a time when European law will soon impose USB-C as the only charging port accepted on headphones, Apple would do well to take notice.

Source : Exploring the Simulation – Youtube