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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Following a trend of enthusiasts successfully switching the iPhone's Lightning port for a USB-C port, engineer Ken Pillonel has added a functional Lightning port to a Samsung Galaxy A51.



Pillonel was the first to gain notoriety for modifying an iPhone X to add a functional USB-C port, which went on to sell for over $86,000 at auction. His latest project sought to achieve the inverse and add a Lightning port to a Galaxy A51, including charging and data transfer functionality.

Pillonel told Engadget that the project was "a complex modification that required some out-of-the-box thinking."
The Lightning cables sold by Apple are not "dumb." They will only charge Apple devices. So I had to find a way to trick the cable into thinking it was plugged into an Apple device. And the whole thing needs to fit inside the phone, which is another challenge in itself.
Pillonel admitted that "the quality of the finished product is nowhere near what it was for the iPhone," but he doesn't expect "anyone in their right mind" to want to do this to their device. "It was for fun, I just wanted to see if I could do it," he explained, adding that such projects serve as a great example of what can be achieved with devices, even without the help of the companies that originally made them.

Pillonel plans to release a full-length explanation video about the Galaxy A51's conversion from USB-C to Lightning on his YouTube channel soon.

Article Link: Android Phone With Fully Functioning Lightning Port Becomes Engineer's Latest Project
 

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
6,127
8,217
Happy April 1.
Apple should surprise us and release a new product today and iOS updates for iOS 9, 10, 12 & 14 and MacOS updates for 10.11,12,13 and 32 bit support for Monterey and updates for Apple Watch Series 0,1.

But the real surprise will be in June when they announced dropping support for Intel.
 

amartinez1660

macrumors 68000
Sep 22, 2014
1,615
1,657
The only upside of USB-C (3* really) is speed. All the rest (durability, waterproofing, size…) are downsides. For a phone (especially when very few people use wired data transfer) it’s very reasonable to think that Lightning is “the car”.
It would be great to see how connecting a Magic Keyboard/Trackpad/Mouse, an iPhone, AirPods Max, AirPods Pro case, etc would look on a clean desk USB-C vs Lightning.
 

IIGS User

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2019
1,122
3,147
Not good enough.

I want a DB25 RS232 port in my iPhone 13 pro.
What about a SCSI port?

Think it supports "fast" charging?
 

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