The first AirPods with a USB-C port are already a reality

Ken Pillonel He did his job again. The robotics student who made the first USB-C iPhone in 2021 has reappeared with a new project. This time he fulfilled the desire of many, when disposing of the Lightning connector from the case of some AirPods.

Yes, you read it right. The first AirPods with a USB-C port in the case are already a reality, and believe it or not, you can adapt yours at home too. Of course, if you have the knowledge and the necessary equipment for this.

In this case, Pillonel’s project began with a different premise than the one that brought him his moment of glory. The young engineer set out to eliminate, according to him, the main drawback of AirPods: the impossibility of replacing the battery included in the case.

Since this is a sealed compartment, it cannot be opened to replace the battery if it runs out. At least not breaking it. So he decided to explain how to cut off part of the Apple headphone case to put in a new battery and replace the damaged case with a 3D printed one.

However, Pillonel concluded that during the process there was a strong possibility that the lightning port will be damaged. And since Apple doesn’t sell official replacement parts for it, the only alternative to continue the “official” path is to extract it from another AirPods case. But the aforementioned have decided to go a little further and replace it with a USB-C port, in keeping with European regulations that will make the use of a shared charger mandatory from 2024.

Ken Pillonell beat Apple to create the first AirPods with USB-C

Over the past few hours, a robotics student has posted a video on YouTube showing the entire procedure. In addition, AirPods case designs have been released for everyone to print their own; and also provided a design for the modifications that need to be made to replace the Lightning port with a USB-C port.

Needless to say, everything is new in this initiative, it’s also impossible. As with the iPhone USB-C project, Pillonel designed and commissioned a custom PCB. This allowed him to rearrange the “insides” case AirPods for compatibility with the new connector.

I repeat the previous concept. What this young engineer is doing is amazing, and sends a message to Apple regarding certain design (and business) practices or choices that many certainly disagree with. However, being such a deep modification, this is not a do-it-yourself offering available to everyone.

In any case, it is clear that today there are no technical obstacles that cannot be avoided on the basis of ingenuity and knowledge. Let’s not forget that in addition to equipping iPhones and AirPods with a USB-C port, a Swiss engineer was able to adapt Apple’s Lightning port to the Samsung Galaxy A51.