Macbook M1 Accessories

The M1 Macbook has only an audio jack and two USB C ports, so a dongle was a necessary expenditure. I ended up buying the model shown in Figure 1. It only cost about Rp300,000 or A$30, so certainly not expensive. It was bought online of course. In a store, it would have cost twice as much.

Figure 1

After clipping it in securely, it is working fine. I tested it out by inserting a memory card. However, I left it connected overnight and noticed a significant drop in the battery percentage. The problem is that the dongle lights up in blue when inserted which is useful in a way but it also drains the battery. I don't think there's any way to disable the light, so it's only to be inserted as needed. I have a USB 3 card reader with USB C connector so I can use that where memory cards are involved and it doesn't draw any power. For HDMI output however, I'll need the dongle.

So far I've downloaded VLC for playing movies, Calibre for my ebook library, Chess X for playing and analysing chess moves and SageMath for mathematical investigation. Most of the work I do is done within the Chrome browser.

Charging Issues

It's been a while since my last post but I was out of town for quite some time and did not take my laptop with me. On return however, I noticed that charging cable for my beloved MacBook Pro 2013 was playing up again. After the original, I've replaced the 60W charger twice and the current one is proving troublesome with the little green light not always lighting up unless it's tweaked.

I've ordered and received a new one which I'll keep in reserve as the current one is not too annoying just yet. It will fail eventually of course. It's worth forking out for new chargers as my laptop with Mint LInux installed is running just fine and doing everything that I want it to do. Likewise my Raspberry Pi is fully operational. The advantages of USB C charging are obvious but of course my old laptop does not have such a port and so I'm stuck. The quality of the chargers I'm buying is clearly suspect but they're cheap and work for a while at least. 

Speaking of my Raspberry Pi, I've discovered that I can listen to music via headphone jack to a USB C and then to USB 3.1 as shown in Figure 1. It's a necessary workaround because I can't get Bluetooth to function and there is no headphone jack, for some mysterious reason. Previously I'd been using the headphone jack on a USB C hub but I've given that to my granddaughter so I had to come up with a workaround.

Figure 1

I still can't get WINE to run and that's something that I'll have to keep working on if I ever want to get my astrology program, Astrolog, to work again.

Sound Problems Solved for Raspberry Pi 4000

After some hours trying a variety of suggested solutions to the Raspberry Pi 400's Bluetooth woes, I finally managed to achieve audio output from the device. Unlike the traditional Raspberry Pi, the 400 does not have an audio jack for reasons known only to the manufacturer of the device. This presented a problem for me because my monitor had no speakers so the HDMI cable had nowhere to send the audio output. 

I had a hub with a variety of ports, including a headphone jack. It could only be connected to a computer or other device via USB C. My 2013 MacBook Pro did not have a USB C port but I recently bought a USB 3 to USB C converter. My Mac had a headphone jack and so I had been using that. However, I tested out the jack on the hub and it worked fine. I then plugged the hub into the 400 via the USB C port but there was no audio out. However, using the USB 3 to USB C converter and plugging to hub into that (as I'd done on my laptop), I finally had audio out.

The Bluetooth problem was never solved and probably never will be but I'm happy to finally have sound on my Raspberry Pi 400, even if it require a converter and hub which I fortunately had at hand. 

Trials and Tribulations

No sooner did I get Chrome OS Flex installed on my Mac Book than the charger gave out. It had been playing up for a couple of days beforehand, alternating between charging and not charging, until it finally died. This now dead charger I bought online about a year or so ago (to replace the original) so it's had a relatively short lifespan. I've ordered a new one and it should arrive today. I'm hoping it's the charger that is the problem and not the battery itself. If the latter, then that may be the end of my laptop. In the meantime, I'll remain optimistic.

In the absence of a functioning computer, I turned to my granddaughter's HP Pavilion x360 that I bought for her about four years ago and which she seldom uses, preferring instead her 2020 iPad Pro. The computer ran Windows 10 and she said that she sometimes plays games on it. When I first used it, it took forever to start up and ran maddeningly slowly when it did. She agreed to my replacing the operating system and so I tested out Chrome OS Flex on it by booting from a USB thumb drive.

The WiFi refused to work and so I installed Lubuntu instead but encountered the same problem. I then tried full-blown Ubuntu and that's what I'm currently using to create this post. I still have no WiFi but managed to access the Internet via a USB C hub into which I've run an Ethernet cable. There is no sound whatever. The keyboard of this laptop has long ceased to be functional because of several dead keys. I'm using a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse that work off a USB dongle.

The laptop was originally purchased because it can be converted into a (very heavy) tablet and has a touch screen. My granddaughter wanted to use it for digital artwork. From the beginning it was a dog of a machine and then the keyboard gave out. This abomination from HP is certainly the worst device I'm come across and it remains to be seen whether I can ever get it functioning properly again using some other operating system. 

While creating this post, I came across an intriguing workaround for my Mac Book charging problems. It's a USB C to MagSafe 2 converter. See Figure 1.

 

This particular one is rated at 90W whereas my charger is 60W. I haven't been able to find a 60W version of this adapter and I may not need to if my new charger works properly. However, if this charger fails again after a year or so, I may consider this USB C option. Of course, the latest Mac Books all have USB C charging which does away with all this proprietary nonsense.

Update: the charger arrived and it works fine so I'm up and running on my old Mac Book with Chrome OS Flex installed.