Last fall, engineer Ken Pillonel released a video showing how he replaced the Lightning connector with USB-C in the iPhone. This video quickly spread on the Internet. This time, Ken’s target was an AirPods case. The primary problem was the device’s battery, which failed.

Here, Ken encountered the fact that the headphone case does not provide repair at all, and the company only offers to replace the device with a new one. For the author of the video, this was not an offer that would interest him, so he undertook the repair on his own.

For a seemingly banal battery replacement, the AirPods case had to be literally prepared, and the replacement was made on an SLA 3D printer. There were no problems with finding a new battery, but it was not possible to replace the damaged Lightning with a new one. However, it was not a tragedy for Ken either, so he replaced the proprietary connector with USB-C. The connector caused a bit of a headache, but this obstacle was also overcome.

The most interesting thing is that Ken left publicly available materials that will help you repeat the experiment yourself. But here, not everyone will be able to rely on themselves, because, as we saw in the video, you need to have the necessary equipment, which not everyone has.

And everyone else who doesn’t like Lightning in the iPhone and AirPods probably won’t have to wait long for official changes. According to European legislation, electronics manufacturers decided on a single standard for chargers (USB-C, of course), so Apple will have to abandon Lightning in any case. The deadline for this task is fall 2024.