Sorry, total brain fog on my part, and I can’t blame COVID.
I do indeed have the LG Ultrafine 27”. It’s connected to a mini via TB, but of course that’s only to display from the mini.
Was the OP talking about charging a laptop through the display?
Obviously I have no useful comment to make on that scenario.
Jack
Yes. Steve Setzer (who doesn’t have a Talk account) wrote (via @ace):
He then recommended using a powered dock to prevent the display from overheating.
And I suggested using MagSafe for charging the laptop instead of the display’s power delivery.
Thank you for that tip. I will keep it in mind for my configuration. But I suspect the low power needs of the M2 Macbook Air will not cause overheating problems within the monitor or its power supply.
BTW - is there a way to monitor the power consumption of a Macbook? I suppose I could monitor the AC power input into the charger but an app (or setting) for the Macbook would be handy to determine if the display power output is within specs.
Update: I found WattageViewer in the App store. Trying it out now. And the answer is… 90W, which is much higher than I expected since the battery is at 100%. Particularly since the Apple-supplied power adapter is 35W. In any case, I will keep the Magsafe cable handy!
System Information > Hardware > Power > AC Charger Information > Wattage (W)
Hit cmd-r to update when you change charger or plug/unplug.
Thank you.
Both the Apple charger and the monitor report “Wattage (W): 90” but “Charging: No” (the battery is at 100%). So it seems the app and the System Information are reporting the charger specs (capacity?) rather than the actual charging power.
I will play around with this when the Macbook is partly charged and is charging.
Yes, it reports what the max power is that the charger can deliver. Not the power associated with the momentary draw.
If you want to see that, you’ll need something like this. Obviously, these are just USB-C so you cannot use them within a TB connection. Well, you can, but then the entire chain will fall back to USB-C rather than TB. In the case of a dock/hub, you most likely do not want that.
Apple plans ALL their marketing announcements carefully. It’s smart to assume Meza’s statement follows the same discipline. Maybe not significant but they didn’t say “no more iMacs larger than 24 inches” ( or similar comments that might rule out say a 32" iMac ). Admittedly, this would reduce their options and might explain the absence of such a statement. Nevertheless, their statement specifically focused on a 27" iMac.
I believe that the free version of Coconut Battery will do what you want.
I came across this Terminal command that reports a heap of info. I will wade through it to see if there is anything useful:
sudo powermetrics -i 2000 --samplers cpu_power -a --hide-cpu-duty-cycle
...
(Powermetrics is built into macOS)
I will check CoconutBattery as well...
8.5W with no monitor connected and Magsafe charging (Macbook at 95%)
13.4W with USB-c connected to monitor (with or without Magsafe)
So the power draw seems well within the capabilities of the LG monitor.Back on topic … 9to5 Mac has just posted an article about monitors for Macs:
I agree that 27” iMacs don’t make sense because I have had to dispose of them because their failed hard drives are unaffordable to replace even while their gorgeous screens are fine. There are ways some of them can be repurposed as external monitors, but not all. And frankly it’s a kludge. I have one left, also with a failed internal drive, and I have it running with an external drive. But OS updates often leave it unbootable and I have to go to extraordinary measures to get it to boot again.
Meanwhile, my wife’s company just sent her this $200 27” screen for her Windows laptop. Any reason this wouldn’t suffice with a Mini?
Z-Edge 27-inch Gaming Monitor Ultra HD 4K, 60Hz Refresh Rate, 3840x2160 IPS LED Monitor, 300 cd/m², HDMIx2+DPx1, Built-in Speakers, U27P4K FreeSync Technology Sorry! Something went wrong!
Uh, oh, Cupertino heard you!
Seriously, though, I was looking over my niece’s shoulder a couple weeks ago and there is a whole world of ultra-capable gaming hardware that is value priced and that (perhaps) we overlook because it’s not “business” or “graphics” or “video production” stuff.
It depends if you also want to power a Macbook via a USB-c cable and, maybe, access external drives via USB ports on the monitor.
If it is only for display then the Z-edge looks OK. But try before you buy.
Yes, I expect a 27.5" iMac is in the pipeline.
Yea. I mean, Apple’s Thunderbolt displays that double as a dock to handle camera, speakers, and all your peripherals are truly a dream, and are also priced in dream land. Normal humans don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on big screen docks.
But if you want a big screen and you can get an HDMI to Thunderbolt or USB-C adapter, then you just upgraded your laptop for about $250. And if you want a big-screen Mac solution, just add this screen to a Mac mini, and you’ve got an iMac replacement for <$1000. Not as slick. But remember, you can keep that screen when your Mac mini gets replaced.
Just a heads-up. The 5K Samsung S9 Thunderbolt display just dropped to $999. Lowest price so far.
So, I’m using this monitor, and it’s big, bright, and beautiful. And cheap. But I want to offer one point of feedback here. It doesn’t seem to be software-dimmable.
I can use the OSD (On Screen Display) to modify the brightness, but that’s a clunky navigation through menus using hidden buttons on the screen itself. The normal way of using the F keys on the keyboard don’t work, and the brightness adjustment in Control Center is grayed out. The result is that I’m stuck with the same brightness whether it’s daytime (I’m by a window) or late at night in a dark room.
Online help usually says to disable HDR to get this to work, but it’s already off. And I haven’t found a setting in the Mac’s “Displays” settings that seems to make a difference.
Any suggestions are welcome!
Have you had a look at Lunar?
Or have a look at Monitor Control GitHub - MonitorControl/MonitorControl: 🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs.
Fascinating! I saw the trial, and I know I don’t want to pay for something like this. But it seems the trial may be just for the Pro version, and there’s a free one (apparently also on GitHub) that may have enough to solve this problem:
Seems odd to me that I should need 3rd party software to fix something like this. Is it normal for 3rd party screens to not support this? I guess it may be given the tools available online!
This looks cool, too. Maybe I’ll try one of these out.
Thanks!
