This case adds a Lightning port to the Apple iPhone 17 Pro | Infinium-tech
Apple certainly loves to strip away features from its phones – first it was the 3.5mm headphone jack, then it was the Lightning port. Don’t you wish you could have it back? You do? Great, here you go! Wait, you actually meant you wanted the 3.5mm jack back, not the Lightning port? Well, you should have said that already – here’s a case that lets you charge a new iPhone 17 Pro with all those Lightning cables you still have.
It was created by Ken Pilonel, a freelance hardware prototyping consultant with an enduring love for the Lightning port – he even added Lightning to Android phones a few years ago. Here’s how the case was designed and manufactured:
And here are some close-ups of the finished product:
This case adds a Lightning port to the iPhone 17 Pro
Pilonel did a great job of packing the Lightning to USB-C adapter using a custom PCB to make the case as compact as possible. The case itself was 3D printed in TPU – let’s take a moment to appreciate the CAD model:
A CAD model for the Lightning case
Ken Pilonel is a genius – a mad genius, but still. They did the opposite five years ago, adding a USB-C port to the iPhone His past projects include adding USB-C to AirPods (before Apple) and even Connecting Wires to AirPods.
Jokes aside, Ken Pilonel has done some impressive work making AirPods Pro cases more repairable and it also sells more practical cases that add USB-C ports to older iPhones from the 13 and 14 series, which were the last ones before the official switch to USB-C. you can check it out projects here and his Cases and mods here.
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