What's inside the bead at the end of your laptop charger?? Mystery Solved!
I would always wonder about the bead at the end of my laptop charger. Why is it there? What is its significance? Now to my satisfaction, i understood the basic reason for its ubiquitous presence and today i am going to let you know about the often ignored mystic cylindrical bead.
You will find this bead not just in the laptop chargers but also in the keyboards, mouses etc. ie computer peripherals. Actually this bead is a kind of a choke, a ferrite bead working as an electromagnetic bouncer.
Just try to open this bead and you will not find any complex circuits or electronic parts but only a ferrite cylinder which basically acts as an electromagnet. Its magnetic property is the used to serve the purpose.
So basically, when current passes through any cable, it generates electromagnetic interference (EMI). Your electronic gadgets also produce EMI during operation. For example, if you connect a camera to your monitor, the camera would produce intereference and cause your monitor to flicker without the presence of a ferrite bead. If left unabated, EMI can wreck havoc with your computer peripherals.
These ferrite chokes ensure that signals are only sent in the intended directions and no EMI is transmitted between the peripherals. The choke dampens these EMI waves by acting as an EMI blocker. The blocking is most effective when it is near the source of the EMI, thats why you will only find these ferrite beads near the end of the cables. So, this little mystery is now solved! These tiny cyst-like beads make sure that our computer peripherals work properly and don’t cause any issues for the computer itself.
