Teardown: Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Pro Dock (DK1522)

A few years back, I was donated a pair of Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Pro Docks as they had reached the end of their useful life with an organisation and the person thought I could have some fun with them. While I can’t say both units were perfectly healthy, as one seemed to have a dead port, I did keep them around for a while before deciding it would be interesting to know what was inside. So here’s a quick teardown post … The Dock The dock is so recognisably ThinkPad, with the grey colour, plain rectangular shape, the red indicator LED on the “i” and a single power button to turn the dock on and off. This is a software power button – but it’s interesting to me as few other docks I’ve met have one. The front side of the dock has the branding “Pro” on it. The two USB 3.0 ports on the front are distinguished – the left-most has a yellow tongue and is a charging downstream port (CDP), likely supporting the BCS 1.5A output, while the one on the right is a regular USB 3.0 SuperSpeed port, so…