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by sukilot 2210 days ago
They tend to have different barrel connectors, because barrels can't negotiate voltage.
1 comments

Not at all. That's part of the drawback of barrel jack connectors. There is no standard voltage output. You can undervoltage your product input, or overvoltage it and break something.
Before the whole USB-C thing, the majority of laptops had already settled on something like 18-20V (with some of the smaller ones at 10-12V). The input tolerances are relatively wide and you are highly unlikely to cause damage unless the polarity is reversed.

Here's some comments I made a few years ago explaining why that voltage:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12618406

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7594383