#Arduino, #maker and #electronics folks should know this exists: it's a USB Power Delivery trigger, a tiny and cheap (AU$6.90 from Core Electronics) board that pulls the full 12V or 20V or whatever, at all the amperage, from a phone charger that supports USB PD. No more screwing around with chunky variable voltage supplies!
I'm pairing one with some stepper drivers that buck input voltage down to 5V for microcontrollers, so this is 100% of a small motor-driven project's power supply right here.
@timixretroplays strangely enough I was reading the CH224 datasheet today, the new CH224Q looks like a very nice upgrade to the previous versions
This one in particular has a simple and neat way to tell you if a particular USB charger supports a particular PD voltage. The light is solid at 5V or 9V, but blinks on 12, 15 or 20V when plugged into the charger I have sitting on my desk. That's actually really good to know since it means I'll have to upgrade to a better charger to prototype this project on my desk - I might've been pretty confused otherwise.
This is also a surprisingly fun way to learn that I do not, in fact, own a USB charger capable of putting out 12V PD. Either that or I don't have a USB cable capable of it? Is that a thing?
@timixretroplays Voltage is unaffected by the cable, only current limit. You can go all the way up to maximum voltage (48V with EPR, 20V otherwise) with any cable, as long as PD works at all with that cable.
For current limits, every cable can do up to 3A. Captive cables (ones permanently connected to the source; a charger with type C plug rather than a receptacle) can use whatever the charger says, otherwise you need an e-marked (with a chip) cable that declares its maximum current up to 5A.
@timixretroplays An example that seems fairly common in my experience is 65W chargers with captive cables that go up to 3.25A.
It's also handy to know the "source power rule" which specifies that a source must increase voltage up to the allowed maximum before increasing current beyond 3A. That means every charger rated for more than 45W output must support 20V operation, >27W implies 15V and >15W implies 9V. 12V support is strictly optional at all power levels!
@timixretroplays particular care in cable selection is required for 5A operation, if it鈥檚 successfully negotiating higher voltage then at least the CC lines are connected properly
