About a month ago, I showed you how to create a USB power hub using a DC power adaptor like
this. One of the suggestions was to use USB type C as the power source and in this video,
we will learn how to do just that.
UsB C is becoming extremely popular these days so there will be more hardware released
for it. It also allows you to have multiple voltages from the same power source which is handy.
This means that you can switch between a certain set of voltages which is very useful for DIY
projects.
USB 2.0 is by far the most common USB protocol that is currently being used and if you use
a micro or mini usb cable then you are using USB 2. It only allowed for power at 5V and
by default you could draw about 100mA without any power negotiation and once the devices
communicated, you could raise this to about 1A and in some cases even 2A. The max power
that you could draw was in the 10W region. USB type C makes use of the power delivery
standard and this allows devices to negotiate the output voltage which in turn allows devices
to draw close to 100W of power. This is a huge step up from USB 2. As per the current
standard, here are the output power options and this allows you to use a single cable
and adaptor to power a range of devices from your smartphone to your laptop which is excellent
if you travel a lot.
The USB C connector has a total of 24 pins which allows for different kinds of signal
and is also the reason why multiple voltages can be drawn by devices. USB 2 on the other
hand, simply had 4 pins, 2 for power and 2 for data. We will not get into all the differences
between the two but these are just some of the important things to keep in mind.
We will be using this charger for the build and as I’ve mentioned before it supports
USB power delivery and this is given by the PD output rating show here. It supports a
total of 3 output voltages, 5V, 9V and 12V with the maximum power rating of about 18W.
This adaptor has a standard USB type A along with a USB Type C port. We would have to use
the type C port to utilize the power delivery capabilities.
Now that we know what the power source will be, the next question is how to we obtain
and switch between the outputs. For that, we need to use a power delivery trigger board
like this one. It contains a power delivery chip which can communicate with the adaptor
and negotiate the available output voltages. The board has a microcontroller which allows
us to manually switch between different modes and the current output voltage is displayed
using the onboard LED. The board is available in multiple variants but I decided to buy
one without a connector at the output as we will be soldering some wires to it.
Now that we have this board, we will need a cable to connect the two together and we
will also need some USB type A ports which will be used as the outputs for this hub.
Let’s learn how to use the power delivery trigger board and the simplest way to do this
is to attach a multimeter to the output terminals so that we can view the output voltage. Let’s
power it ON by attaching the cable. By default, the output voltage is 5V and the LED is RED.
Keep in mind that the colour of the LED denotes the output voltage. This is good enough for
what we are trying to achieve here but let’s quickly how to switch between the outputs.
To do that, simply press the button while powering on the board, the LED will cycle
through different colours. Press the button to change between the different output modes
Then press and hold the button to save the setting. The LED should switch OFF. Unplug
and plug the board back in and the LED colour should switch to the one you set it to along
with the corresponding output voltage. I’ve identified a total of 6 different colors and
this is what the output voltages should be. I’m not entirely sure what the last color
combination does, and there doesn’t seem to be much documentation for this. Keep in
mind that the power adaptor or source needs to be able to output the voltage for the board
to switch to it, if not, then it will simply output 5V as a fall back. My adaptor for instance
only supports 5V, 9V and 12V so those are the only voltages I can obtain using this
board.
Also, I’ve noticed that sometimes, the board starts with a 5V output and then switches
to the output voltage that you have set, so keep this in mind if you have any sensitive
electronics connected to it. It doesn’t always happen when I unplug and plug in the
device quickly which leads me to think that this could also depend on the power adaptor
that is being used. Let’s set the board to output 5V as indicated by the RED LED and
let’s carry on with the build.
I modified the old enclosure to suit this new board. It is also much slimmer compared
to the previous design. Here’s what the printed output looks like. Now that we have
obtained a 5V power source, we simply need to connect the output from the power delivery
board to the USB type A connectors. Use this diagram as a reference and simply solder wires
of suitable length to the board. Then, glue the type A connectors in place, followed by
the USB power delivery board by making sure that it aligns with the USB connector slot
in the enclosure. All that’s left to do is attach the top half. If needed, you can
apply some glue along with edges but the enclosure should hold itself together due to the lip
and groove that has been added.
Simply power on the device, attach a microUSB breakout board by using a cable and test to
make sure that you are in fact receiving 5V at the output, with the correct polarity.
And that’s how you can build a USB type C power hub that can be used to power your
DIY projects. You can use these split USB cables to power up to 8 devices which is not
bad. Keep in mind that this is only useful to power “dumb” devices as there is no
onboard power negotiation for the USB ports. What this means is that it will not work with
smartphones.
If you’ve liked this build, then please consider subscribing as it goes a long way
in helping this channel grow. Thank you for watching and I will see you in the next one.