At this point, many of us have gone all-in on USB-C. It’s gotten to the point that when you occasionally run across a gadget that doesn’t support being powered USB-C, the whole experien…
If you look at the circuit diagram in their documentation linked from that article, that thing doesn’t even support USB-PD or even just the USB 1.0 device side of the negotiation to increase the current limit from the default (150mA in USB 3) to high (900mA in USB 3). It will look fine if you connect it to a dumb USB power supply (because those thing don’t really do any USB protocol stuff, just dumbly supply power up to the power source’s limit over USB connectors) but if you connect it to, say, a PC USB port, your circuit on the breadboard that worked fine when using a dumb USB power supply might not work because it the current it needs exceeds that 150mA limit for devices that haven’t done USB negotiation.
This thing is basically the same as the chinese power breadboard adaptors you can get in places like Aliexpress, but with a USB-C connector instead of a Type-A, micro-USB or mini-USB one, plus its better designed (it has a proper Buck Converter instead of a cheap Votage Regulator, plus better power supply filtering and a polyfuse to protect it and the host from current overdraws).
Yeah, 9v at the very least, but 15V would be a useful option too.
I’m also just now realising USB-PD doesn’t spec for 12V which feels like an odd omission
Edit:
From the article:
Sure, it wouldn’t be much harder to add support the other voltages offered by USB-C Power Delivery, but how often have you really needed 20 volts on a breadboard? Why add extra components and complication for a feature most people would never use?
My friend, you write for hackaday, this is a weird take
That is a bit more expensive and complex. Looks like this is configured with a couple of resistors for 5v from USB which is simple to get and a voltage reg to drop down to 3v3 optionally. Full PD requires a chip and active negotiation for higher voltage levels. Though there are chips that do that it does increase the complexity and cost and soldering skills a bit. Might not be worth it if all you work on is 5v or 3v3.
Missed opportunity there, not being able to select all the other available USB-PD voltages. Not every circuit runs on 3.3 or 5 V.
If you look at the circuit diagram in their documentation linked from that article, that thing doesn’t even support USB-PD or even just the USB 1.0 device side of the negotiation to increase the current limit from the default (150mA in USB 3) to high (900mA in USB 3). It will look fine if you connect it to a dumb USB power supply (because those thing don’t really do any USB protocol stuff, just dumbly supply power up to the power source’s limit over USB connectors) but if you connect it to, say, a PC USB port, your circuit on the breadboard that worked fine when using a dumb USB power supply might not work because it the current it needs exceeds that 150mA limit for devices that haven’t done USB negotiation.
This thing is basically the same as the chinese power breadboard adaptors you can get in places like Aliexpress, but with a USB-C connector instead of a Type-A, micro-USB or mini-USB one, plus its better designed (it has a proper Buck Converter instead of a cheap Votage Regulator, plus better power supply filtering and a polyfuse to protect it and the host from current overdraws).
Yeah, 9v at the very least, but 15V would be a useful option too.
I’m also just now realising USB-PD doesn’t spec for 12V which feels like an odd omission
Edit:
From the article:
My friend, you write for hackaday, this is a weird take
That is a bit more expensive and complex. Looks like this is configured with a couple of resistors for 5v from USB which is simple to get and a voltage reg to drop down to 3v3 optionally. Full PD requires a chip and active negotiation for higher voltage levels. Though there are chips that do that it does increase the complexity and cost and soldering skills a bit. Might not be worth it if all you work on is 5v or 3v3.