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Comment by sorenjan | Hacker News Reader

You can buy USB-PD trigger boards and make most stuff USB-PD powered. For instance: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006068684294.html

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Caveat: I bought one of these boards (labeled "ZYPDE" "YZXSTUDIO") that supposedly had soft programming capability--you hold down a button for the right amount of time and it programs it to produce 5v, 9v, 15v, etc the next time you turn it on. But it never worked. It always came up in a mode where you had to push the button the right number of times to get the voltage you wanted. I like the idea of DIP switches or soldered jumpers much better.

This one can be more useful in certain situations, because you can much more easily change its configuration on the fly with the DIP switches.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805068086690.html

Isn’t this the reverse? Providing USB-C rather from a power source rather than powering from a USB-C supply.

No, the connector you see is the receptacle, not the cable side. USB-C cables are hollow ovals, the tab is on the device.

You'd take this thing or something like it, set the DIP switches/solder bridges/jumpers appropriately, get a few 2.1x5.5 (or appropriate) barrel jack to screw terminal adapters, wrap it and a couple wires in heat shrink and hot glue it to the back of your HDD/RPi/etc, and have a USB-C plug to power your HDD adapter.

Well this is amazing, thanks! Do you know if it can output whatever I want by shorting a jumper, or are these fixed when you get them?

EDIT: Oh damn, this doesn't do 5V, which is what I need the most :(

It looks like you just solder the pads for the maximum voltage you want, and some of the pictures demonstrate what 12v being soldered looks like.

And there are definitely 5v options, like these:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805818718384.html

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805815622101.html

Thanks, I ended up buying something very similar to that!

USB defaults to 5V, so depending on how much current you want to draw you might not even need a trigger module.

You're right, I guess I might as well just get some straight breakouts for a USB-C for the 5V case, but then I'll be limited to half an amp, which is probably fine for my uses, I guess.

USB-C supports up to 3A without PD, using only (I believe) resistors/voltages to communicate the limit.

That's what many simple early USB-C chargers used to do in order to supply 15W without full PD signalling.

I didn't realize that, thanks!

USB-C defaults to "off", so a 5V PD trigger would be a sensible product. It just needs a couple resistors, no chip.

There’s no such thing as 5V PD unless you mean 5V 5A, fyi. PD is an optionally supported standard of USB-C and the resistors are not part of PD, just the standard USB-C spec.

You are technically correct, in that using resistors to trigger 5V would fall under "USB Type-C Current" rather than "USB Power Delivery".

But what would you call such a product, other than "5V PD trigger"?

5V USB-C board

No, but this is:

https://fpx.oxplot.com/

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