David Johnson-Davies’ Energy Deliverer Turns a USB Sort-C PD Brick Right into a Configurable PSU

Embedded developer and {hardware} engineer David Johnson-Davies has unveiled a brand new device designed for anybody experimenting with USB Sort-C energy provides for his or her future initiatives: the Energy Deliverer.

“This board means that you can use a USB-C energy adapter as an influence provide with a variety of mounted voltages,” Johnson-Davies explains of the Energy Deliverer. “It shows an inventory of the voltages and currents accessible from the adapter and means that you can choose one.”

The compact board is designed round an STMicroelectronics STUSB4500 standalone USB Energy Supply (PD) controller, linked to a Microchip ATtiny1604, which supplies the consumer interface by way of on-board buttons and a compact 128×32 OLED show panel.

“Once you join my Energy Deliverer board to a USB-C charger with Energy Supply it shows a menu of the accessible voltages and their present capabilities, as much as a most of 20V at 5A,” Johnson-Davies explains. “Every voltage/present possibility is known as an influence profile. You’ll be able to spotlight one with the cursor, after which urgent the Choose button will choose this voltage on the output terminals, and the show exhibits the at the moment chosen energy profile.”

These output terminals are discovered on the alternative facet of the board to the USB enter, utilizing screw terminals to make wiring straightforward but safe. An on-board LED signifies {that a} profile has been chosen and the output terminals are energized, with the chosen voltage and amperage displayed on-screen.

There is just one actual catch with the design: It’s particularly centered on the USB Energy Supply customary, and will not work with non-PD energy provides; as an alternative, the show will present “NO PD” to point it obtained no response to its question for supported energy profiles.

“This undertaking is simply supposed for passion use, and isn’t an end-user product,” Johnson-Davies warns. “I have not examined it to guarantee that it meets any regulatory necessities, together with interference and security, and it is potential {that a} programming fault might probably trigger it to output the next voltage than chosen. Please don’t use it to energy costly gear!”

Full particulars on the board can be found on Johnson-Davies’ weblog, together with a schematic and supply code for firmware primarily based on Arduino Wire and Johnson-Davies’ personal TinyI2C libraries; Eagle PCB design recordsdata can be found on GitHub below an unspecified open supply license.