USB Power Delivery chargers and power banks offer different voltage levels. Ideally with the regular USB PD standard 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V and 20V.
However, in contrast to previous “notebook power banks”, you cannot manually set a voltage with USB Power Delivery. This is automatically negotiated between the charger and the end device.
But what if, for example, you want to operate a regular DC device, an LED strip or similar on a USB Power Delivery charger?
Is it possible to access a special voltage level here? Yes, but this is only possible with certain tools.
More about that in this article!
USB PD is cold
USB A ports always had a voltage of 5V. This voltage is always output by USB A ports as long as the charger is active. So with a USB A to microUSB you can simply cut the cable and expose the black and red wires and hang a 5V device on them.
This doesn’t work with USB Power Delivery! USB C Power Delivery ports are “cold”. If you simply connect a USB C cable to a power delivery port, there will be no voltage or only a low standby voltage at the other end.
A device must first “register” and negotiate a voltage with the charger. Only then will the selected voltage be output.
Simply cutting off the end of a USB C cable and hanging a DC device on the end doesn’t work.
We need a USB PD trigger
In order for us to be able to operate DC devices on a USB PD charger, we need a USB PD trigger in addition to a little tinkering. This is a small chip that communicates with the charger/power bank and retrieves a voltage accordingly.
USB PD triggers are not expensive!
Fortunately, such USB PD trigger boards are not expensive. You can get these on AliExpress from China for very little money!
Depending on the range of functions we are talking about 1-3€!
You select the very simple “basic boards” in the desired voltage and that’s it.
Here you then have two soldering pads to which you have to solder a corresponding DC cable and the selected voltage will be output.
But there are also more “luxurious” models with screw terminals for corresponding wires, etc.
Just be careful with models with an option button. If you connect a 12V device and accidentally press such a selection button, it will switch to 15V and your device may be broken.
Therefore I would choose either boards with fixed voltage or dip switches.
Complete cables
In addition to such trigger boards, which usually require soldering or at least a DC cable that you have to “sacrifice”, there are also suitable DC cables with corresponding triggers integrated.
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But these are a little more special and you have to pay close attention to the diameter of the plug etc.
Conclusion
This small article should serve as a reminder that it is quite possible, for example, to operate 12V devices with suitable trigger boards and adapter cables on USB power delivery chargers / power banks.