USB power distribution

I do know that USB C is attempting to become the norm connector. With +- 5Volt being the preffered level of charging for most smaller devices there are a handful of hardware units that is the USB C format but their PS units provide 12Volts. The cheap solutions is your wall wort Ac/DC power adapter than had different plug interfaces to switch out depending on your country. I use micro PC to travel now as I have 4 computers that I fly with every work week. They are often used at POS and TV Monitor locations within a building as cheap way to advertise information to employees, clients, or hotel or convention guests. They can mount to the back of a monitor and are fanless systems that for $200 are a cheap way of have a simple machine run a browse or stream your media. The USB C connector has boasted faster speeds even than USB A 3.0. I have noticed on some older phones like an Iphone SE 2020 the some newer USB C phone chargers have a wattage rating that is too much current and throws a "water has been detected in the lighting port of your phone" due to the resistance.
For most use cases the USB 5 volts is enough. But some high draw USB devices....ie micro PC's and USB fans. draw more current than the old USB A connector.. I'm not sure how the USB C format can handle 12V....but now I am curious and need to research that question.

 

Yes, I've been reading those standards, and was looking around a little bit some months ago to see what products I could buy that implemented them, and the ones meeting the newest standards seemed to be kind of sparse, and the shopping was hard because nobody else really wanted to tell you what their product did (and didn't) meet.

Also, for legacy devices you've got without USB-C sockets, you can buy cables that are USB on one end and include the negotiation chip for a specific voltage and current limit, so with one of those that negotiates for the right voltage, you can stick the right end on it to plug into your old device, and do away with a separate wall wart for that.

I was a little disappointed that the Gen 5 Prius, with its bunch of USB sockets, only implemented 5 volts at 3 amps, despite being introduced when the USB PD and PPS (programmable power supply, the newer adjustable one) standards were well known.

About those six USB-C ports | PriusChat

 

Just did some googling and it looks like one branch of this market is focused on advancing laptop power banks:
5 Best Laptop Power Banks of 2023, Tested by Experts

And another branch is focused on power supply adapters so you can go anywhere in the world with the same gear: 14 best travel adapters of 2023 for reliable charging on the go | CNN Underscored

But in general I think the real advancements we're waiting for are ones that better integrate your transportation vehicle's ability to generate and then distribute its own electricity.

Like remember when we were kids and solar power calculators were the next big thing. I suspect something like that. Or as I've always said we need to decentralize our power supply and generate the electricity needed as close to where the electricity is being used as possible.

 

Well, this is very frustrating. I had several browser windows open to a bunch of them at one time. I haven't bought any. there was one outfit selling nice finished-looking cables with the negotiation built in for a fixed voltage, and a few other sources of a small board where you might configure the voltage yourself, maybe by cutting jumpers or selecting resistors or even turning a little 4-position DIP switch. If I remember right, there was even one with a small display and a UI on it. They all seem to have dropped out of my browser history. I should have kept better notes.

I may have older browser history retrievable somewhere, but that's more work.

 

Just a suggestion.. I have done the same thing....and found out that I was on the wrong computer......I use 4 machines and have to use different browsers per work, personal and research. So If you use a work computer,PC or a Mac...maybe you are on the wrong machine?
I have discovered that in the morning before coffee....more ...than... 3 times..

 

Here's a link with current PD specs. https://www.usb.org/usb-charger-pd

And what's being worked on for usb future specs https://www.usb.org/usb4compliance

Don't forget about Thunderbolt, Lightning, DisplayPort and HDMI connectors. Both mini and normal sizes for HDMI and DisplayPort connectors.
Some of them may or have already added PD along with data audio and video,

 

Does your lappy have a USB /w PD? It would be interesting to see how many watts a laptops usb pd would deliver. One of my 4 USB sockets is PD capable, but my battery is toast. I did a dry run battery replacement, just removing and reinstalling the toasty battery pack and it seemed to help at least a little. Than I changed the top and bottom pack buffer zones to between 30% and 80% which I'm guessing is about all the capacity that's left in the pack anyways. Maybe I'll look into getting one of those usb watt meter cables and see what the diff is with a toast pack and if there's a difference with a new battery. Thanks, your gif is cool too.

 

I suspect the PD indicator lights up whenever the cable is participating in the PD part of the protocol, where things can negotiate for the higher voltages and currents (but not for the even higher and more variable voltages of PPS). Notwithstanding 'distribution' in the name, I don't know that the protocol cares whether the lappy is sending some of that power elsewhere, or keeping it all for itself.

 

I think I understand ! the usb watt meter only works in one direction? Because I want to read the other direction I thought I'd search what's available and I got a hit I think you might also be interested in. The p;age took forever to load for me (30 seconds or so) so it it seems broken I'll list it below two ways.
https://plugable.com/products/usbc-vameter/

//plugable.com/products/usbc-vameter/

 

Please share a link to where we can buy these? Thanks!

 

If haven't seen this new post today check out what this member did to his Gen 3 usb pd mod.

What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today???? | Page 962 | PriusChat

@PriusCamper Leadfoot j posted how to search amazon for the cable 2 posts below the one you quoted above.
here's his line describing the make and availability

 

i am dubious, especially about the software control.

the industry cannot implement bluetooth to be simple and reliable, they could not even figure out how to get phones to connect over a 4-pin usb cable to computers simply and reliably, not sure how they are going to do power transmission, and the consequences seem a lot more dire.