I am having trouble getting my Sparkfun power delivery board STUSB4500 to accept any of the PDO options. I am trying to pull 9 volts from a portable li-ion battery that has power output options of 5V/3A, 9V/2A, and 12V/1.5A. Here are the NVM values I set stored on my power delivery board.
The PDO number is set to 3 so PDO3 should be attempted first which has a voltage set to 9V and a current set to 2A, which is what I want to pull. However, after I press the reset button on the power delivery board, disconnect it from my microcontroller (Arduino Nano R4), and connect it to my portable battery via a USB-A to USB-C cable, neither LED for PDO2 or PDO3 lights up and no voltage from GND and VSNK is read on my multimeter. Any advice is appreciated!!
In the Power Delivery Board - USB-C (Qwiic) Hookup Guide page, there is an intro video where Rob Reynolds at minute 2:44 says “And, one of the nice things is once you programmed it (the power delivery board), you no longer need a microcontroller because the board can be self-contained.”
Then, not far below the video, there is a paragraph that says this:
“The STUSB4500 is a USB Type-C and power delivery controller IC for sink applications. The controller is able to negotiate a power delivery contract with a source (ie a power delivery wall wart or power adapter) without the need for an external microcontroller, although you will need a microcontroller to configure the board.”
Also, I hooked up the power delivery board to my battery and multimeter again today (without any wired connection to the Nano R4), and this time I got a 5V reading, but it drops down to 0 volts after about 30 seconds…
Thanks! Also apologies for earlier, I was mistaken about how that board operates!
Does it work as expected if you plug the usb-A end into a 9v 2a (or more) wall wart? I’m wondering if the battery bank is also trying to do a negotiation behind it and tossing a wrench in the works
I tried what you suggested and connected the power delivery board to a computer charger that was plugged into a wall socket, and it worked! Thank you! The power delivery board negotiated as expected and I was able to pull 9V consistently! While I am glad that the power delivery board works, it seems like you are probably right in that it is unable to negotiate with a portable battery because the battery is also attempting some form of negotiation that confuses the power delivery board.
I know this is no longer in your scope, but I was wondering if you had any product or method suggestions to negotiate with a portable battery to pull 9V (given that the battery has a 9V output option). I am trying to create a warming device and want to push current through a metal wire to create heat. I want 9V and, if possible, to use a portable battery to provide that.
usb-c to usb-c cable might be able to handle the handshaking (instead of the usb-a to usb-c being used)
Try a PD Trigger/Decoy…I’d prefer one with solderable (or regular) jumpers to select the PD settings.
If for some reason you can’t use usb-c as above you can also similarly try a QC Trigger (this just does the same negotiation on a QC/usb-a port). In either of these cases make sure you get a 9v capable one
