James Ide's USB-C-to-C Power Mod Flex PCB Fixes USB Type-C Charging Incompatibilities
Built with OSH Park's Flex PCB, this ultra-tiny mod adds the missing resistors to restore USB Type-C to Type-C charging in your device.
Engineer James Ide has come up with a solution to devices that boast a USB Type-C power input but fail to run on a USB Type-C to Type-C cable: the USB-C-to-C Power Mod Flex PCB.
"Many devices have a USB-C connector to charge or power them. This is very convenient given the popularity of USB-C, its reversible cable design, and sturdy, compact design," Ide writes by way of introduction to the project.
"However, some devices will not draw power when using a USB-C-to-C cable connected to a spec-compliant charger, but will when using a USB-A-to-C cable. The USB-C specification requires upstream facing ports (UFPs), the port of the device receiving power, to connect pull-down resistors to the configuration channel (CC) pins. These missing pull-down resistors are a common reason why devices can draw power with A-to-C cables but not C-to-C ones."
The solution is, of course, to add the missing pull-down resistors - and it's a common fix. That's where Ide's design comes in: Putting the components on a tiny printed circuit board, produced using OSH Park's Flex PCB offering.
"You will need to solder two SMD resistors to the flex PCB and the flex PCB to your device's main PCB," Ide explains. "A steady hand is necessary and soldering experience is highly recommended. USB connectors are subject to stress and making the sub-millimeter solder joints strong will help keep your mod working for a long time."
The board design and a full installation tutorial have been published to Ide's GitHub repository under the permissive MIT License.