Electronic – How to get 20 V from a USB-C charger

diyusb-cusb-pd

I want to power my DIY stuff with a MacBook Pro USB C charger. The label on a charger says that it can provide three different power profiles:
USB-C charger specs

  1. 20.2V – 4.3A
  2. 9V – 3A
  3. 5.2V – 2.4A

There is a ton of information about what USB-C power distribution is capable of, but I can't find any examples of how exactly to do it.

Is there an easy way or workaround to request one of those power profiles without using a microcontroller?

For example, I got apple MacBook Pro charger, apple USB-C cable, and a breakout board like this one:
USB-C simple breakout board

Best Answer

In a word, no. You need to implement the USB Power Delivery protocol through the CC line of the Type-C connector and that's a two way communication at 300kbps complete with preamble, CRC and so on that is pretty much impossible to do without a microcontroller.

The PD message format looks like this:

enter image description here

For full details you'll need the USB Power Delivery specification, but there's a useful introduction here which is where the diagram above came from.

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