When it was introduced in the late 90s, USB was the greatest achievement in all of computing. Gone were the PS/2 connectors for keyboards and mice, ADB ports, parallel ports, game ports, and serial ports. This was a Tower of Babel that would unite all ports under one standard universal bus.
Then more ports were introduced; micro, mini, that weird one that was a mini USB with more connectors off to the side. Then we started using phone chargers as power supplies. The Tower of Babel had crumbled. Now, though, there is a future. USB-C is everything stuffed into one port, and it can supply 100 Watts of power.
Delivering power over a USB-C connector is an interesting engineering challenge, and for his Hackaday Prize entry, [Chris Hamilton] is taking up the task. He’s building a USB-C battery charger, allowing him to charge standard R/C battery packs over USB.
There are two major components of the charger. The first, a Cypress CCG2 USB Power Delivery negotiator, handles all the logic of sending a command to the USB power supply and telling it to open up the pipes. It’s an off-the-shelf part and the implementation is well documented in app notes. The second major component is the battery management circuit built on a TI BQ40z60RHB. This includes the charger control logic and the ability to balance up to four cells. Battery connectors are XT-30, so all your drone battery packs can now be charged by a MacBook.
