USB type C 12v laptop charger?

[barryd]

Thanks for going to all that trouble. So it would seem you can charge off a standard USB but at a slow rate. It also states it wont charge while its in use.

Im guessing from a flat battery on that laptop I was looking at you would likely have to leave it overnight to charge it fully. I have not properly tested the 240v charger on these Honor Laptops but they seem pretty rapid at getting to 100%. Mrs D is still evaluating one of them, mainly to see if it has a true 10 hour battery life as claimed. When its dead, ill plug it in and see how long it takes. She will kind of want to replicate that in the van really so I dont think a low ampage solution will work especially if it doesnt charge while in use. I wonder if the 65 watt adaptor off ebay will suffice using the existing USB C charger cable. If not then I think the pure sine wave invertor will.

 

[Nabsim]

Just being a bit anal about power I am not a fan of invertors as I dont think they are as efficient as a dedicated 12v charger. However having said that two things spring to mind. Using that 300w invertor I assume that the 240v official Honor charger will charge the laptop much faster than a 12v one and also it wont be over stressed and being pure sine wave should protect the equipment better? I hope she decides she doesnt want one now! Its my fault for getting her to test one. She loves it. So £500 and now a blooming invertor! Still its her Birthday on the 3rd Jan and I always struggle at the best of times after Christmas to find her something.

The 300w Bestec modified sine wave inverter I have uses very little power overhead and is great for charging our laptops. We have two different charging type MacBooks, a surface pro and my old works windows laptop. The inverter does them all in one device, would need to buy 4 different 12v chargers to achieve the same for virtually no power saving. What burden the planet with more waste than you need to

 

[barryd]

The 300w Bestec modified sine wave inverter I have uses very little power overhead and is great for charging our laptops. We have two different charging type MacBooks, a surface pro and my old works windows laptop. The inverter does them all in one device, would need to buy 4 different 12v chargers to achieve the same for virtually no power saving. What burden the planet with more waste than you need to

Thanks. I always assumed rightly or wrongly that an invertor because it has to step up power from 12v to 240 and then through your laptop charger step it down to 20v or whatever was less efficient than a straight forward 12v laptop charger but I could be wrong or or the difference is insignificant. What I have noticed since we all got more powerful devices though is the 12v chargers and USB chargers do not charge devices as quickly as the 240v chargers. My huge samsung phone is a good example. Previous phones were much smaller and charged quickly of the 12v socket but not this beast. Plug it into its 240v charger though and its fast. Now obviously an invertor providing full power to a fast 240v charger is going to hit your leisure battery harder but to be honest when we are off hookup its usually in Spring / summer when there is loads of daylight and solar power so I am not bothered about caning the leisure battery in the morning at least as its got all afternoon to top itself up and generally on most days its full by mid to late morning anyway.

Am I being to anal about all of this?

 

[xsilvergs]

Thanks for going to all that trouble. So it would seem you can charge off a standard USB but at a slow rate. It also states it wont charge while its in use.

Im guessing from a flat battery on that laptop I was looking at you would likely have to leave it overnight to charge it fully. I have not properly tested the 240v charger on these Honor Laptops but they seem pretty rapid at getting to 100%. Mrs D is still evaluating one of them, mainly to see if it has a true 10 hour battery life as claimed. When its dead, ill plug it in and see how long it takes. She will kind of want to replicate that in the van really so I dont think a low ampage solution will work especially if it doesnt charge while in use. I wonder if the 65 watt adaptor off ebay will suffice using the existing USB C charger cable. If not then I think the pure sine wave invertor will.

No problem, I thought there was some poor information being posted here and always like to give good factual data with evidence which hopefully will be of use to others in future.

You could have a guess at the charging time if you know the battery capacity and if like mine charges at ~2Amps.

I switch ithis Chromebook off at night and it's always fully charged in the morning and that's from a fairly low SoC. At this moment while typing this it's drawing 980mA from the USB while the battery is registering "Full".

 

[barryd]

The 300w Bestec modified sine wave inverter I have uses very little power overhead and is great for charging our laptops. We have two different charging type MacBooks, a surface pro and my old works windows laptop. The inverter does them all in one device, would need to buy 4 different 12v chargers to achieve the same for virtually no power saving. What burden the planet with more waste than you need to

One more thing to ask. Can you plug in a five meter extension into an invertor without any issues? That was another thing I discovered with the 12v System. I bought some heavy duty extenders, 5 metres with a 12v socket on the end so we could use stuff from the front of the van or round the back of the seats in the rear lounge. However I reckon their is voltage drop as some chargers are not as effective using the extender.

 

[barryd]

No problem, I thought there was some poor information being posted here and always like to give good factual data with evidence which hopefully will be of use to others in future.

You could have a guess at the charging time if you know the battery capacity and if like mine charges at ~2Amps.

I switch ithis Chromebook off at night and it's always fully charged in the morning and that's from a fairly low SoC. At this moment while typing this it's drawing 980mA from the USB while the battery is registering "Full".

So the conclusion is then that a low cost usb charger will charge but it just will take longer. I think my biggest worry was it may do damage to the laptop or its battery if it wasnt beefy enough.

 

[xsilvergs]

So the conclusion is then that a low cost usb charger will charge but it just will take longer. I think my biggest worry was it may do damage to the laptop or its battery if it wasnt beefy enough.

That's just a 12 volt to 4 way usb converter off eBay, they cost a few quid and supply up to 5 amps IRC.

Does USB-C charge at 20 volts? Or does it start at a high voltage (possibly 20 v) and ramp down to 5 volts and a lower current as the device resches full charge?

Lower voltage could mean lower current and lower battery heat prolonging its life.

So many questions

 

[Derekoak]

One more thing to ask. Can you plug in a five meter extension into an invertor without any issues? That was another thing I discovered with the 12v System. I bought some heavy duty extenders, 5 metres with a 12v socket on the end so we could use stuff from the front of the van or round the back of the seats in the rear lounge. However I reckon their is voltage drop as some chargers are not as effective using the extender.

Physics tells us that the higher the voltage the less percentage voltage drop with distance, given the same cable. That is why the national grid is at massive voltage. So you should get less voltage drop with a 240 volt extension after an inverter than a long 12 volt or worse 5 volt extension. However from a safety point of view 240 volt outside, after an inverter sounds risky.

 

[barryd]

Physics tells us that the higher the voltage the less percentage voltage drop with distance, given the same cable. That is why the national grid is at massive voltage. So you should get less voltage drop with a 240 volt extension after an inverter than a long 12 volt or worse 5 volt extension. However from a safety point of view 240 volt outside, after an inverter sounds risky.

Makes sense but I wouldnt be running a cable outside if thats what you meant.

 

[colinm]

This thread got me thinking and I tried again my 33w Tronsmart in car USB phone charger.
On my Acer which is about 1 year old it wasn't having any of it, after just over an hour plugged in there was no charging going on, but then I'm not 100% sure it can charge from the USB C.
So then I plugged in my 2(?) y.o. Dell, bear in mind this has a knackered battery which I'm going to replace once the Christmas postal problems have died down, first message was for a low powered charging device which would not charge, but after couple of hours it had taken onboard some charge.
Photo below shows the message on Dell re not charging, start and finish charge states, and spec of charger.
Note, as above battery is well past sell by date so the amount charged is not true for a good battery, also the Tronsmart is designed for fast charging of suitable phones and adapts to whatever is plugged in so as not to charge older phones too fast, also shows as having max of 12v 1.5a output.
Later I may plug in to a lower powered USB C just to see what happens.

 

[Pete H]

Hi,

Not sure but I think you need to check out USB PD (Power Delivery). Uses USB C port but for power hungry laptops etc.

Watch out on Amazon and Ebay for the ones that you install that cost about £12 to £15 as they sell them claiming they kick out the high Amps (Watts) but when you read the spec they only give 1.5amps at 12v.

Regards

 

[barryd]

This thread got me thinking and I tried again my 33w Tronsmart in car USB phone charger.
On my Acer which is about 1 year old it wasn't having any of it, after just over an hour plugged in there was no charging going on, but then I'm not 100% sure it can charge from the USB C.
So then I plugged in my 2(?) y.o. Dell, bear in mind this has a knackered battery which I'm going to replace once the Christmas postal problems have died down, first message was for a low powered charging device which would not charge, but after couple of hours it had taken onboard some charge.
Photo below shows the message on Dell re not charging, start and finish charge states, and spec of charger.
Note, as above battery is well past sell by date so the amount charged is not true for a good battery, also the Tronsmart is designed for fast charging of suitable phones and adapts to whatever is plugged in so as not to charge older phones too fast, also shows as having max of 12v 1.5a output.
Later I may plug in to a lower powered USB C just to see what happens.

Dell have or had at least a reputation for being very particular about which chargers can be used with their laptops. I have a feeling there was something you could do in the BIOS to get around it but I know they are troublesome. Had all sorts of issues with Mrs D's Dell laptop. One charger blew something on the motherboard and it had to be replaced but I think it was a dodgy charger.

Its another reason why I am wary of cheap chargers (as mentioned above). Ive sent all the specs to Honor who are responding but so far no recommendation. They will be wary I guess.

 

[barryd]

Hi,

Not sure but I think you need to check out USB PD (Power Delivery). Uses USB C port but for power hungry laptops etc.

Watch out on Amazon and Ebay for the ones that you install that cost about £12 to £15 as they sell them claiming they kick out the high Amps (Watts) but when you read the spec they only give 1.5amps at 12v.

Regards

Yep, I am a bit wary of a £12.99 adaptor. will do a bit of digging first. Its not required immediately anyway. She hasnt even got the laptop yet, the one she is using to trial is going out to a client. Anyway we just had a massive row so she can buy it herself now!

 

[Wooie1958]

As much as you hate and detest them i really do think that a good quality low powered inverter is the best way to go.

I have a Sterling Pro Power Q 350w inverter that powers a separate socket and happily runs and charges the laptops at the same time with no issues what so ever.

Sterling Power

Sterling Power is a market leader for battery to battery chargers, inverters, pro combi charger inverters, mains chargers.

www.sp-shop.co.uk

It also works well with the TV, satellite, charges the Dyson V6 etc. etc. and is very very gentle on the batteries

I also have a Sterling Pro Power Q 1800w inverter that is wired into the habitaion system with safety relay that at the flick of the remote switch takes over the mains sockets in the motorhome so we can use the built in microwave and far more impotantly the wife`s hairdryer whilst off grid.

Sterling Power

Sterling Power is a market leader for battery to battery chargers, inverters, pro combi charger inverters, mains chargers.

www.sp-shop.co.uk

I don`t want to get into the argument about which is best, Pure or Modified sine wave but i would never recommend something to a fellow member that would harm a product it was working with.

 

[xsilvergs]

@barryd

You seem a little concerned about charging the laptop from a 5 volt USB supply using a USB-A to USB-C lead.

From what I have read it would appear that USB-C is an intelligent charging system where the laptop (in your case) will communicate with the charger and determine which of the 5 (i think) charging profiles to use. On plugging the laptop into a standard USB type socket, which is obviously dumb, there will be no response and so the laptop should know the type of supply you've plugged it into and either start charging or not.

One thing to consider, if there is a USB-C socket in the side of the laptop somebody will one day plug a type-C lead in there, be it a charger, an SSD or something else so should be adequately protected. If the laptop manufacturer has not considered this I wouldn't buy their products.

 

[barryd]

Thanks. This has been a very useful and informative thread. It does appear that its the laptop that determines with USB C what power is required from the charger so chances are those 65w 12v adaptors will work. Just how well they will work compared to a decent sine wave or pure 300w invertor remains to be found out. I guess (assuming she gets one) I could try both. I think the invertor might be a good investment anyway. I do actually have one. A 150w model that motorhoming legend Don Madge gave to me. Its ancient though and I do know it knackered Mrs Ds electric toothbrush. She uses it for charging her camera battery and ancient phone now and thats it.

 

[xsilvergs]

Thanks. This has been a very useful and informative thread. It does appear that its the laptop that determines with USB C what power is required from the charger so chances are those 65w 12v adaptors will work. Just how well they will work compared to a decent sine wave or pure 300w invertor remains to be found out. I guess (assuming she gets one) I could try both. I think the invertor might be a good investment anyway. I do actually have one. A 150w model that motorhoming legend Don Madge gave to me. Its ancient though and I do know it knackered Mrs Ds electric toothbrush. She uses it for charging her camera battery and ancient phone now and thats it.

Pure Sine all the time for me. The Victron ones are expensive but very efficient.

 

[Nabsim]

One more thing to ask. Can you plug in a five meter extension into an invertor without any issues? That was another thing I discovered with the 12v System. I bought some heavy duty extenders, 5 metres with a 12v socket on the end so we could use stuff from the front of the van or round the back of the seats in the rear lounge. However I reckon their is voltage drop as some chargers are not as effective using the extender.

A question for Dave I think lol. I got Dave to make me up a 12V socket that I could run up to 30amp from (very close to the battery) and I plug my inverter into that. Once I started using things I soon found I never needed anywhere near 30amp. My longest lead is for my mobility scooter (which I thought would be highest draw) that is a 12v adapter going to a power brick type converter then to the battery pack or direct to scooter. I find it better to plug my 240charger into the 300W inverter to the battery pack

 

[Mevi]

You're looking for PD (power delivery) over USBC.
This RAVPOWER branded 48watt charger will do what you need - I charge my iPad Pro AND fast charge my former flagship phone at the same time.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083J1TSJ3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_CZU3FbB32BMC5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Owlhouse]

Just took delivery of some Honor Magicbook 14" laptops and they are really nice. So much so Mrs D is considering having one but they are a USB C type charger. Same USB C type connection at either end of the cable which just plugs into the plug in charger and into a wall socket.

The deal breaker will be if we cant get a charger for the van. Its 20v / 3.25amps so about 65 watts according to the back of the machine. None of the cheap USB C sockets you can get for phones etc will be beefy enough I suspect.

I found this that should work. https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/access...tech/65W-USB-C-DC-Travel-Adapter/p/40AK0065WW

Anyone using anything similar?

Two options- if it’s just the USB-C charger you want then go to a USB-C PD type 12v adapter, I have one and it does the job. If you have mains ‘wants’ as well then go down the inverter route. Pure sine wave is far better although more expensive, the cheaper modified sine wave types do cause problems with some laptops etc.