Dummifier: A USB-3 to USB-2 with USB Type-C Port adapter where the the engineers fail to follow basic standards while designing the boards.
You just plug this dongle thingy between your device and your usb-c cable, and it'll start working as you expected.
First of all, I needed this. Some devices that I own, such as Planck keyboard, Anbernic RG351P utilized USB-C port, but they only worked when a cheap USB-C to USB-A cable was utilized, or through a USB Hub. They were not working at all with the USB-C cable I carry around, or getting wrong voltage and being burned. I burned my GP micro USB (I was using a USB-C to micro USB converter) battery charger because of this.
Additionally, I made some mods for Nintendo new 2DS XL for USB-C mod, and some cables were not working correctly.
Even newer Raspberry Pi Pico clones were having this issue.
The common workaround for this issue is using a USB Hub, or Cheap, non-standard, USB 2.0 Type A to USB-C 4 pin cables.
These cables are getting harder to find day by day.
I used to make some dummy cables for this purpose. Like this, this and this. Functionality wise, they were all working, but damn they were ugly! Also, they had one thing in common. These populated 5.1K ohm resistors in CC1 and CC2 pins.
When I checked the USB standards (page 38 and 76) , I realized these were necessary on female end so that the devices could talk to each other with USB 2.0 standards and get 5V instead of PD voltages.
After I burned my GP battery charger, I decided to tinker with Kicad and make my own adapter.
Some people even suggest using a flex PCB mod that's soldered directly over the connector of these crappy designed devices, but this is not doable by everyone.
So, I decided I'd make a little converter like this. Anyone could use this. It's like a USB-C extension cable that you plug the male end to the bad device, and the female end to your favorite modern USB-C to USB-C cable.
I hope someone finds this helpful.
- Untested, so if you stumbled upon this, order with your own risk.
- Also, please be aware of the license of the project.
- Kicad 8
- If not set already, from PCB editor:
- go to File / Board Setup
- Set "Copper to Edge Clearance" to 0 (zero)
- Make VCC and GND lanes thicker.
- Export Gerber files directly for factory-ready printing.
- Ozkan Celik. He helped me a lot during the design process and ideas.
- Ender Piyale, I gave him a lot of headache as well.
GNU GPL V3