Instead of the sane approach of specifying 5, 9, 12, 15, and/or 20 volts and the amperages, products insist on listing every model of device in existence instead.
Most will do 12V, but I always want to make sure it’ll power my laptop (20V) as well.
A big thank you to reviewers who post images of the actual products where it shows the relevant info in one short line on the labels:
e.g. PD Output: 5V=3A, 9V=3A, 12V=3A, 15V=3A, 20V=3A
Looks like revision 2 of the PD spec requires all of those voltages, but in revision 1 it doesn’t require 20v. And if they’re not listing the voltages, they’re prob not listing the PD spec revision it adheres to.
RavPower was my jam before they got booted from Amazon, but yeah, I stick to Ankler for the most part (unless I just need a dumb power bank to dump solar into that’ll charge my better power banks - e.g. the 50,000 mAh behemoth I’ve got charging outside right now).
The reason I had to stray here is because I’m looking for a 12v -> USB PD adapter I can hook to a 12V solar panel. Not the “cigarette lighter” kind, but the kind you hard wire. No-name is about all you can really buy unless I want to crack open an Ankler or fuss with a cigarette lighter-style adapter (those are a PITA sometimes lol).
I’m having trouble imagining what you’re setting out to accomplish. 12v solar panels are higher than 12v. This one gets to 18v, for example. You need a solar charge controller to convert it to 12v, and then you’d need something like this to convert it to 5v to charge your battery bank. Whether your battery bank will “take” 12v without electronics to tell it to is beyond the scope of my knowledge, but AFAIK 5v is universally accepted.
I’ve got two sets of solar panels and two different use-cases.
The panels my power banks use are all regulated 5v output (3x 6 watts, one 20W, and one 12W). I take one or more of those backpacking.
The 12V->USB PD adapter I’m looking for is to hook into my 12V 50 or 100 watt panel I take camping (which one i take depends how many people plan to charge from it). In addition to being a charging point for my laptop, it would also charge my power banks much quicker since they support QC/PD charging at higher voltages than the 5V panels produce.
But yeah, PV panels “open circuit” voltage is closer to 17-21 volts, but once you put a load on them, they’re closer to 12-14.
Oh I think I get it now. So you can terminate the solar panel with something like this and then charge phones with a standard car charger with PD. I like that idea.
Exactly. Except I’m trying to avoid those kinds of “cigarette lighter” style adapters, but I’ve used them before (which is why I’m trying to avoid them this time around lol).
Yeah, it’s hard to find good ones. You could invert it to 120v AC and plug in a regular charger, but you lose efficiency doing that, not to mention the added danger, weight, and complexity.
Is this by chance closer to what you are looking for? input voltage range is 13V-27V, output is usbc-pd 18w or 12v-1.5A the DC out is a bit higher.
Something like that, but closer to 45 to 65 watts and capable of 20v. There’s one I saw a while back (can’t find it now), but it’s up to 100W PD and uses MC4 connectors straight to the panel. It was…expensive.
This is what I’m currently looking at (and it lists the voltages unlike the other ones that came up in search results). Only problem with this one is reviews say it defaults to “off” and you have to press the button to turn it on. Not ideal when it’s going to be hooked to a PV panel.
If money isnt a big issue and you want something truly beefy for a solar system I would recommend something like this then. Your solution is essentially a usbc-pd car charger without the ability to remove from a cigarette plug. You would achieve the same affect wiring up a female cigarette car plug and buying a regular pd car charger with the bonus of being able to swap the outlet out for other 12v car plugs as needed.
If you want an integrated charger thats fine though at the end of the day theyre all just fancy variable dc to dc converters that take in 12-24v and pop out the usbc-pd voltage ranges as rated. just wanted to give you some options.
Im a electical engineer and made my own 200w solar system. I feel your pain had to mcguyver some stuff to run off usbcpd. LMK if you want to talk shop. Related guide I wrote explaining USBC-pd and dc-to-dc on lemmy
That looks a bit overkill for camping, but yeah, definitely what I’m after / trying to achieve. I guess I could justify the expense if I set it up at the house between trips. Actually…that’s not a bad idea.
Not for this, but I’m eventually looking for a 48v lithium charger for solar panels. The ones I looked at weren’t terribly expensive but were designed for larger systems than what I have (I just want to safely charge my 48v 20AH multipurpose ebike battery from solar)
It’s in storage since I moved a few years ago, but I had a 1.2 KW ground mounted grid-tie setup at my old house (basically a proof-of-concept before moving to something bigger). Looking to dig that out for either a bigger grid tie setup or possibly feeding something akin to a PowerWall. Probably going with LiFeP04 for safety / peace of mind reasons.
Cool guide! Skimmed it, but saved it for later to read through in more detail when I’m not on mobile.
To charge your 48v ebike battery you will probably be looking at a proper 48v solar charge controller from victron then. They are expensive but worth it. dont want to fry your battery with no-name brand junk pwm advertising as mppt. , Though you can get away with the cheaper 48v 100/20 or 100/10s versions if you want to save some cash. a single 12v solar panel wont cut it though you need a couple 200w or 400w foldups chained to add voltage up to around 48v to charge a big battery effectively.
That one’s actually what I’d consider affordable considering something like this beast (solar inverter / charger) was what I was originally looking at.
USB PD 1.0 is irredenta in 2025. 2.0 is basically irrevent outside of old device still on sale.
If the charger does 60 watts or greater it’s going to be 20v. https://www.renesas.com/sites/default/files/media/images/normative-voltage-source-pdp-rating.png
Everything made in the past like 4 years is 3.0. Ideally you shouldn’t buy anything that isn’t PPS (programmable power supply) because it makes charging a LOT more efficient.
But good luck finding a 12v adapter, they’re very hit or miss on supporting it since 12v is optional now and not a lot of things support it.