What is it?

This simple board lets you charge a USB-C device that doesn't adhere to the USB-C spec. It connects the CC1 and CC2 lines to ground via two 5.1k resistors, thus telling the USB PD supply to enable the VBUS line at 5v.

Why did you make it?

Lots of cheap, battery-powered Chinese-made products have USB-C ports to charge them, but they aren't built properly. You'll notice many of these products come with a USB-A to USB-C adapter cable, and that's because USB-A always provides 5v on the VBUS pin. USB-C (PD) does not do this without getting communication from the device, most simply by connecting CC1 and CC2 lines to ground via 5.1k resistors. Some of these cheaper devices ONLY have VBUS and GND pins, so you can't connect CC1 or CC2 pins to ground, so the USB-C power supply won't supply power. This board connects CC1 and CC2 lines to gnd via 5.1k resistors and just passes that (now) 5v on to the device.

What makes it special?

I built this because I have a USB-C charger in my kitchen to charge my iPhone 15 occasionally, and this same USB-C cable wouldn't charge my USB-C wine bottle opener, nor my USB-C milk frother. Neither of those (Chinese-made) products have the necessary pins to tell the power supply to turn on, so this small board lets me charge those devices as well as my iPhone (I don't use this board with anything that doesn't need it; it shouldn't hurt anything, but will limit the power to 5v).

The "datasheet" linked below is actually a zip of the Gerber files for the pcb if you want to have some made yourself, and the BOM is included below as well. All of the parts were purchased from LCSC (JLCPCB), and I had JLCPCB make the PCBs.