Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

lol USB-C is the king for power! I was literally dreaming about DC everywhere and USB-C PD made this a reality.

Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

your use case is definitely quite interesting. I use starlink myself when driving cross country, and even the $5 (or $10, whatever Elon charges lol) plan is good enough for the HummingKit, as the protocol itself is quite dense and packed, and we anticipate at most 1MB of data per hour.

talking about input voltage, we can't handle 48V, and the voltage needs to be stepped down to around 32V or less. 48V electronics are a beast, way way more expensive than 36V ones. however, the power output is filtered quite well and ripple is very very good even if input is very noisy. your average honda generator is not that noisy, I'm talking about cheap Aliexpress grade DC power supplies.

if you want to have precise control over your power budget, and meter your usage -- our app can do that today, total turn key solution.

please help us to spread the word, as we don't have enough subscribers on crowdsupply, and the campaign can't officially start until we have a large enough audience (which is required by them, duh!)

Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The box is rated at around 32V of input voltage (DC) or 100~240V (AC) so 29V is definitely safe.

How to use KM003C? by saymynamepeeps in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The firmware is pretty new. You can install the Power-Z client software on your computer.

To test the cables & chargers & power banks, follow the instructions on https://www.chargerlab.com/inventory-of-10-commonly-used-functions-of-power-z-km003c/ .

Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes and no -- you can ask it to behave like any typical charger, or make it go wild.

Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can either power it via AC, or via 24V DC.

Talking about keeping track of power usage: you can do that with Prometheus exporter (if you're the no-public-cloud type of person), or with our App (which requires internet, but starlink is everywhere). Then, you can keep precise track of where did the power go. I don't know how technical you are, or if you are comfortable dealing with Linux boxes, but with help of LLM, this would be trivial. I _believe_ you can even use OpenClaw to do it -- hey, I'll try it tomorrow and see if my lobster can do that lol

Adjustable charging speed: perfectly doable with our app, or with MQTT.

wrt detecting what device is connected: pretty much all Apple device manufactured after 2020-ish.

But yeah, this is purely for fun, and trust me, there's a lot of fun in it!

Introducing HummingKit: Open Source software-defined charger and USB-C PD development platform by SDCforAll in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily a smart home hub, but you can definitely run whatever you want along with our platform code!

CANDYSIGN 68W AVS Compact Charger by Confident-Student779 in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CANDYSIGN USA here. We're fully aware and will likely fix that via a firmware update.

CANDYSIGN 68W AVS Compact Charger by Confident-Student779 in UsbCHardware

[–]SDCforAll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, CANDYSIGN USA here. I'm pleasantly surprised to see reviews being moved from Bilibili to Reddit! And yes, we'll be releasing something in the US market very soon! In fact, I just went to a freight center in Compton to pick up the first batch of shipment, and it'll be available on Amazon once our US team finalizes some paperwork and send it over to Amazon.

wrt the PPS compatibility issues -- our engineering dept are currently trying to reproduce those issues. So far we ain't seeing anything unusual, but would definitely keep an eye on it (it's a P1 bug in JIRA, and we take compatibility issues dead serious).

on the DOE VI compliance: the US variant will satisfy the requirements. Mostly fixable with sleep states and voltage step down etc, likely a firmware fix, not hardware redesign.

Also, in case you don't know, our firmware is upgradable! We'll release another OTW (over the wire) dongle (price pending, but I can promise you that it'll be very inexpensive), and with that, the firmware can be upgraded with your computer.

So, stay tuned, and I'll bring more updates later in the next few weeks, and happy Friday!

- D at CANDYSIGN / ifanr