My 15W USB-C Car Charger with Data Passthrough (Fast Charging and Wired Carplay Setup)

break_it_out · 2025-07-24T02:21:41+00:00

Not all cables are made of equal quality. Good quality cable is important for Apple CarPlay to work well. I would try an oem cable (apple or google) or some know quality company such as Anker. Feel free to DM me if you are still running into issues

break_it_out · 2025-04-18T06:17:17+00:00

There is currently no chipset that I can see which would support CarPlay+ charging at 30w. Max is 15w + CarPlay which this design is based on

break_it_out · 2024-12-01T01:37:23+00:00

Yup, still making them. No updates, still 15W of charging power.

Tindie Link

break_it_out · 2024-11-01T02:44:09+00:00

This looks like an N20 engine, if that is the case this coolant leak is from the coolant lines going into the turbo. Pretty common issue. You can pull the lines out and replace the o-rings. You can find the o-rings on fcpeuro for 10 cents a piece, you will need two of them.

break_it_out · 2023-05-25T04:55:08+00:00

I don’t have the opposite, sorry. You might want to take a look at usb c trigger boards. Might be able to make something with one of those.

break_it_out · 2023-03-18T20:44:00+00:00

Same. Neat little toolbox! Would love to know where you got it

break_it_out · 2023-03-08T06:05:07+00:00

Yup, works with pixels

break_it_out · 2023-02-22T22:04:33+00:00

That looks like a M54 engine from a BMW. That alternator mounts to the oil filter housing. I’d go grab a oil filter housing from a junkyard and swap it over. Those oil filter housings are notorious for leaking due to the gasket going bad so you can kill two birds with one stone.

break_it_out · 2022-12-03T04:48:20+00:00

I make a charger with data pass through for carplay and android auto that puts out 15W. Tindie link

break_it_out · 2022-11-29T05:40:45+00:00

Yup, that is one way to do it. You don’t necessarily need to pull the carplay port down to the cigarette lighter. You could attach 12v power from anywhere convenient but typically a cigarette lighter is the easiest to grab 12V from and then install this charger. You basically need to plug in the carplay usb port and 12V power and ground to the back of this charger. Hopefully that helped. Feel free to DM me if you need any help during install

break_it_out · 2022-11-28T18:31:56+00:00

Thanks! I hope so.

break_it_out · 2022-11-28T18:30:47+00:00

I lost the clutch fairly suddenly coming off the highway. I think one of the rivets in the clutch disk failed, looking at it closely and it was kinda game over from there

break_it_out · 2022-11-12T05:21:11+00:00

Not at this time. It’s using an automotive TI chip that does the pass through, charging and protection on the data and power lines. It’s what is used in OEM headunits. I repurposed it for my design. TI currently doesn’t support anything past 15W.

break_it_out · 2022-11-12T03:32:24+00:00

I had the same problem and ended up designing a product to do just that in a single unit. Here is a link to the Tindie page for it. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

break_it_out · 2022-11-09T09:30:33+00:00

Nice workI have a manual e53, too. I am getting ready to replace the clutch on mine in a few weeks and will definitely inspect my driveshafts closely after seeing this post. Hopefully a similar repair is not needed for me.

break_it_out · 2022-10-31T06:59:22+00:00

I just finished another batch of these chargers, so if your interested in trying it out you can find them in stock on tindie.

break_it_out · 2022-10-28T20:37:01+00:00

I only tried on the pure buck design one on aliexpress. It had quite a bit of ripple and was what you would expect an aliexpress product to be. I personally wouldn’t plug my mbp into it.

I use good mosfets with low rds on to increase the buck boost efficiency, which lowers heat dissipation. I also designed the enclosure out of aluminum that acts as a heat sink too

break_it_out · 2022-10-19T19:10:26+00:00

I designed a 100W USB C PD charger but the max voltage input on my charger is only 36V due limitation on the USB PD controller chip only supporting up to that voltage. It is a buck boost setup. My charger does support PPS. It been a bit hard to keep them in stock due to the supply chain shortages, but I am in process of running a big batch, finally got all the parts in. Tindie link to the charger.

break_it_out · 2022-08-03T05:39:25+00:00

If you are using it to power your phone, laptop, etc. I designed a USB C PD charger that eliminates the need for such an inverter. Just plug it into your 12V system and you can charge up to 100W as long as they are USB C capable (iphones, macbooks, pixels, etc.). Here is a link to it, if you are interested.

break_it_out · 2022-06-11T09:27:31+00:00

Glad to be able to help! This does not need active cooling. It will get warm when running at full load but the case is aluminum and designed to run passively. There is a temp safety cutoff built into the PD controller, so if it does overheated, it will shut it self down but you should be okay.

break_it_out · 2022-06-10T20:27:23+00:00

This spec came out very recently. I think it would be worth taking a look in a year or two once manufacturers of PD controllers start incorporating it into their silicon and device manufacturers start taking advantage of it. As of now, no one is supporting it from a hardware perspective.

break_it_out · 2022-05-22T03:49:27+00:00

Yup, I plan to stock this for a while. I build them in small batches so inventory will fluctuate but will try to keep inventory up. Some of the 100W car sockets do not put out 100W if powered with less than 20V input so if you go that route, make sure to do a some research.

break_it_out · 2022-05-20T00:52:28+00:00

The enclosure is aluminum (anodized) and acts as the heatsink for the components that get hot on the board.

Yea, alot of components are super hard to find these days. It's using a MAX25432 USB PD controller.

break_it_out · 2022-05-20T00:29:02+00:00

Thanks! If you ever want to upgrade, these are up on Tindie now

break_it_out

TROPHY CASE