USB-C Data Protect

This simple tool protects your USB-C device (Drive, SSD, etc) when you plug it into a computer with a bad USB-C port.

The newer MacBooks with USB-C have a nasty tendency to output 20 volts on the USB-C port when a CD32xx chip in the computer dies. That in turn will kill the drive that you plugged into the USB-C port to test the machine...

This tool has a LED on both sides of the board. If the output voltage is above 5.4 volts the red LED will light up to warn you and it will NOT pass that voltage onto the other side. Only if the voltage is correct (i.e. 5 volts) the voltage will be passed through and the LED will light up green.

There is also some extra protection (ESD diodes) on the data lines. With some luck those will protect your data lines if there are wrong voltages there, but this is less than a full protection. (But much more than nothing.)

USB-C Protect

We sell two different products that protect on the USB-C port.

One protects your computer from a bad charging cable. A bad cable might (briefly) connect the 20 volts onto a data pin right next to one of the 20 volt pins on the USB-C connector. This is relatively common when the cable is breaking where the wires are attached to the plug.

The other product protects your external USB-C device, like an SSD or USB Stick, from damage if the computer outputs more than 5 volts on the USB-C port. This can happen when the CD32xx controller inside the computer is damaged. Especially if you are testing large amounts of computers of unknown status this will be a valuable device. People in the refurbishing business know that their SSD with test software gets fried on a regular basis... This tool prevents that.

One tool protects your external device while using the USB-C port for data.

The other tool protects your computer while charging on the USB-C port.

USB-C Charge Protect

This is a simple tool that protects against a bad charging cable or charger that puts dangerous voltage on the wrong pins. It also monitors the charging voltage on the USB-C bus.

With all Apple computers the charger should start with 5 volts and then switch up to 20 volts once communication between the charger and the computer has been

established. The charger switching up to 20 volts is the easy way to see that this communication is working.

The LED lights up blue if the voltage is 5 volts.

The LED lights up green if the voltage is 20 volts.

Protects against bad chargers and cables:All pins adjacent to the pins carrying 20v are monitored. If any voltage higher than about 8 volts is seen, even briefly, on any of those pins then the LED will blink red and keep on blinking red. Stop using the cable/charger immediately!

Both CC lines are protected by a 3v3 Transzorb and a self-recovering fuse against 20v accidentally being there.

Data pins that are not needed for charging are not connected to the other side for extra protection.

LED colour: below 4.7v blinks blue, from 4.7 to 8v blue,

from 8 to 21v green, above 21v blinks green. Danger = red..