Ruideng TC66 / TC66C USB Type-C Tester - Way too good for just USB! 

Yes, if the load tester can handle 9V that is.

I am not quite clear on what you are trying to do but if you are feeding your board with the EEPROM through the TC66's USB-C connectors to measure its power consumption by montoring through the micro-USB port (and PWR switch on the TC66 is OFF), then all you have to do is to power-cycle the power going into the USB-C of the TC66. The power on the TC66's USB-C output will follow along (i.e. also power cycle) and if that is feeding your board will also power-cycle but during the whole process the TC66 will stay on allowing you to continue monitoring whatever goes on in your board. Does this answer your question? Maybe I misunderstand your configuration?

Not at the moment. I have already too many USB testers / monitors as it is.

Eigentlich nicht. Ich arbeite lieber ohne GUIs und Sigrok-cli ist zu limitiert.

@@TheHWcaveDanke für die schnelle Antwort! Bist du interessiert an C++ Varianten deiner Python Versionen?

@@HelmutFischer-thehefi Nicht persoehnlich, aber der Code ist ja frei verfuegbar fuer alle.

@@TheHWcave Hi, sorry das ich mich hier einhänge. Erster Versuche unter Linux, und ein kleines Problem mit dem Skript. Meine Console sagt: import serial,argparse,math,struct,sys ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'serial' Was mach ich falsch?

@@falloutboy286 well, yes, pyserial is not part of a standard install of python. It has to be installed separately for example using "pip3 install pyserial" on the command line (assuming pip is installed and working!!!). But you have a much bigger problem, because the other modules are all standard. If they cannot be found something is seriously wrong with your python installation. On the off chance that python3 was freshly installed, you probably just need to log-off and log-on so the paths are properly set in your session. If that doesn't work, python3 needs to be reinstalled.

I see what you want to do and it may work but this has a high chance of going horribly wrong too. It all depends how the power bank's two sockets are implemented. It could very easily fry the power bank, and/or the TC66C. I strongly advise against doing that. Better, insert the TC66C so it doesn't count its own power consumption. Remember it measures the current coming in or out from its socket not its plug. The current on the plug is the current on the socket plus its own draw. So, if the plug end is connected to the power bank, the battery will be drained by the combined current from both the phone and the TC66C but the display will only show the part that goes to the phone.

@@TheHWcave yes. I don't want to measure my powerbank. I want to just measure my phone. That's why my first thought was to have a short USB C cable connected to the powerbank port 1. And at the end of that cable. I'll plug the TC66C in. And the male part of TC66C would go to the phone. And to make sure I don't have skewed measurements, I will use the port 2 from powerbank to power the TC66C externally. Does that work? Or is it dangerous? Thanks again Edit : also. If I understand this correctly. This means that if the PD switch is off. It should be totally transparent right? So every PD protocol handshake should be undisturbed? And is it USB 3 ? I can't test right now since it's still on the way. Thank you

Good to know. I thought it was the charger when it happened to me. The firmware is definitely in need of an update. In fact there is at least one update available since I made the video. But I am very reluctant to upgrade since I am using the USB remote interface a lot and that needs the reverse-engineered encryption key to work. I am worried that they may changed it in newer firmware. Remote access is far more important to me than USB PD triggering (which I can do using other means if i really need it)

My tc66 came with firmware 1.15 from the factory and I couldn't see this behavior. What happened is that on a cheap charger (Iniu CH20L-PQ-EU) that offers PD 3.0 PPS, when entering the reported 3.3-11V mode the maximum voltage it gets is 11.2V and the minimum is 4.88V, but there is no crash when I try to decrease more, just nothing happens. With a Ugreen CD137 I could lower the voltage normally down to 3.3V and increase it to the 11V. Maybe the folks at Ruideng have fixed this problem in firmware 1.15 and haven't just added support for another bluetooth chipset as the changelog says? Anyway, there is also firmware 1.16 but the changelog just says "Stability optimizations"

I admit I have not done this in ages, I normally use USB powered mode and get the data the same way. Anyway, from the manual and shaky memory: You can't pair from the normal phone/table bluetooth. Instead you must download and install their APP and turn location permission on- apparently because of the use of BLE, and then connect from the app itself

@@TheHWcave Thanks for the quick reply. I somehow do not get it working. But it does not really matter.

It is save to use the TC66 as a (very accurate) USB-A tester with the right adaptors. I do that all the time. The TC66's microusb port is only for powering the TC66 and communication with a PC. This means you can't use it for resistance measurement of a microusb cable. The only option is to use the USB type C ports with an adaptor, which will of course influence the measurement somewhat (depending on its length/wire sizes/build-quality)

@@TheHWcave Thanks; I've placed orders for tiny microUSB female to USB-C male adapters in rigid housings to keep the lengths small! MicroUSB female to USB-C female adapters are apparently not a thing. Regarding Lightning, the ARTEK Lightning female to USB-C male adapters I found are advertising 56K pulldown resistors to enable charging. Will this compromise the measurement of the cable resistance of Lightning cables?

@@unmeshagarwala8156 I am not an expert on Lighting but the 56K is probably used in a similar way to signal that charging is needed. You are interested in the cable resistance of the power connection, which should be in the low single digit ohm range. Even if the 56K were in parallel, it would make no difference to the accuracy of the power cable resistance measurement.

@@TheHWcave I bought a couple of 65W USB PD chargers, one for the car and one for the wall, and tried monitoring the charging of a MacBook Pro with this unit. The MBP says it is charging at 65W and the meter shows 20V but the power displayed jumps around between say 35W and 65W (and the current proportionally). Any ideas why? The PD switch is in the OFF position and the USB-C cable is rated for 100W

@@unmeshagarwala8156 Not having a MBP, my guess is that possibly an overload/overheat protection circuit is activating periodically, throttling the power. This could be in the charger, cable (it may have circuitry inside) or the MBP. Does it happen more often when the charger is hot? Does it change with the PD in ON?

Its in the video around 33:40 and there is a follow-on video on my channel that goes even into greater detail on the INA226

2 msgs per second, possibly 3 is the max. I ever achieved reliably There are no fuses in the unit. If the current gets too high for too long, something (USB connector an/or PCB tracks and/or shunt) are going to suffer...

@@TheHWcave Thanks for your answer. There is no need for fuses if the circuit measures the current and can close a Mosfet in the current path, in case of a short. All notebook computers have such a circuit design, so I was hoping the USB tester would also be made in such a clever way. Seems it is't so. . And about the max measurement rate: I've had a look into the datasheet of the INA226. This chip can handle relatively fast ADC conversations up to 200 kHz. So I was hoping, the TC66C would be able to poll datas from the INA226 as fast as this chip can. Maybe with a firmware fork etc. . The TC66C would be a great diagnosis tool for faulty notebooks if it could measure at higher data rates. The Buck Converters in each and every notebook are activated at startup in a specific order, with some milliseconds between each single activation. To know exately the timestamp of changings in the current flow would allow to make a good diagnoses without opening the notebook's case.

You caught me out! A very good point There a some exotic technologies and lots of research papers but I have not found anything useful. BTW there is a chip next to the Bluetooth module. It has 14 pins (4+3+4+3) in what looks like a QFP or LQFP or TQFP package with the marking "PBAD" and the next line "ADH". I am not able to find anything on that. Maybe that contains the solution?

Another thought on that. Its not that there isn't any power available in the TC66 in that state. The charger will pull up CC with a 56K resistor to 5V. The TC66 could use this to power some very low-current memory circuit. It would need to draw probably significant less than 50uA to avoid detection by the charger. Based on that memory, the could then decide whether to ignore (PD softswitch off) or engage by increasing the current to 81uA (simulating the presence of a 5.1K RD pulldown resistor)

Yeah it's safe to leave it on

​@@naveentechs, thank you!

Found it (again) www.mediafire.com/file/q7c4bw6u5pfqman/User_Maual_for_Operation_and_PC_software_and_APP_of_TC66%2528C%2529_Type-c_USB_PD_Trigger_Meter_2019.6.5.pdf/file

Yes, this is quite normal because the microusb is connected via a diode to the input of the 3.3 voltage regulator as is the VBUS of the USB-C (if the power switch is closed). Because of the diode, there is no danger that the TC66 can accidentally feed power back into a connected microusb device when the USB-C voltage exceeds the voltage on the microusb port.

@@TheHWcave good to know that, i thought that with the voltage leakage it would also have current leakage. And if I'm not mistaken I remember seeing that you wouldn't update your tc66 for fear that your program would no longer work, but I updated mine to firmware 1.16 and it still works normally with the rb-usb program (I believe that it uses the same commands as yours). So you can upgrade yours without fear. Unfortunately the changelog is vague and only says "Stability optimizations", maybe you can compare it with the cons you found earlier and see what has changed

@@KaMyKaZii Yes, I was holding back with the upgrade in case they changed the encryption key. Thanks for the info.

@@TheHWcaveyou're welcome. And is there any chance you have the 1.14 firmware file? I decided to play with tc66 and realized that it is possible to downgrade, I would like to test firmware 1.14 just to see if I have the same crash than you while changing voltages in the PPS trigger

@@KaMyKaZii I have the TC66C_V1.1.4.apk file. Send me a message to my email (see channel info)

if only the TC66 is plugged into the power bank and no additional load current is flowing, it is likely that the power bank simply turns off. Many power banks do that to preserve battery if accidentally turned on with nothing connected. The tiny current used by the TC66 is not enough

@@TheHWcave thx 4 the quick reply. So for a full discharge monitoring, is it better to connect another device? such as another powerbank (with more capacity). So the line will be PB1-meter-usb-c cable-PB2

@@user-kl2wg6lk1s It is not the capacity of the power bank but its behaviour when very little load is detected. If you want to measure a power bank capacity by discharge, you need a decent size load, e.g. power resistors, connected through the USB tester to the power bank. You need to reset the tester before start and at the end, when the power bank has shutdown, the tester will be off too. You need to plug it into a USB port with power to see what the last capacity and energy values were before the shutdown. Note that the load resistors must not overload the power bank, because in that case it might shutdown to protect itself.

Well, if the plug is USB-C then yes, you could plug it between the adapter and the MacBook and see what the power draw is, especially if the draw reduces to very little when the batteries are full, as it should. If you are interested on what happens on the mains voltage side, you need a different type of monitor. Check out my playlist on the PZEM-xxx type of meters but you can also buy less elaborate power/energy meters that you just insert between the device your are interested in (AC adapter) and the mains socket.

@@TheHWcave So I only care about how much the plugged in apple multiport AV adapter (HDMI 2.0b, 1xUSB A, and USB-C PDonly ) draws from the MacBooks battery while not charging through it. It is drawing some constant amount even though it is not in use as it gets warm. I will be comparing to an alternative adapter from Satechi. The idea is that it should not be draining when I am not using it while its plugged in. Yes, I could unplug but I will be using its USB A functionality for mouse which does not make it drain the MacBook more than when its just pluggged but not in use. It looks as if the additional "passive" draining is due to HDMI output that cannot be switched off even though nothing is connected.

@@TheHWcave so I measured all my peripherals like 10 year old Apple full-size wired keyboard, new and old mx518 mouse, and 3 different hubs and the Apple multiport AV. I was surprised to find a new laser mx518 using 5x less power than the 15 y older non laser variant. Some usb hubs do not have a standby... the multiport av is not that power hungry and has a standby mode but all in all they all draw 0,1-0.4 w during in standby so unplugging is the way. During usage multiport + Anker usba hub + Keyboard and Modus can draw 1,5 w additionally to the MacBook Air m1 ‚s ~ 3 w in clam shell mode which explains the battery drain!

@@AA-dq5uo Thanks for the update. I totally agree to unplug them if not needed, even a relative small power draw does add up.

@@TheHWcave do You by any chance know which usb controller from TI, cypress or Infineon is the most efficient and advanced? it would be interesting to find most efficient 4in1 usb_c_to_a/c HUB with PD. As for USB_A: The Anker 4in1 black plastic „bar“ USB_A to USB_A is very good efficiency wise With just 0,15w whole in use. Standby is 3x less.

If you are interested in cable resistance, you can measure this with the TC66/C. There are many ways. For example: Select the TC66 display so it shows resistance as well as other data. Connect its plug end to a 5V power bank or charger and connect the socket through the cable of interest to a load. The load should draw a constant current. If you don't have a USB load (resistors), use a USB light but definitely not something that charges like a battery and therefore uses less and less current. The display shows the resistance in ohms represented by the load + cable. Now try different cables and you see how good the cables are relative to each other. If you can make a direct connection to the load (with no cable), that resistance should be the base to subtract from all measurements with cables to get the actual resistance. But even just comparing cables is quite interesting.

@@TheHWcave Thanks for the detailed reply. I have a UM34 and also a Ruideng LD25. I have completely forgotten how to use both of them because I haven't used them in years. I was looking for something simpler to use but if I could use these how would I go about it? I mainly want to use them for cable resistance so I can get rid of the bad ones and also to check the real output of several USB chargers I have. Also with the UM34 if I plug in a USB-C lead from a USB-C port on my charger into the C port on the side of the UM34 it doesn't power on. But if I use a USB-A to C cord from a USB-A on the same charger to the same USB-C port on the UM34 it does power up. I thought the USB-C port on my charger might be broken but if I plug it into my phone it works fine. Would you know what's going on? Sorry for all the questions.

@@MrEvilWasp Quite a while ago I did a review of the UM34C ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3yhHX96h-jg.html and it includes testing cable resistance at the end. There is some problem with the way the UM34C calculates the resistance but the video points out how to do it yourself. Also to get accurate results you need a load that either doesn't change with different voltages (electronic load) or at least has a constant resistance. Most things with a USB connection do neither, but there are some cheap loads out there that consist of just one or two power resistors with a USB socket.

You could use any USB device as a load, for example LED lights or indeed charging a phone/tablet but there are issues. Those loads may turn-off on their own making the results a bit unpredicatbe and not easy to repeat. Better invest in one of those very cheap USB loads on the "Internet" that consist just of a USB socket, a switch and 1 or 2 big wire-wound resistors to draw either 1A or 2A at 5V. They cost very littte and enable reproducable tests, just beware, these get very hot. Don't touch and keep well clear of anything that can burn. The 2nd fundamental problem is that measuring a power bank from its USB output will always show a lower capacity than what the battery really has. That is because the electronics in the powerbank to produce the nice and stable 5V take their "cut" and delivery only 70-90% of the battery capacity. The same problem happens when measuring charge going it. Now the USB tester will record more capacity than the battery really could store because of the inefficiency of the charging circuit. The omly way around these issues is to open the powerbank, disconnect the battery and measure it directlt, but this is an advanced operation and needs experience. Just accept that measuring "from the outside" will not give the true battery capacity but at least the capacity usable in practice.

@@TheHWcave thanks for the very complete answer as well as tips and info. I think I will take your advice and get one of those load resistors since they cost next to nothing and I could use this USB tester for other batteries etc in my house so a very small cost for alot of information i could get back. Keep up the great vids - I appreciate them.

Warp Charge is a proprietary protocol and not USB PD. Hopefully the folks at Ruideng will add it to the detected protocols eventually (and the related VOOC and Dash charge protocols). For measuring what is going on during Warp Charge, you should turn the TC66C's PD switch off. It is nice to hear that Warp Charge worked through the TC66C. This is what I expect as behaviour because it is transparent on the connection between phone and charger, but its nice to hear confirmation. The fact that you need to turn the TC66C PD switch on when connecting it just to the phone is again expected behaviour and shows your phone as DFP in this case, follows the USB C standard. I have no idea why "Share" does not work for you and whether that permission problem is in the TC66 app or Microsoft, or Google. I don't have anything that runs Android 11. Sorry. Do you have other (older) phones/tablets that you could use for Bluetooth?

@@TheHWcave I can confirm that "Share" works on Android 9 (Xiaomi Mi A1, running Android One). So I guess this bug can be attributed to the lack of Android 11 support. On the Android Play Store there are many 1-2 star reviews stating that the "Share" button does not work. On Android 9 I tried with versions 2.0.2 and 2.0.4, both worked. On Android 11 I only tried v2.0.4. Edit: just mentioning that Mi A1 has a USB C 2.0 port

Thanks for the update. Good to know

@@TheHWcave Warp charge is failing to reach maximum speed. It's supposed to be 10V 6.5A but it hits a ceiling at around 5.47A 8.5V. I now remember that you showed in the video that the TI chip is limited to 5.47A so I guess that's the problem. TC66 reached 45C after only a few minutes so I stopped the experiment.

Yes the INA226 is configured by the firmware to that maximum value. That said, the INA226 does not stop or limit more current going through. While the TC66 reading did not exceed 5.4A your phone would have received the full 6.5A. However, the TC66 is designed for 5A max. in accordance with the USB Type C standard, so you may well damage it when pumping 6.5A through it. But you raise a good point. Given the likelyhood of more people using Warp charging, the TC66 designers should display "Overload" when 5A is exceeded instead of just showing the highest possible value.

Great. That's good to know. Many thanks

They are very different. For use with USB-A or mini/micro USB connectors, the TC66C would need adapters which isn't very convenient. However, it is much more accurate than the UM25 and being powered externally it can measure down to zero volts.

I was hoping that since my power bank does not support QC 2.0 20v, Huawei SCP, and Type C PD that my phone did not receive too much voltage but im not sure if thats correct... I am afraid i fed my phone too much voltage.

Those triggers are really quite dangerous. I hope your phone survived.