Well, I guess this settles it. Whatever is inside of those cables witching voltage to 12V sucks. I spent 2 minutes testing it with my multimeter and it doesn't work anymore. Just outputs the nominal 5V… 🥲
@brunoph have you tried unplugging and plugging again 🙈 I saw somewhere that USB-PD supplies negotiate, then if there isn’t enough power draw for a while they shut off / go back to 5v mode. Might just need a consistent load
@sfcgeorge nah, I tried a bunch of stuff, even turning it 180 degrees. The USB tester was showing 12V while it worked, but changed to 5V after it stopped working.
The first time I plugged it into my power bank it immediately shut off, which looks like an error response. After it stopped pulling 12V the connector started getting warm. All around too many red flags.
I rewired the barrel plug into a conventional USB-A plug, and now I can use it just fine, using my tester as the PD trigger.
Rewired the (actually good) barrel plug and cable into a conventional USB-A plug, and now I can at least use it while connected to my USB tester, which can act as a USB-PD trigger to request 12V.
And no, you can't actually power the controller from the USB-B connector. Because that would be too simple and easy.
It actually boggles my mind that this thing came with a 12V car lighter adapter ONLY. And the spec sheet claims it needs a 4A power supply (although my guess is only for the heaviest loads). And they don't even bother to include a wall adapter.
Happy to report that this setup works quite well. Even with my heaviest lens plus counterweight installed, it never pulled more than 1.5A, ~18W. This should be plenty enough for this admittedly precarious setup.
I went an ordered another USB-PD to Barrel adapter, and found in my boxes a universal wall adapter rated for 12V 2A. One of these should work.
@midendian perhaps I should have put a resistor in series, but I didn't expect the current the multimeter lets through to be enough to zap this thing. Sad…
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