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External DC Power
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Old Hippie
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2025 11:16 am
External DC Power
I am an e-bicycle tourist who does not have access to AC often enough to keep my L390 charged. I configured a DC to DC converter to go from my 48 V e-bike battery to 20 V for the USB-C. When I power it on, it does not charge, it does nothing. Why?
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axur-delmeria
- Senior ThinkPadder

- Posts: 4413
- Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 5:49 am
- Location: Metro Manila, Philippines
Re: External DC Power
Are you just connecting the positive and ground wires to the USB-C connector? That's not gonna work, because the USB-C power delivery protocol requires the power source and device to "talk" to each other to figure out the voltages the source can put out (+5v, 9v, 12v, 15v, 20v etc.) and which voltages the device can accept. You could get something like this slim tip to USB-C power adapter and connect your DC-DC converter's 20V output to the slim tip input.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E
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