Charge phone while using it via Monitor

Is it possible to charge the phone with a power bank while having the phone connected to C31MINIDOCK4KPD HUB? How about connecting the power bank to the HUB? Would this charge the phone, or only if the powerbank is directly connected to USB-C of the phone?

It depends on the hub. If you connect the power bank to the usb-c PD port, it might charge (it happens with baseus), other hubs do not provide enough power (a trust model I tried only provided 0.5A5V, while it provided higher current with higher voltages). The only way to know is to test the exact model.

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Yeah, basically that - if the hub negotiates enough power at 5V voltage, it’s going to charge just fine. If it does not, it may charge very slowly, not charge or even slowly discharge while connected.

Negotiated values can be checked with cat /sys/class/power_supply/tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f/uevent. 2A should be fine; 3A is perfect; 1.5A may be enough or not depending on usage pattern.

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Should that not be current_now and/or current_max instead of uevent ? (I do not have a librem 5 to verify, but took notes from earlier posts).

Is it problematic if I use a Power Bank like Elecjet PowerPie P20 with 20000 mAh, 45 W ?

uevent contains all available information, including current_now and current_avg

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Higher amps is ok, higher voltage is not.

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More specifically:

uevent gives, while charging with the supplied charger,

POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f
POWER_SUPPLY_TYPE=USB
POWER_SUPPLY_USB_TYPE=C [PD]
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_MAX=3000000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MAX=5000000

(which actually isn’t the current current).

You are right, I confued it with /sys/class/power_supply/max170xx_battery/uevent

what about this one? 7.50 V https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/belkin-boost-charge-20000-mah-750-w-powerbanks-13350490

All 5V devices were wireless.

You need to stick with 5v. If it says “smartphone” in the description I think you’d be safe. I did find this one pretty quickly though:

do you see a cheaper one that does the same?

It has a 6000 mAh version.

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I wonder why I get different values. This is with the supplied charger, but while @irvinewade gets max current 3A and max voltage 5V, I have 1.5A and 12V. What are these values?

POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f
POWER_SUPPLY_TYPE=USB
POWER_SUPPLY_USB_TYPE=C [PD]
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_MAX=1500000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MAX=12000000

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It’s ok because it’s PD (Power Delivery) compliant
45W means the battery can provide 45W, not will always
Here : https://elecjet.com/products/super-fast-charging-powerpie-x-20000mah-power-bank
We can see it provides 5V with a max output of 3A (which is the basic standard in this kind of battery, and probably fallback for PD)

If you get this only for your librem 5 it’s overkill, you may want this if you want to power other things like a laptop (compatible PD), or with a dock and many other things attached to it

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… with my VAVA hub in the middle:

POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=tps6598x-source-psy-0-003f
POWER_SUPPLY_TYPE=USB
POWER_SUPPLY_USB_TYPE=C [PD]
POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE=1
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_MAX=830000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MAX=12000000

thank you all, I went with Xtorm XB301 Apollo (15000 mAh, 18 W) :slight_smile:

There are 2 things here :

  1. What power supply did you give to your hub ? the description of the hub says :
    " Delivers about 29W for charging the connected laptop and 11W for powering the hub when connected to a 40W power input."
  2. Power delivery is a protocol to negociate what voltage with what maximal current the 2 devices can use

So your result is probably a mix of both, and I think the L5 supports charging at 18W max, so your 12V / 1.5A is the result of the PD negociation 1.5Ax12V = 18W

I’m using the standard L5 charger. OK, I’m starting to see how this works

When did you get your phone? Which batch is it? This shouldn’t happen (but may on devices with older TPS65982 firmware).