MRMCD 2024

Your locale preferences have been saved. We like to think that we have excellent support for English in pretalx, but if you encounter issues or errors, please contact us!

Designing a power bank inside a can of Volt Cola
05.10, 21:10–22:00 (Europe/Berlin), C120 - Rainbow Warrior
Language: English

No idea how you would build a power bank that speaks USB-C? This talk is for you!

  • Beginner friendly, but with all the technical details!
  • Started from zero in electronics and hardware design
  • I want to motivate you to do a project without prior knowledge for fun and learning!
  • Ended up with a functional 250Wh USB-C PD power bank with a custom circuit board inside a can of Volt Power Cola.

No idea how you would build a power bank that speaks USB-C? This talk is for you!

I started the project with no hardware design experience and close to zero knowledge about electronics.
My main goal was learning something new while having fun, so I picked a project that would be challenging but achievable at the same time.

I want to motivate you to do the same, and I'll share what I've learned along the way.

I had to learn about basic electricity and electronics, batteries, designing circuit boards, different soldering techniques, spot welding, reading chinese datasheets, 3D printing, CNC milling, the USB PowerDelivery protocol, the I²C protocol, shrinkwrapping a design foil onto a soda can, safety measures, and so much more. The electronics are based on an IP5328P chip.

You'll learn about the many challenges and how I solved them. And of course how to build a power bank.

Hacker