GTrusted

The Plugable USB-C Docking Station has been able to work well with different Windows, Mac, and Chromebook notebooks (no small feat!), and next tried it out with the HP Chromebook 13 G1.

Once we connected the Plugable USB-C Docking Station to a HP Chromebook 13 G1 with a compliant USB 3.1 Type-C to Type-C cable, using software from Granite River Labs, we could observe the USB Power Delivery transactions enter an interesting sequence to allow the Plugable USB-C Docking Station to charge the HP Chromebook 13 G1.

The HP Chromebook 13 G1 would first take the initiative and offer 5 volts @ 1.5 amps to the Plugable USB-C Docking Station.

Since the Plugable USB-C Docking Station has its own power supply and should be the one providing the power, it requests 5 volts @ 0 amps meaning that it won't draw any current from the HP Chromebook 13 G1.

The Plugable USB-C Docking Station then turns around and now offers three power profiles 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 36 watts (12 volts @ 3 amps), and 100 watts (20 volts @ 5 amps) to the HP Chromebook 13 G1.

The HP Chromebook 13 G1 then happily accepts 20 volts @ 2.25 (45 watts) of power from the Plugable USB-C Docking Station.

Once we confirmed charging was working well, we also connected an Ethernet cable to Plugable USB-C Docking Station and confirmed the HP Chromebook 13 G1 could connect to the local network.

The Plugable USB-C Docking Station was connected to a LG 4K Ultra HD Smart TV with webOS 2.0 (2015) using HDMI and we could confirm there was no problem with displaying at 4K resolutions.

To confirm there was proper USB enumeration, we had to go put the Chromebook into recovery mode and then go into developer mode.

Once in developer mode, we could open use the Chrome OS developer shell to check which USB devices were enumerated.

By looking at what USB devices show up when the Plugable USB-C Docking Station is connected vs disconnected to the Chromebook, we can tell which USB devices are inside the Plugable USB-C Docking Station.  We can tell that the Realtek USB chip supporting Ethernet and C-Media Electronics USB chip supporting audio are enumerating correctly.  There are several more USB devices which are labeled Action Star Enterprises which are also enumerating to support USB hub and other functions.  We could also confirm functionally all USB ports were working correctly.

The Plugable USB-C Docking Station does a good job at expanding the interface ports of the HP Chromebook 13 G1 while keeping it charged.