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Overview of the Apple 61W USB-C Power Adapter's Power Capabilities

The 61W USB-C Power Adapter ships with Apple's 13" MacBook Pro (2017) and supports USB Power Delivery profiles of 12 watts (5 volts @ 2.4 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps) and 60 watts (20 volts @ 3 amps).

Using the USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs with the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester, we ran the following tests for the Apple 61W USB-C Power Adapter.

The USB Power Test App first negotiates a power contract for every PDO supported by the 61W USB-C Power Adapter, and increases the load gradually to find the threshold where over current protection (OCP) kicks in and voltage and current start to drop for safety reasons.

The USB Power Test App reports out all the PDO's supported by the Apple charger and their OCP thresholds. OCP thresholds for the Apple charger are set at about 20-38% above the maximum current levels for the fixed PDO's.

PDO	OCP (A)
PDO#1 Fixed: 5V 2.4A	3.31
PDO#2 Fixed: 9V 3A	3.64
PDO#3 Fixed: 20V 3A	3.55

The USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs also produces an I-V curve which graphically shows the relationship between voltage and current for each PDO. We can observe as the current increases beyond the OCP threshold, the voltage immediately shuts off.

The USB Power Test App can also use the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester integrated with the GW Instek APS-7100 programmable AC power supply to compare the charger's power output vs power input so that power efficiency can be measured and compared to regulatory limits from United States of Energy (DOE) Level VI or European Union's CoC Tier 2 requirements. We can repeat the power efficiency tests for different PDO's, current load conditions, and different AC input ranges, allowing us to get a complete picture of power efficiency ranges across all different usage scenarios.