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How the Google Pixel Can Act as a Portable Power Bank For Your GoPro HERO5 Black

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It doesn't take long for your GoPro HERO5 Black to run out of battery and often when you are outdoors, there's just no access to an AC power output. With battery power banks being more and more restricted on airline travel, you might not have one on you when you need to recharge your GoPro  HERO5 Black.

Fortunately, the GoPro HERO5 Black supports USB Power Delivery over its USB Type-C connector which means you can use Android phones like the Google Pixel as a power bank (assuming you don't mind sacrificing your phone's battery charge to get more video recording time).

Here we connect a USB Type-C to Type-C cable between the GoPro HERO5 Black and the Google Pixel when the phone is fully charged but the GoPro HERO5 Black's battery is fully depleted. Under the phone's USB charging options, we selected 'Supply power'.

  

Initially, we see that the Google Pixel is constantly advertising its power capabilities of 0 watts.

Only when we turn on GoPro HERO5 Black do we start to see the USB Power Delivery transactions start. This is one of the issues with the GoPro  HERO5 Black where it actually doesn't charge over USB Power Delivery unless you turn on the camera.

The Google Pixel then starts to advertise it can provide 4.5 watts (5 volts @ .9 amps).

We then see that the GoPro HERO5 Black requests 4.5 watts (5 volts @ .9 amps) from the Google Pixel.

The GoPro HERO5 Black also advertises its power sinking capabilities of 4.5 watts (5 volts @ .9 amps) and 8.25 watts (5.5 volts @ 1.5 amps).

However, after the power contract is established, we find that a hard reset happens and the GoPro HERO5 Black and Google Pixel again repeat the same USB Power delivery protocol negotiation with the same power contract established.

In fact, we see this reset and power contract negotiation cycle happens again and again throughout the entire charging process. After 53 minutes of charging, the camera is actually not pulling any current from the phone for almost 11 minutes before the cycle starts again.

As the battery gets fully charged, the current gradually reduces to just .16 amps before going to zero for about 10 minutes.

After 147 minutes, the GoPro HERO5 Black completely stops pulling current from the Google Pixel and is fully charged.

We can see that the GoPro HERO5 Black has drained about 80% of the Google Pixel's battery to become fully charged after close to 2.5 hours.

  

From a USB Power Delivery protocol standpoint, the way the GoPro HERO5 Black gets charged from the Google Pixel isn't pretty given all the repeated power contracts being made. However, it does get the job done and in the end the camera gets fully charged.

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