A Closer Look at USB Power Delivery Support on the Xiaomi Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter

Xiaomi has been highly effective at bringing down electronics prices for consumers so it's great to see Xiaomi supporting USB Power Delivery 2.0 with the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter. Originally shipped with the Mi Notebook Air 13.3", the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter  can also be used with many other popular notebook PC's, tablets, mobile phones, game consoles, and action cameras that support charging over the USB Type-C connector.

The Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter is a very compact and portable wall charger supporting USB Power Delivery 2.0 charging up to 45 watts through USB Type-C. 

With a max 45 watts output, the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter can be used to rapidly charge your notebook PC such as the Mi Notebook Air 13.3", Surface Book 2 or MacBook (Early 2015). You can also use the charger with the iPhone X, Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy S8, and 10.5-inch iPad Pro for a quick charge but of course they won't use the full 45 watts. Note you will need to use a Apple USB-C to Lightning Cable to charge an iPhone or iPad.

Opening up the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter packaging, we can take a good look at the charger and its accessories.

The Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter itself has foldable AC prongs and most conveniently comes with a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable. The charger supports the common 100 to 240 V AC power requirement for own charging as well as supplying the most popular DC charging voltage levels - 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V, and 20V.

The Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter comes with a single USB Type-C port that supports USB Power Delivery 2.0 that outputs up to 45 watts with these power profiles: 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps), 36 watts (12 volts @ 3 amps), 45 watts (15 volts @ 3 amps), and 45 watts (20 volts @ 2.25 amps). 

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we are able to do a quick check of the 5 PDO's that the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter supports for charging- 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps), 36 watts (12 volts @ 3 amps), 45 watts (15 volts @ 3 amps), and 45 watts (20 volts @ 2.25 amps). Note some compliance failures were observed.

DUT Information

Manufacturer	Xiaomi
Model Number	45W PD AC Adapter
Serial Number	Comm

Test Information

Date and Time:

20180226_021631

Controller and Instrument Information

Parameter	Value
GRL USB-PD_C2 Serial No.	039.019.039.027.062.
GRL USB-PD Software Version	1.3.3.8
GRL USB-PD Firmware Version	1.3.3.0.7
Board Calibration	Calibration Success.
App Mode	COMMUNICATION_ENGINE_TESTS
Tx Mask	true
Rx Mask	false
RX mask Power selection	Neutral Power
Device Type	Provider Only
Cable IR drop Imp(R)	0

Product Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
UUT_Device_Type
Vendor_Name
Product_Name
Version_Info
TID
Type_C	NONE
SOP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Capable	NONE
SOP_P_Debug_Capable	NONE
SOP_PP_Debug_Capable	NONE
Manufacturer_Info_Supported_Port
Manufacturer_Info_VID_Port
Manufacturer_Info_PID_Port
USB_Comms_Capable	NO
DR_Swap_To_DFP_Supported	NO
DR_Swap_To_UFP_Supported	NO
Externally_Powered	YES
VCONN_Swap_To_On_Supported	NONE
VCONN_Swap_To_Off_Supported	NONE
Responds_To_Discov	NONE
Attempts_Discov	NONE
Chunking_Implemented_SOP	NO
Unchunked_Extended_Messages_Supported	NO
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Src	NO
Accepts_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NO
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Src	NONE
Requests_PR_Swap_As_Snk	NONE
XID
Structured_VDM_Version
Data_Capable_as_USB_Host	NONE
Data_Capable_as_USB_Device	NONE
Product_Type_UFP_SOP
Product_Type_DFP_SOP
Modal_Operation_Supported	NONE
Security_Msgs_Supported_SOP	NO
USB_VID
PID
bcdDevice
SVIDs Min	0
SVIDs Max	0
SVID Fixed	NONE

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	NONE
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NONE
Higher_Capability_Set	NONE
Num_Snk_PDOs
PD_Power_as_Source
Rp Value
USB Suspend may be cleared	NO
Send Ping	NONE
No of Source PDOs
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Peak Current #2	0x0(A)
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
Max Current #2	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #3	Fixed
Peak Current #3	0x0(A)
Voltage #3	0xF0(12V)
Max Current #3	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #4	Fixed
Peak Current #4	0x0(A)
Voltage #4	0x12C(15V)
Max Current #4	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #5	Fixed
Peak Current #5	0x0(A)
Voltage #5	0x190(20V)
Max Current #5	0xE1(2.25A)
PD_Power_as_Sink
No_USB_Suspend_May_Be_Set	NONE
GiveBack_May_Be_Set	NONE
Higher_Capability_Set	NONE
Num_Snk_PDOs

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	BMC-PHY-TX-EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	BMC-PHY-TX-BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	BMC-PHY-RX-INT-REJ	PASS
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	BMC-PHY-RX-BUSIDL	FAIL
7	TDA.2.2.1	BMC-PROT-SEQ-GETCAPS	PASS
11	TDA.2.2.7	BMC-PROT-BIST-NOT-5V-SRC	PASS
13	TDA.2.3.1.1	POW_SRC_LOAD_P_PC	FAIL
14	TDA.2.3.2.1	POW_SRC_TRANS_P_PC	PASS
15	TDB.2.2.9	BMC-PROT-GSC-REC	FAIL

BMC Eye Diagram

We can further observe that the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter supports charging at different voltages and current levels in the load screenshot below taken from the GRL-USB-PD C2 Compliance Test Solution App.

If you need a USB Power Delivery based charger to keep most of your smaller notebook PC's, tablets, and phones charged over USB Type-C, the Mi 45W USB Type-C Power Adapter would fit well which is also travel friendly. If you need a Xiaomi charger that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology for Xiaomi phones, you can also consider the Mi 18W QC 3.0 Charger.