We built an open USB-C Power Delivery analyzer and programmable sink
Title: Show HN: We built an open USB-C Power Delivery analyzer and programmable sink Hi HN! We’re Arbi, Marco, and Rob, and we built Dr. PD to make USB-C power problems easier to understand. It sits between a power source and device, captures and decodes their USB-PD negotiation, and correlates it with voltage and current measurements. It can also act as a programmable sink, with support for fixed supplies, PPS, AVS, and USB-PD 3.2 EPR up to 240 W. Commercial USB-PD analyzers are often priced beyond the reach of hobbyists and independent designers. We are on a mission to make high-quality…
What it does
In the maker’s words, at launch
Title: Show HN: We built an open USB-C Power Delivery analyzer and programmable sink Hi HN! We’re Arbi, Marco, and Rob, and we built Dr. PD to make USB-C power problems easier to understand. It sits between a power source and device, captures and decodes their USB-PD negotiation, and correlates it with voltage and current measurements. It can also act as a programmable sink, with support for fixed supplies, PPS, AVS, and USB-PD 3.2 EPR up to 240 W. Commercial USB-PD analyzers are often priced beyond the reach of hobbyists and independent designers. We are on a mission to make high-quality test equipment more accessible. Dr. PD’s hardware, firmware, software, libraries, and documentation are all open source. Hardware and software are ready, and all the source and design files are available on our GitHub repo [1]. We’re also preparing to launch it through Crowd Supply [2], where you can also sign up to be notified when it becomes available. The host software runs locally in Chrome without drivers, accounts, or cloud services. Dr. PD also supports SCPI over USBTMC, Python and JavaScript libraries, capture export, and external oscilloscope synchronization. We have a full set of documentation [3], which includes a user guide, programming references, interactive schematics, and detailed hardware design notes. Happy to answer all your questions! You can also reach us at [email protected]. [1] https://github.com/T76-org/drpd [2] https://www.crowdsupply.com/t76-org/dr-pd [3] https://t76.org/drpd/docs
Does the same job
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We built a multi-port USB-C PD3.2 system that treats power delivery as a software-defined problem rather than fixed-function silicon. This started as our internal R&D platform while developing a consumer charger. We were uncomfortable with the typical “the FAE handles the firmware, you just build the hardware” model that dominates the PD ecosystem. In that model, key behavior lives in vendor-controlled binaries, arbitration rules are opaque, and meaningful customization is either discouraged or impossible. We wanted full ownership of the system — from power stage to protocol logic — and we…



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Launched alongside, August 2026
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Life & fun · Aug 2026 · toneyalexander.github.io


I trained a 125M-parameter transformer to autocomplete piano performances in real time (~108 notes/sec on an iPhone 15). The idea is basically GitHub Copilot or Tabnine, except instead of prompting it with code, you prompt it by playing a few notes on a MIDI piano. The model then continues what you played, entirely on-device. The app is free if anyone wants to try it. Happy to answer questions about the model, training, Core ML, or the many things that didn't work.
AI · 17d ago · simedw.com