How to Safeguard Your USB-C Ports

The USB spec requires USB ports to hold up to a short circuit, and some do better than others. Some manufacturers meet the minimums and no more.

Most likely the source USB device will have internal short circuit protection for bad connections but you can always add your own for external device ...

A hub should be reasonably-good protection. Shorting a USB port usually won't permanently kill it. Usually they shut-down safely when shorted ...

In a short circuit situation external to the USB host port the overcurrent protection device limits the amount of current that the USB device can draw from the ...

Many motherboards uses PTC thermal cutout as the short circuit protection for the USB ports. This device go into high impedance state when its ...

The simplest solution that I think of is PTC resettable fuses. they're cheap, effective and easy to implant to an existing project. Upvote 1

Here's what I have done: Cut a USB cable and splice VCC and GND. This is easy to accomplish using just a charging cable as it doesn't have leads for data.

This application note outlines how to implement the RT1735 to safeguard your USB Type-C ports effectively.

Engineers have two choices: add an external protection chip or select a USB Type-C/USB PD Controller with CC/SBU lines rated for 24 V or more. Let's look into ...