Daily WTF: USB-C PD Edition

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

About a year ago I’ve upgraded my home server setup to AOOSTAR WTR PRO. It had its share of problems at the start, which sadly included sata instability on port 3. I had an email conversation with aoostar support, and they even sent me a replacement backplane which did not fix the problem. Eventually they’ve sent a new firmware, which kind of helped to the extent. For lack of the better hypothesis I’m now of the opinion that ATA LPM is to blame.

One thing I haven’t tried then is to run this thing from an USB-C power supply. The documentation claims it’s possible, I briefly tried plugging it into Apple’s USB-C brick (heavy version), but the server would not start properly - it looks like it’s running out of power mid-startup, on repeat. I stopped experimenting and forgot about it.

Now I’ve decided to upgrade my UPS setup, and for that I went with BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station. It was on sale (still is), there’s some content on the internet on how to integrate it with the rest of the stuff, so I thought why not. And it has the USB-C PD output ports.

You can guess where it’s going.

These USB ports don’t do shit with the server. It loses power 3 seconds into boot and starts again. I tried plugging it through power-z but I don’t see anything wrong, it negotiates for 20V and tries dutifully to pull less than 100W, which is the same it does over AC. But still it doesn’t work.

I’m pretty sure a more lengthy debug session is in order. Maybe it’s because the port is wonky? Or maybe it’ll start working if I eject all the hard drives? Or there’s something wrong with Bluetti’s implementation, although my phones work fine with it.

Bottom line is, I just want things to work properly, I don’t want every fucking interaction to require a debugging session.

USB-C on Think before you push the button

Daily WTF: USB-C PD Edition