While I have type-C rechargeable lights on hand, in my place a type-C to type-C cable is still a rarity and I myself don’t even own one of these connectors so I can’t say yet, though I have a type-C out usb charging port and eventually might try one just to own one!
Without a USB C coding chip on the flashlight, the input will always be managed by a common ~5V to 4.2V converter or CC/CV charging chip. Most USB C chargers nowadays are strictly power delivery output only, be it 5, 9, 12, 15 or 20V. They won’t send power unless a signal is detected on the other end.
However, if you manage to find old cables or chargers which were stuck with the 5V3A usb c standard or do not have modern safety built in, they will work.
The dangers of having such cables laying around is if you mistakenly connect them to your smartphone or laptop there’s risk of damaging them when paired with the wrong charger.
Anyways, my Olight X7R will charge with all of the USB A-C cables I have with any A port. However when connected with a C to C cable which is rated for USB 3.1+Power delivery, it only works with a powerbank that permanently puts out 5V on the USB C port. When used with a Thunderbolt 3 C-C cable it does not work at all.
Judging from the results posted so far, it looks like this is a problem across the board. In my opinion it is not a huge problem, but in the spirit of being helpful, I’m proposing an idea: A small board with USB-C (female) input and USB-C (male) output, with 5.1K ohm resistors installed in such a way that the USB-C PD source is convinced to provide at least 5v at 2 amps or so. Perhaps the deluxe version would allow the user to manipulate some DIP switches and choose the charge rate.
You could do it that way if you wanted to, but you don’t have to.
Using a USB-C plug to USB-A socket adaptor with the USB-A plug to USB-C plug cable that comes with those lights will work. The adaptor is supposed to have the necessary 5.1kΩ resistor built in.
Note: the adaptor needs to be plugged into the USB-C charger. It won’t work if you connect things up the other way round, because the USB-C charger won’t be able to detect the 5.1kΩ resistor on the far side of the USB-A connection.
An advantage of owning the adaptor is that you can also use it to charge an older USB device that comes with a USB-A plug to USB-B / Mini-B / Micro-B plug cable.
En using USB-C to maximize charging power, the computer needs to have USB 3.1. If you have USB 3.0 will charge only 1.8Amps. USB 2.0 much less and I don't think will even charge at all in USB 1.0.
Quote from Google
USB 3.1 Type-C cables offer a transfer rate of 10Gbps, which is double the transfer speed of USB 3.0 (5 Gbps). Additionally, these cables will offer 20 volts and 5 amps of power, compared with the 5 volts and 1.8 amps of its predecessor.Mar 12, 2015
OK, so your Olight doesn’t charge with a Thunderbolt 3 C-C cable — but we know the cable is not the issue. What charger / power source is that cable attached to?
USB-C may be a good thing if it supplants Micro-USB (connector-wise), but in every other respect, it carries the same baggage as past standards, and will get even worse as the USB-IF piles more of them on top.
At least in the past, it was reasonably easy to determine the purpose and capability of a cable just by looking at it. With USB-C, good luck with that.
Does it support fast charging? Fast transfers? Both? Neither?
And by not making the baseline so that USB-C must support higher standards like 3.0 or better, it still forces one to carry around extra cables, or carefully select the proper types for intended use. They could have taken the cable guesswork out of the equation, and just left it to devices, by making the former meet a certain minimum standard.
Classic committee-think, with an eye toward being cheap, rather than good.
They’re not when I have to specifically buy a 3.0 cable to connect my computer to my drive enclosure for it to operate as intended.
The majority of them are 2.0 cables, which is fine for users who care more about fast charging their phones, but not as data cables.
The USB-IF could have made all USB-C cables meet 3.0 at a minimum, but it didn’t. What sense did it make to create a fancy new connector to usher in the new era of fast data, and then allow cables using the same connector to be gimped to 2.0 speeds? That’s not full forward progress.
And there’s the silliness of the whole 3.x Gen1/Gen2 naming scheme, which is a separate issue, created by geeks, for geeks. The average Joe who has.a hard time telling if their phone is fast charging stands no chance trying to sort out that mess.
There are 6 different types of USB-C to USB-C cables and they all look the same, it’s without doubt one of the worst cable standards I’ve ever encountered.
I have encountered at least one device (Canon EOS R camera) which will not charge from an incorrect type of “USB-C” cable.
In case it helps at all, the only light I’ve heard of which probably does work with a C-to-C cable is the Fenix PD36R. And I haven’t even been able to 100% confirm if it works. But based on the info I’ve found, it sounds like it probably does.
Otherwise, it seems to be the norm that lights require an A-to-C cable for charging.