I currently work on a ThinkPad T450, after switching back from Dell XPS series recently. It’s a decent piece of hardware in general, it has everything I could expect from an ultrabook except for one tiny little detail. For me, the main reason to upgrade to a newer model would be the USB C port so I could have a single power adapter for all my devices. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix it.

I’ve made a USB C to Dell converter using PD Buddy Sink before, and it worked great. The board costs around $45 including shipping to EU, and I would highly recommend it. However, I’ve found a smaller and cheaper alternative to PD Buddy Sink from China. The converter above is made using ZY12PDS, you can get it for less than $15 including shipping worldwide. It’s a bit less flexible than the PD Buddy Sink since it allows you to choose only 9, 12, 15 or 20 V (20 V is the default setting), but it’s just good enough to power most of your devices.

Warning notice: please double check the polarity after soldering the Lenovo plug to avoid damaging your laptop’s mainboard.