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Realized 99% of all my chargers are USB-C. This can only mean one thing. New USB bout to drop! (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 19 points 1 year ago (15 children)

People can hate all they want on USB-C with all these details that may be technically true, but the only issue I've had in years is with chargers varying in power output and occasionally that means I try to charge something that either takes forever or never charges. It's an edge case and I consider it a charger issue, not a cable one...

Life is definitely simpler now with USB-C being pretty standard, and Lightning cables can burn in hell. Those anti-standard bullshits have caused me to buy a dozen of them for friends and test devices (I'm a web dev) and yet I've never owned a mobile Apple product and never would. Fuck Lightning -- cannot possibly say it enough. I'm glad the EU agrees.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    that means I try to charge something that either takes forever or never charges.

    That's a pretty significant failure IMO.

    I don't want to go back, but I want shit be labeled and work. You go to bed and wake up to a 7yo on a trip with a dead device, you're going to have a bad day.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    It's not a failure to default to a safe level if it can't negotiate properly. That's a feature.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    That's if the manufacturer doesn't just install a max wattage chip in every cable.

    Unfortunately this is not uncommon.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I'm not extremely familiar with the USB-C handshake, but isn't it between the device and power supply?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    It used to be that simple. You could put a certain value of resistor between two pins and that was that.

    This guy covered it quite well

    https://superuser.com/questions/1555520/what-can-a-program-find-out-about-a-usb-c-cable-attached-to-the-computer

    In brief, Type-C cable specs are nearly independent from USB data and USB Power Delivery (Type-C can support anything).

    By specs, Type-C connector/cable provides two methods of self-identification.

    First one is by combination of resistor pulls-up and pulls-down on both sides of CC wires. Since there are two CC pins in Type-C connectors, and several analog levels, many combinations are available. Other than connect function itself and basic determination of source-sink roles and power capacity, several "alternate" functions are defined, as Display Port, Audio, and Debug mode.

    The second amendment to Type-C is the mandatory embedding of e-markers into every C-C cable. >The information in e-marker contains name of manufacturer and current carrying capability of particular cable.

    The state of CC1/CC2 pins is usually acquired by a special CC-controller chip. The CC-controller communicates with main system by I2C interface. The register-based interface is standardized in Intel document USB Type-C Connector System Software Interface Specification

    So, many manufacturers are including markers with maximum settings that exceed the wires'/cables' capability.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    But it's not really a failure of the cable (typically, I know there are edge cases but I don't think I've run into them recently). In a perfect world, it possibly plugging in means it works as expected I guess, but I think it's a better tradeoff to expect users to know that some devices require a bit more power, and have a plug that still works universally. "This charger doesn't have enough power" is easy enough to be understood by a 90 yo I would think.

    Chargers should be labelled with the output they provide (mine are), but you are right, devices probably should be labelled better with what they require.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Admittedly, i've only had a couple cable problems and one of those would have likely been labeled wrong as they were cheap cables with max wattage programmed.

    One of my users came to me with a C-C phone cable that had used between a MacBook pro and a Mac charger. "This got really hot and started to stink when I used it"

    uhh, crap, here have this handed them a 6 foot 100w cable and please throw that old one away I'll give you a new phone cable too.

    My other problem is with QC on random cables. I have some 6' that won't pass 25w. I have a Klein tester that will enumerate wattage. I throw away cables that won't at least support fast charging.

    I also have a couple Samsung trio wireless multi-device chargers, they insonsistent. If I use the 45 watt Samsung brick that came with it it works fine. If I use any other brick, it refuses to use anything but a full on 65 watt charger. I don't know if they ignore the spec, or enumerate differently, maybe they give a different output on 9v than others, but we need to have this overall issue with compatibility and semi-functional usage that just feels janky.

    I hope that eventually with GaN and other tech that everything will just do 100w or maybe all devices will go down to only needing 45 watt. It would be super nice if everything just played well together.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    won’t pass 25w

    Reminded of what looked to be a great deal on USB-C cables from a major manufacturer (Anker I think).

    Fine print: not for MacBook Pro yaddayadda! Yeah the things can’t hang for it. Gotta spend way more.

    I wonder what the best cable labeling solution is for new cables purchased with known specs. Bet a handful of well-resourced geeks do their own printing right on them.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Did you know that USB C cables can be unidirectional? As in, they only work plugged in in one direction. You know how I know that? Cause I’ve soldered usb-c cables myself. I own one that only plugs in in one direction (and works)! I’m honestly very surprised you’ve only had issues with charging, do you not need them for data? So many of my cables are charging only, they literally do not function for data at all. It’s a nightmare.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I've had exacrly 5x more failures of USB C ports than I've had of micro that is 5, and 1), and I've had way more micro devices over a much longer period (and still have some). It may technically be a "better" port, but my experience doesn't reflect that.

    I have to label cables and chargers because some C devices today still don't support all charging specs, so I have to verify a device charges on a charger to know for sure.

    At what point shouldn't a device be able to negotiate down to the lowest charge capability, instead of not charge at all? That the spec permits this to happen is a major failure.

    It's fantastic that C is the convergence standard, but let's not act like it's close to perfect. I have to verify with every device I use if the charger actually works for it, and not just "is the charger powerful enough", but "does it actually charge even though I know it should because it supports all the capabilities as the device".

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I don't know why but my luck has been nearly opposite to yours. The only thing close I've had to your experience was I had a USBC port on my phone get dirty once and I had to clean it out. 0 actual hardware failures and very few charger problems

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