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The EU common charger : USB-C (europa.eu)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

233 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/3226934

The wait is finally over. From 2024, USB-C will be the common standard for electronic devices in the EU – and we have already seen the impact !

It means

🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras

⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology

🔄Reduced e-waste

One charger to rule them all.

Now, a reality.

Learn more about the #EUCommonCharger here: https://europa.eu/!hwjj3G

Unbundling the sale of a charger from the sale of the electronic device .

The 'common charging' requirements will apply to all handheld mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, portable speakers, handheld videogame consoles, e-readers, earbuds, keyboards, mice, and portable navigation systems as of 2024. These requirements will also apply to laptops as of 2026. Such transition periods will give industry sufficient time to adapt before the entry into application.

Consumers will be able to purchase a new electronic device without a new charger. This will limit the number of chargers on the market or left unused. Reducing production and disposal of new chargers is estimated to reduce the amount of electronic waste by 980 tonnes yearly

Producers will need to provide relevant visual and written information about charging characteristics, including information on the power the device requires and whether it supports fast charging. This will help consumers understand if their existing chargers meet their new device’s requirements and/or help them select a compatible charger. Combined with the other measures, this will help consumers to limit the number of new chargers purchased and save at least €250 million a year on unnecessary charger purchases.

L'attente est finalement terminée. À partir de 2024, l’USB-C deviendra la norme commune pour les appareils électroniques dans l’UE – et nous avons déjà vu son impact !

Cela signifie

🔌Le même chargeur pour tous les téléphones, tablettes et appareils photo

⚡ Technologie de charge rapide harmonisée

🔄Réduction des déchets électroniques

Un chargeur pour les gouverner tous. Maintenant, une réalité. Pour en savoir plus sur le #EUCommonCharger, cliquez ici : https://europa.eu/!hwjj3G

Les exigences de « charge commune » s'appliqueront à tous les téléphones mobiles portables, tablettes, appareils photo numériques, écouteurs, casques, haut-parleurs portables, consoles de jeux vidéo portables, liseuses électroniques, écouteurs, claviers, souris et systèmes de navigation portables à partir de 2024. Ces exigences s’appliquera également aux ordinateurs portables à partir de 2026. De telles périodes de transition donneront à l’industrie suffisamment de temps pour s’adapter avant l’entrée en application.

Les consommateurs pourront acheter un nouvel appareil électronique sans nouveau chargeur. Cela limitera le nombre de chargeurs sur le marché ou inutilisés. On estime que la réduction de la production et de l'élimination des nouveaux chargeurs permettrait de réduire la quantité de déchets électroniques de 980 tonnes par an.

Les producteurs devront fournir des informations visuelles et écrites pertinentes sur les caractéristiques de charge, y compris des informations sur la puissance requise par l'appareil et s'il prend en charge une charge rapide. Cela aidera les consommateurs à comprendre si leurs chargeurs existants répondent aux exigences de leur nouvel appareil et/ou les aidera à sélectionner un chargeur compatible. Combinée aux autres mesures, cette mesure aidera les consommateurs à limiter le nombre de nouveaux chargeurs achetés et à économiser au moins 250 millions d'euros par an sur les achats inutiles de chargeurs

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[–] [email protected] 213 points 11 months ago (9 children)

I just wish there was a standard for marking the cables, so you could look at the cable and tell what it was capable of. All the cables and chargers look the same but have wildly different capabilities.

[–] [email protected] 106 points 11 months ago (4 children)

and the naming scheme doesn't make it any better, "USB 3.2 Gen 3 with USB PD and/or CuickCharge" just doesn't make sense to rationally thinking people.

how about "USB C-C up to X amount of mbytes and 100W charging"?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And WiFi is going the opposite direction. From 802.1a/b/ax/whatever to WiFi 5, 6 etc.
(Although the MIMO chains can get a bit more complex, but still fairly simple compared to the USB bs)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

We can solve the USB mess by charging over Wi-Fi!

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Letting parts of the USB-C spec be optional was a mistake. The USB Implementers Forum has completely lost the plot on what a "standard" is supposed to accomplish!

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

These are the same folks that released "USB 3.2 Gen 2x2" as an actual name for a specification (which if I'm remembering my USB specs correctly is the current branding for the original USB 3 spec)and muddied the waters so badly that most companiesnand reviewers just state the speed of the port rather than the version

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We need something like resistor band labeling for chargers. Yellow for 1A, Green for 2A and another band for the charging standard such as PD QC3.0 and so on.

As it stands now we are going to need a station in stops to test cables.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

It's because the USB-IF is fucking terrible at their jobs and can't figure out how to name things in a meaningful way.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah i discovered that and i was extremely furious. I bought a usbc cable around 10€ and it wasn't working because the device only supported a certain type of usbc. Apparently, there is some info about information in the eu website.

But i'm not able to understand any technical part...i just want a color : yellow charger/cable go with yellow port. Etc.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

i’m not able to understand any technical part

I'll break it down for you - it's a long list but easy to understand:

Some cables have four internal wires. Others have over a dozen wires.
Some have thin wires, some have thick wires. The thick ones cost more and are less flexible - the main benefit is they can be longer while charging quickly.
Some cables have the internal wires wrapped in plastic. Others have them wrapped in plastic then that's wrapped in a metal shield, then that's wrapped in another plastic layer. The latter is more reliable and not just for the cable itself (without shielding, the cable can interfere with other electronics that are near the cable - such as your computer or phone.
Some are just ordinary cabling, and some have complex circuitry embedded in the cable to run advanced algorithms to remove noise from the cable - this is necessary to achieve high data rates at long cable lengths.
Nearly all use copper cables. A few use fibre optic cables. This can handle even longer cable lengths
Some cables are just like "whatever this will do", and others are well designed and carefully manufactured/tested/etc.

i just want a color : yellow charger/cable go with yellow port. Etc.

There would need to be something like a fifty colors. The USB standards body is pushing cable manufacturers to use labels that show data rates (gigabits per second) and power capabilities (watts) on every cable. That will help a lot, but for all the other stuff (especially shielding and general quality...) you need to rely on either brand reputation or third party tests. Even then you need to be careful, because the best brands don't put all those features in every cable (too expensive).

Also unfortunately at 10€ you get what you pay for. The better brands all charge more than that.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 11 months ago (8 children)

I really like this. Being able to just buy bunch of newest generation Type-C and using it everywhere is awesome.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The best part is that you can help your friends. :3

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

Since everyone here seems so confused by USB naming schemes, a short primer:

USB 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and USB4 are the major and minor revision number of the standard. You don't have to worry about it if you are not implementing it yourself.

The Gen number indicates the supported transfer speed, Gen 1 is 5Gbps, Gen 2 is 10, Gen 3 is 20, regardless of the spec revision.

(USB 2.0 is 480mbps)

Dual lane (Gen ?x2) means you take the speed of the Gen number and multiply it by 2.

The only major difference between USB 3 and 4 is that USB4 uses Type C plug only, whereas USB 3 can use a variety of connectors.

All USB-PD compliant cables support up to 100w of power delivery, only cables labeled as EPR (extended power range) supports up to 240w of power.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also, USB4 can optionally support PCIe tunneling, which is a fancy way of saying it supports plugging more advanced types of hardware in (like GPUs, high-speed network cards or NVMe SSDs) at speeds of up to 40Gbps.

And there is USB4 v2 (not kidding, that's the name) which extends USB4 to up to 80Gbps, but there are no devices that support that yet.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Any news on if they are going after Nintendo for it's non-standard implementation of usb-c?

[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah I think they'll definitely get in trouble for that. Nintendo's official statement that "third party chargers will void your warranty" is pretty clearly a breach of the common charger rule.

And it's not an empty claim either, some standards compliant third party chargers can actually damage a Nintendo Switch. Nintendo will have to fix that, or else their products might be banned across the EU.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A warranty is supposed to be if it is faulty then they offer to replace it (and depending on the country these stipulation about using 3rd party chargers may not be enforceable, or illegal). Nintendo needs to prove you damaged the hardware under abnormal conditions, not using a spec charger in perfectly working order.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (7 children)

I wish smartwatches were included too so that I could travel with just one charger and one cable. I guess waterproofing a USB-C port is not that easy though (for the ratings those watches usually have).

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. Wireless charging helps some of that, especially if the pad is itself connected through a USB-C cable.

Ideally, in my mind, someday phones themselves will be able to charge wireless devices, so we'll connect the phone through the USB-C cable and place the watch on top and they'll both be ready to go in the morning.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Some phones can already do that, like wireless powershare (Samsung)

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

What about wireless charging with a USB C wireless charging pad?

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (7 children)

In the US we are seeing a lot of cheap products that are supposedly USB-C. Like the flashlight I got for Christmas. But they will only charge with a USB-A to USB-C cable. They are basically USB-A chargers with a different shaped plug. They will not charge with a real USB-C cable. Is this also true in the EU?

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Some Chinese manufacturers are already working on undermining this by releasing 12V non-PD devices that use the plug. Those devices are not compatible with regular chargers and if you use their power supply for something else that device will be destroyed (because it’s designed for 5V not 12).

[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago (7 children)

The sale of those things will not be legal in the EU so no need to worry.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

To be fair, that is true of a lot of dropship stuff on Amazon and EBay already. Claiming EC marking and the like they just don't meet. The EU needs to come down hard on these market platforms. It's unfair on legitimate manufacturers and bad/unsafe for consumers.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So what is the standard fast charging solution they've choosen?

The site doesn't say.

Are we going to see USB-PD in more phones now?

I'd love to see all the different manufacturers standards bugger off.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I can’t wait for this to be a thing - we may not have any such requirements in the US but should get some advantage.

I’m just frustrated that it doesn’t seem to be happening yet. Back in September I got a new iPhone with USB-C and wanted to jump directly to USB-C everywhere, but it’s pretty rare outside of phones. I know the older full sized USB is capable for small devices, as is mini usb and micro usb, but it’s really frustrating to have to buy so many cables when we could have had a standard

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

It's probably the closest thing we have to the perfect port for every utility ever, even with its problems.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (5 children)

It sure seems like the EU has their shit together on more stuff than we do. We can only break shit that was already fixed because reasons. I know the EU is not perfect but they sure seem to get stuff right more often than not. At least Apple won’t go through the trouble of making two iPhones for no reason other than to just be an asshole.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I am a huge fan of USB-C and have been waiting for it to come to the US for years. I hope that it will be here soon and that more companies will adopt it.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (12 children)

What are you using that doesn't have it? Samsung, Apple, Dell, HP now use it on all phones, Tablets, Laptops. Playstation uses them, Vapes as well. I am unsure what XBOX uses, but usually people use a dock so I haven't looked at the plug.
Not asking as if there isn't a device out there that doesn't use it, but I don't know of any devices I can think of

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (5 children)

This is great news, the only thing I'm wondering is what happens when USB-C becomes obsolete... or if it will ever be improved upon now that there's a huge legal hurdle.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (6 children)

They'll switch it again. They changed to USB-C from MicroUSB, no reason why the standard could not be updated as necessary.

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