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How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

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Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#31

Post by falcolas »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #19
crispyambulance wrote: post #10

So frustrating. One would think that after nearly 2 decades of consumer confusion over USB cables that it would be possible to just mark the cables in a clear way with a non-confusing, easily looked up logo (or better, with a alphanumeric-code). It makes me wonder if manufacturers are just doing this to increase the churn of cable sales, so consumers end up buying more cables because "some work and some don't".

That or it's a spectacular example of committee design failure. I can't tell what runs deeper: evil or stupidity. :D

"Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

I don't have an attribution, but it's an apt quote.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#32

Post by Causality1 »

msbarnett wrote: post #7

This only seems to be counting USB-C to USB-C USB 3 cables The actual situation is much worse when you add in passive and active C-to-C Thunderbolt, MHL, DP, and HDMI cables, some but not all combinations of which may or may not optionally support some but not all combinations of other signals as well — eg) a passive TB3 C-to-C cable will support DP and USB3 (but not MHL or HDMI), but an active TB3 C-to-C cable will…

It's a bloody goddamned nightmare. For example, a brief review of my devices:

>Phone A. Type-C port limited to USB 2 data speeds but supports HDMI out via DisplayLink.

>Phone B. Type-C port that supports USB 3.1 speeds but doesn't do video out.

>Tablet A. Type-C port that supports USB 3 speeds but only charges through a MicroUSB port.

>Tablet B. Type-C port that supports USB 3 speeds and charging, but only charges at 0.8 amps through the type-C port and relies on a pogo-pin dock for actual 15-watt charging.

That's not even mentioning all the devices that advertise one thing and then break the standard in a hundred different ways like the Switch.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#33

Post by zokier »

I'd prefer if articles like this tried to nudge the tech community towards using the (imho) clearer nomenclature recommended by USB-IF: “High Speed USB” for 480Mbps products, “SuperSpeed USB” for 5Gbps products, “SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps” for 10Gbps products and “SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps” for 20Gbps products, instead of USB X.Y Gen Z which is sort of ambiguous.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#34

Post by manacit »

msbarnett wrote: post #29
manacit wrote: post #13

I've had a USB-C capable device (MBP) for a few years now, and it originally was extremely annoying. Needing dongles for _everything_ was annoying, and getting rid of Magsafe meant a lot of my existing chargers that I'd accumulated no longer worked. My work laptop (at the time) didn't use USB-C, so I had to keep two chargers around, and I couldn't charge my iPhone from my laptop at all. Fast forward a few years and I…

With a MacBook Pro it’s not so bad, because rather than try to save a few cents Apple wired every USB-C port for everything that it supports, so there’s no real distinction between ports (but you still need to distinguish between very similar looking cables that handle, say USB 3.0 in one case and an active TB3 40 Gbps in another) It’s at the low end of the market that USB-C is an entire mess. This port on your lapto…

If I'm remembering correctly, it's not that far off from the (blue?) color coding with the USB A connector to indicate USB 3 support for particular ports? Either way, when power gets involved as well, that is a terrible user experience.

I had a friend bring over a Dell laptop with a USB C port that I naively assumed had TB3 support (it was listed as being "optional" on Dell's website). Turns out that the only way to actually know was to either watch it not work with a Dock, or to go into the BIOS and witness some missing settings that indicated TB3 support was not present.

For better or for worse, though, that's a manufacturer problem - they could have easily just not allowed _any_ USB C charging and stuck with an AC adapter, or spent the extra coin to make all of the ports work with a TB controller, etc. Companies have been making user-hostile decisions in the name of cost cuttings (1366x768 screens in 2018) forever, it seems like USB C is just another avenue for that.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#35

Post by falcolas »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #30
baq wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because when it does it's magic. you connect one cable to a dock and your laptop becomes a desktop.

Maybe I'm just old, but having worked in IT for pretty much my entire working life I've come to the conclusion that "Magic" is not a good thing.

There's another phrase for "Magic": Single Point of Failure

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#36

Post by Ductapemaster »

manacit wrote: post #13

I've had a USB-C capable device (MBP) for a few years now, and it originally was extremely annoying. Needing dongles for _everything_ was annoying, and getting rid of Magsafe meant a lot of my existing chargers that I'd accumulated no longer worked. My work laptop (at the time) didn't use USB-C, so I had to keep two chargers around, and I couldn't charge my iPhone from my laptop at all. Fast forward a few years and I…

Out of curiosity, what USB-C dock do you have? I am in the market for one.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#39

Post by zokier »

delish wrote: post #5

For anyone else who was confused by: > A USB 3.0 capable USB-B plug was physically larger than a 2.0 plug and would not fit into a USB 2.0-only receptacle. recall that it's this USB-hubby one: https://www.amazon.com/TNP-SuperSpeed-Connector-Bi-Direction...

Oh, don't forget the sort of weirdo micro-USB 3 connector: https://www.droid-life.com/2013/09/26/yes-the-galaxy-note-3-...

It is admirable to try to maintain backwards compatibility, but still it is pretty strange connector for mass consumer market.

Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?

#40

Post by derekp7 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #17
wmf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is used for charging laptops. Personally, I love having a single cable for power, USB, and DisplayPort.

You ever wonder what the purpose of keying connectors is? I'm curious, because it's one of those time-tested ways to ensure that things get plugged into the correct ports and avoid costly accidents. Really simple too. Why on earth is a standard as ridiculously complicated as USB-C a better idea? What is the practical value of an "everything" connector when its spec is so complicated that it really doesn't support "ev…

For low volume production items, the plastics are more costly to design than the electronics. Therefore laptop docking stations are expensive to manufacture, especially as they are in use by only a subset of users.

By converting to a docking station that requires a simple small plug for everything, that makes them much cheaper. Instead of making a huge chunk of plastic that the laptop has to click into.

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