It's so refreshing to read an article that starts out like a rant and ends with an actually pretty decent solution. I look forward to the day when all my devices can tell me if the cable I've plugged in is good enough or not
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How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
51–60 of 210 posts
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Except that even Apple forgot certain options in their 50$ USB-C charger and it is therefore non-compliant with specification. Apparently USB-C is hard. source: https://twitter.com/USBCGuy
Yeah that’s a whole extra layer of fun. On top of the incompatible matrix of protocols you’ve got all of these devices (the Apple charger, the Nintendo Switch Dock, the Raspberry Pi 4, probably any number of cheap gadgets with bad USB-C ports) that don’t even work with things they should be compatible with.
USB-C is the wild godammned west.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#53Earlier 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.
it isn't the 'i've got no f*g idea why it's working' kind, it's the 'they've finally managed to get it working and it really does work' kind.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
My understanding of Dell's implementation is that the TB port has a little thunderbolt next to it while the usb-c one doesn't.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#55After buying a screen which has only a USB-C DP-Alt-Mode input, I was recently in the market for a matching cable. My only requirements were “it should be as long as possible, at least 2 meters” and “it needs to support DP-Alt-Mode”. Now I thought this would be easy, just ask Google what kind of cable I need, right...? Well... no. Not at all. I wasn’t able to find any information whatsoever what kind of USB-C cable i…
«But is a 5Gbps cable enough? Or is a 10Gbps cable needed?»
Here is the answer: if you need DisplayPort 1.0-1.2, a 5 Gbps cable is enough.
If you need DP 1.3-1.4 (where they upped the transfer rate for higher resolution and fps,) you need a 10 Gbps cable.
If you need DP 2.0 (I don't think products are out yet, the standard was finalized last month,) you will need a USB4 20 Gbps cable.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't honestly know why anyone would design a product that used 100W via USB. Even without the issue of dodgy cables, it just sounds like a bad idea and a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist. If I ever ran across such a product I would question their other engineering decisions and pass on the purchase.
This is used for charging laptops. Personally, I love having a single cable for power, USB, and DisplayPort.
Most laptop chargers are 65W, some are 95W, I haven't seen one over 100W. USB-C Power Delivery can do 100W (20V, 5A). More than 100W for the 1 in a million user is not the target of USB consortium.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#57After buying a screen which has only a USB-C DP-Alt-Mode input, I was recently in the market for a matching cable. My only requirements were “it should be as long as possible, at least 2 meters” and “it needs to support DP-Alt-Mode”. Now I thought this would be easy, just ask Google what kind of cable I need, right...? Well... no. Not at all. I wasn’t able to find any information whatsoever what kind of USB-C cable i…
The answer is supposed to be easy; it's "you need to buy one of those really expensive USB-C Thunderbolt 3 cables, because those cables—the ones that do everything—are supposed to be the only type of USB-C cables."
USB-C cables are supposed to be universal, i.e. have all the features, all the time; and thus, USB-C cables should (in 2019) be very expensive. Any USB-C cable that isn't very expensive (in 2019) isn't following the standard.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#58After buying a screen which has only a USB-C DP-Alt-Mode input, I was recently in the market for a matching cable. My only requirements were “it should be as long as possible, at least 2 meters” and “it needs to support DP-Alt-Mode”. Now I thought this would be easy, just ask Google what kind of cable I need, right...? Well... no. Not at all. I wasn’t able to find any information whatsoever what kind of USB-C cable i…
> It needs to support DP-Alt-Mode
For future reference, a Thunderbolt 3 cable (which is USB-C connector) will work.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#59I have never encountered a C-to-C cable with only USB 2 support. Are they are really a thing?
Apple calls them charging cables. The advantage is they are less expensive for longer lengths.
They're less expensive, they're more flexible, and if you want to go to 3 meters long you don't have to worry about signal integrity.
Re: How many kinds of USB-C to USB-C cables are there?
#60This 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…
I don't see your point. Devices are free to support or not support whatever capabilities they want. Having a specific port is no guarantee that the device will use this or that capability offered over that port; mostly it's a guarantee it'll use at least one capability offered by that port.
The problem with USB-C is that many of the cables don't do everything. Nobody else is complaining that the devices don't do everything. Devices have never done everything possible under the communications standards they support.
Would you expect a monitor that supports HDMI2.0, to be a 4K monitor, just because HDMI2.0 supports 4K monitors? I would think not.