Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

debugger.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 624 posts

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#61

Post by 4sak3n »

izacus wrote: post #34
vr46 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. All my apple kit works fine off t…

> Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. It has worked reliably with pre…

I think you'll find that if you do even a small amount of research you will find that this is not the case. There are many sources which confirm this, many of them official. Your comment amounts to: "Well since it hasn't happened to me then it can't possibly be true." Really?

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#62

Post by Causality1 »

I hate the mess. You look at a type c port and you have no idea what it can do. I have a phone that can use it to move data at USB 2 speeds and supports Display Link video output. I have a phone that can output HDMI and charge while doing it using the proper adapter. I have a tablet that can't charge over it. I have another tablet that can charge over it but only at 400mA and uses a different port to charge at full speed.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#63

Post by wlesieutre »

sandworm101 wrote: post #20

Don't worry. USB-C and associated standards are five+ years old now. Some new standards will be along soon enough. Then we will all have to buy new chargers/cables/devices again, continuing the cycle of chasing the universal bus nirvana. https://www.pocket-lint.com/laptops/news/intel/147329-usb-4-... >> The USB 4 specification was published in late 2019 and will probably appear in devices in late 2020 or early 2021 -…

Thunderbolt becomes part of the USB spec, everything else stays the same, and you're planning to throw out your devices and buy new ones?

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#64

Post by FatalLogic »

Would it be possible for our existing USB-C interfaces (software and hardware) to provide more information to the user? I mean, could the UI tell us:

(1) Your external device is and it requests power at 12V, minimum 15W, up to 40W, and it requests data at up to 100Mbps down/5Mbps up

(2) Your cable promises to accept power at up to 25W, and data at up to 40Mbps bidirectional

(3) I can offer power up to 60W, and data up to 500M/100M

And, this is what we have negotiated (and what appears to be working):

Data: 40M/5Mbps and Power: 12V/25W from host

* *

Is that feasible? It would be nice.

I don't agree USB-C is a 'total mess' (the physical interface is quite good), but it is a sad disappointment. I hope it will get better.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#65

Post by tdsamardzhiev »

majewsky wrote: post #45
izacus wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. It has worked reliably with pre…

I have a 2018 Switch and it works well with all chargers I've tested so far (mostly Apple and Lenovo besides the one that came with the Swift). My guess is that the problems that existed in the original hardware were fixed in a subsequent hardware revision.

So does mine, 3 years and counting.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#66

Post by falcolas »

philplckthun wrote: post #48
vr46 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. All my apple kit works fine off t…

I think it's fine to point out the Thunderbolt mess, or the PD vs non-PD devices (although non-PD is becoming exceedingly rare as far as I can tell at least for "larger" devices), but using the Nintendo Switch seems like a bad example in my opinion, since it explicitly does not follow all USB standards, especially in fact on charging.

And yet it's a USB-C plug that, on the surface, appears to charge from USB-C chargers just fine. Nintendo is to blame, but it hurts the USB-C landscape.

Plus, Nintendo is far from the only offender in the USB-C space.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#67

Post by duxup »

I love it... it has simplified things for me a great deal.

There are some misc technical issues but as more and more devices only use USB-C things are getting simpler and simpler for me.

Without a formal docking station both my laptops dock with a single USB-C, video, power, keyboard and mouse and all (FINALLY!).

All my USB-C devices charge at a reasonable (even if not consistent) rate, all of them can take any of my batteries I can carry with a single cable.

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#69

Post by [deleted] »

jeremymcanally wrote: post #4

Really? I find it to be a game changer for me. The fact that my laptop, Switch, iPad, and several other devices can all share a charge has made my life much easier. I can just sprinkle a few of them throughout the house and never be without power. Before it was always a hunt to find a cable, or I had to be in [x] room to charge [y] device because that's where the charger lived. Plus, I can charge my MacBook on either…

[deleted]

Re: USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess

#70

Post by mnky9800n »

sq_ wrote: post #50
jeremymcanally wrote: post #4

Really? I find it to be a game changer for me. The fact that my laptop, Switch, iPad, and several other devices can all share a charge has made my life much easier. I can just sprinkle a few of them throughout the house and never be without power. Before it was always a hunt to find a cable, or I had to be in [x] room to charge [y] device because that's where the charger lived. Plus, I can charge my MacBook on either…

100% agree with you on how convenient USB-C can make things. Being able to carry one 60-90w brick with multiple USB-C PD outputs and charge pretty much all of my devices off of it is amazing. On the other hand, I would say that all of us here on HN probably aren't the target audience for this article. Collectively, I'd say HN readers are likely to understand that different USB-C bricks, cables, and devices are going…

But I think this is a problem when the elkjøp guy gave my wife the wrong usb-c cable for charging her phone.
Post reply on HN