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EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

engadget.com

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Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#561

Post by tediousdemise »

baq wrote: post #556
tediousdemise wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of sad to me that Apple doesn't make Lightning an open standard. In all my years, I haven't had a single Lightning connector fail on me. The solid metal where the contacts reside is just too robust to wear out or get damaged (unless you somehow step on it the right way or let it corrode). USB-C connectors, on the other hand, seems to loosen after a rather small number mates and de-mates, leading people to u…

The cables though… they used to be a joke. I’ve wrapped mine with electrical tape near ends so they last longer.

Definitely, those Apple-supplied cables suck hard. Adding little tension relief springs[0] to the ends can protect them if you don't want to buy another (or more robust) cable and create more e-waste. You can find the springs in clicky pens.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIo8xGTUX0

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#562

Post by kingrazor »

cmckn wrote: post #418

I kind of understand this from an e-waste angle, but why (as a consumer) do I care if different phones use the same cable? I only have one phone. Even if I get a new phone every year, unless I’m switching back and forth between iPhones and Androids, I’m not having to buy new cables. If I go to a public place, and need to plug my phone in, I can already do that regardless of the connector on the phone end. If a friend…

I also wonder about this. Every device I've ever bought that needs either a charger or an AC adapter has come with its own power/charging cable. I've never had the desire for them to all have the same connector. I just keep the charger with the device. When I buy a new device, I expect it to come with the cable necessary to power or charge it.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#563

Post by throw0101a »

tediousdemise wrote: post #545
bloppe wrote: post #485

A lot of people saying "USB-C cables aren't even compatible with each other!" (Nintendo switch etc.) Guess what: that's exactly the problem this regulation is intended to solve. Fake USB-C cables like Nintendo's that have the right shape but do not adhere to spec should gradually disappear along with lightning cables. The regulation actually says that cables can no longer be bundled with the devices themselves, so Ni…

It's kind of sad to me that Apple doesn't make Lightning an open standard. In all my years, I haven't had a single Lightning connector fail on me. The solid metal where the contacts reside is just too robust to wear out or get damaged (unless you somehow step on it the right way or let it corrode). USB-C connectors, on the other hand, seems to loosen after a rather small number mates and de-mates, leading people to u…

> In all my years, I haven't had a single Lightning connector fail on me. The solid metal where the contacts reside is just too robust to wear out or get damaged (unless you somehow step on it the right way or let it corrode).

I'm on my second phone where the Lightning connector barely works anymore. 'Thankfully' this one support Qi so I can charge wireless, but if I want to do a wired backup or upgrade I have to jiggle the cable like mad to get any kind of connection.

YMMV.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#564

Post by sagarm »

Aerroon wrote: post #427
pkulak wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own a tablet and a laptop, by chance? Maybe have 3 other family members, each with some combination of said three devices? That can quickly become a lot of household chargers if they are all different.

But the problem will still be exactly the same, because not all USB-C cables are created equal. We've basically set in stone a standard that is so varied that the standardization means nothing. And that's before you get into any component actually wearing out and giving you degraded performance on the device or cable.

Practically it's not. We have probably a dozen USB-C devices in our home and many more chargers of varying wattage scattered about, and the only time I've had to think about the cable was for my TB3 dock. In fact, I worry more about cable lengths to minimize clutter.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#565

Post by floxy »

pornel wrote: post #91
2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea's nice. I'll still have about 30 unusable micro-USB chargers lying around, though.

Cables, not chargers. Your chargers are USB-A, and you can make them usable with an A-to-C cable. There are no chargers with micro-USB output port (USB never specified such thing). Micro-USB has been designed to make cables essentially disposable (and not meant to be hardwired into any device), because the more robust side of the connector is in the device's port, and the fragile side is in the cable.

>There are no chargers with micro-USB output port

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=microusb+AC+adapter&t=ffab&iar=ima...

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#566

Post by kashyapc »

USB-C for laptop power ports seems to be incredibly flaky. :-( Let me share my ongoing horror story (excuse the verbosity):

I've got a barely 3-months old Lenovo X1 Carbon (Gen-9) work laptop. A week ago I noticed the battery draining while the power cord is plugged in! Nothing worked: reset via the pinhole at the back, trying out different chargers, BIOS update, charging while the OS (Linux) is shut down, "to eliminate 'rogue' applications". The battery just doesn't charge.

We've got premium support, so a Lenovo technician came two days later and replaced the motherboard. Great! The root cause: USB-C power port got short-circuited somehow. "This is a common problem with USB-C for power ports; I go around replacing 2 motherboards a week," the technician said.

Now, the laptop's new motherboard worked fine for a week ... and I woke up this morning to notice the laptop's battery not charging at all (yes, again!), while the power cord is plugged in. I call up Lenovo, and the support guy confirms: "the power port seems to be short-circuited again, this time let's replace both the motherboard and also the power adapter". FFS, tomorrow morning I have long-distance travel, and I'm left with this bloody brick. Speak of timing.

I want to think this is just plain bad luck, but the Lenovo support forums are full of similar problems, and two other colleagues independently confirmed the same issue. The Lenovo technician blamed this on USB-C. I wish they retained the more robust rectangular power port; but they're phasing them out to comply with EU regulation.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#567

Post by Larrikin »

baq wrote: post #556
tediousdemise wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of sad to me that Apple doesn't make Lightning an open standard. In all my years, I haven't had a single Lightning connector fail on me. The solid metal where the contacts reside is just too robust to wear out or get damaged (unless you somehow step on it the right way or let it corrode). USB-C connectors, on the other hand, seems to loosen after a rather small number mates and de-mates, leading people to u…

The cables though… they used to be a joke. I’ve wrapped mine with electrical tape near ends so they last longer.

I think at some point they changed the material.

I had never had a single cord fray on me except every single Apple supplied white cord for years, until suddenly I no longer had that problem. Don't know what changed but glad it did

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#568

Post by akira2501 »

leadingthenet wrote: post #506
bloppe wrote: post #485

A lot of people saying "USB-C cables aren't even compatible with each other!" (Nintendo switch etc.) Guess what: that's exactly the problem this regulation is intended to solve. Fake USB-C cables like Nintendo's that have the right shape but do not adhere to spec should gradually disappear along with lightning cables. The regulation actually says that cables can no longer be bundled with the devices themselves, so Ni…

> Let's say the USB consortium releases USB-D with input from Apple, Google, and many other stakeholders [...] If you have to make such an argument, you've already lost. Innovation, particularly disruptive and / or breakthrough innovation, does not happen by committee, no matter how many times over history people tried deluding themselves into thinking that it does. So no, it's not fine.

> Innovation, particularly disruptive and / or breakthrough innovation

We are talking about power cables here. Are you anticipating something major in this space? Is it reasonable to do so?

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#569

Post by jethro_tell »

mrjin wrote: post #78
stewx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with the Nintendo Switch is that Nintendo designed their own faulty USB-C charging implementation rather than merely using the reference design. It's not a failure of the spec, it's a failure to adhere to the spec. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16706803

It's obviously the failure of the spec. Why cables with different capabilities have to look exactly the same? Put the looking aside, I wondering if anyone can tell what's the exact differences between different specs? USB standards are already a mass, USB-C just made things 10 times if not 100 times worse.

lol, no they just didn't implement the spec.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#570

Post by izacus »

smoldesu wrote: post #474
miohtama wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Macbook Pro charger charges Nintendo Switch, so maybe this was fixed later? Switch is 2017 device.

I have a launch-model Switch, and it still has trouble charging even on latest firmware. It's very possible that this is one of the "Mariko" fixes; Nintendo silently released a refresh of the Nintendo Switch before the OLED model was announced, dubbed the Mariko models. These had a number of changes, including but not limited to: - New, more secure boot sequence - Updated Nvidia Tegra board - ~20% better battery life…

The change has to have come earlier, my pre-Mariko Switch had no troubles charging from multiple phone, MacBook, tablet and 3rd party USB-C chargers.
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