211–220 of 308 posts
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How would a power dip damage an appliance?
It's not power dip, it's voltage dip. An appliance will often draw the same power at the lower voltage, so increase current, which can cause overheating and damage.
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This. Nintendo comes to mind; charging the Switch (the earlier models IIRC) with a third-party adapter was a lottery, and the losing prize was a fried console. They've been guilty of this practice for as long as they've been making electronics - I think it was the NES or the SNES that used a standard barrel jack and voltage, but reversed the polarity, with no circuit to protect the console. Also - using Ethernet port…
> Nintendo comes to mind; charging the Switch (the earlier models IIRC) with a third-party adapter was a lottery, and the losing prize was a fried console. The problem you're thinking of was caused by a Nyko third-party docking station with a faulty hardware implementation of USB-PD. While Nintendo's software implementation of USB-PD was flawed in some ways, it didn't cause this problem. > I think it was the NES or t…
I stand corrected.
The dock however, still rejects non-Nintendo chargers. I have an MBP, a Thinkpad, an iPad, and a Switch - every device works with each other's (and third-party) chargers, except the Switch, when docked.
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It's got a CE mark, but it's unclear if it's valid or not. This is a mandatory certification in the EU, like the UL listing in the US. The device is specifying the output voltage, which isn't in spec for the connector, but it is (apparently) accurate.
UL isn't actually mandatory in the US. The only thing mandatory that I am aware of is FCC certification for devices with signals over a certain number of Hz, and they wouldn't care about a USB port being abused.
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> pushes me to support mandatory certification It wasn't mandatory but this is one of the main reasons Underwriter's Laboratory was started. The market needed a certification to say "yes, this things does what it's says it does and in a safe manner". My dad owned a retail store in the 1970s and he distinctly remember being told "Lots of retailers won't carry a brand/item unless it has the 'UL' sticker on it." https:/…
Would this be comparable to a CE marking in Europe or more like a TÜV certification?
UL is technically a global standard, but mostly used in USA/Canada. That's only two countries which already have laws governing what can and cannot be put in a consumer device.
I'm not as familiar with the history of CE, so I don't know why CE decided to cover environmental standards. But my speculation is that it's because CE covers ~30 countries with a larger range of laws.
Simple small screen or just led lights.
Maybe even a "kill-a-watt" for usb power cube/banks.
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> Nintendo comes to mind; charging the Switch (the earlier models IIRC) with a third-party adapter was a lottery, and the losing prize was a fried console. The problem you're thinking of was caused by a Nyko third-party docking station with a faulty hardware implementation of USB-PD. While Nintendo's software implementation of USB-PD was flawed in some ways, it didn't cause this problem. > I think it was the NES or t…
> While Nintendo's software implementation of USB-PD was flawed in some ways, it didn't cause this problem. I stand corrected. The dock however, still rejects non-Nintendo chargers. I have an MBP, a Thinkpad, an iPad, and a Switch - every device works with each other's (and third-party) chargers, except the Switch, when docked.
This comment, specifically about some of the technical details of the video out stuff points to at least some changes were done in the new generation: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/171c3mj/comme...
Someone can correct me on this as well. I've noticed that my switch will charge properly and quickly on their provided charger and a few other usb-c chargers I have but not certain other ones where it charges much slower. My theory has been that not all usb-c chargers are compatible with all voltages and that perhaps the switch's 'preferred fast-charge voltage' is somewhat uncommon (i think it's 17v?). Can anyone confirm this is how these things work? I just assume there is a negotiation where the charger says 'I can supply these voltages, and perhaps at these max amps, and the device choses one or none of them depending on it's needs.
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Barrel plugs are not better technically, but it would be better to use them with random voltages because people don't assume that they conform to a standard. With barrel plugs, the customer expectation is that every device has its own charger, and that's that. With USB, the assumption is that they are all compatible.
With barrel plugs the likelyhood that one of your devices will have one that fits into another is basically zero too.
Really it should be a manufacture requirement that the barrel port on the device have a waterproof hard to destroy sticker, or case moulding that lists it's requirements. As the years have gone by I've seen way too many devices with a plug hole and no idea what it thirsts for, leading to deep searches on the net for the product. Also the wall warts themselves are commonly made by some other group, so once separated there is little to no visible pairing identification other than looking for output/input power on both devices.
That previous thread the other day made me wish there was a cheap usb pluggable to tell you about the quality (and quantity) of voltage from a usb device. Simple small screen or just led lights. Maybe even a "kill-a-watt" for usb power cube/banks.
- A pass-thru USB power meter. Measures volts, amps, wattage (simple arithmetic), and watt-hours
- a USB load device. You can configure the voltage and amps to draw. Used in conjunction with the above, you can see just how much a USB supply can supply
- a watch cell powered cable tester. Not essential for your use-case, but great for working out whether a cable is at fault or not.
None of this directly measures quality, but usually you can infer that from amps, and from negotiation.
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UL isn't actually mandatory in the US. The only thing mandatory that I am aware of is FCC certification for devices with signals over a certain number of Hz, and they wouldn't care about a USB port being abused.
I read somewhere, that there's no such thing as a UL-approved turkey fryer. https://www.ul.com/news/put-safety-menu-thanksgiving I think that is still the case.