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

I'm a USB-C Maximalist

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 461 posts

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#171

Post by ramijames »

cogman10 wrote: post #167

I love USB-C. My ONLY problem with it is it's just a bit too small. That creates mechanical problems within the plug which are annoying. Plug it in and pull it out 1 too many times and eventually you get a loose connector cable that needs to be replaced. Generally that's fine as all my chargers have replaceable cables, it's just an annoyance.

I also find that I'm constantly stressed that the plug is going to snap.

That being said, in ten plus years of using USB-c.. this has never happened to me or anyone that I know.

It's actually kind of impressive, all things considered.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#172

Post by Gigachad »

cestith wrote: post #17

I agree with using a single ubiquitous power standard for small electronics and electrics. That’s almost what USB-C is these days. We need better labelling of cable capacities when there are 20w and 120w cables that at a glance look the same. I was afraid this article was going to say one connector for everything when it said maximalist. If it had said to kill eSATA, SPF+, RJ-45, DisplayPort, HDMI, 3.5mm audio, and a…

The USB spec does have labeling standards that are pretty clear. But uncertified temu junk obviously doesn't use them. There shouldn't even be such a thing as a 20w cable, the minimum with no emarker chip is 60w.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#173

Post by ssl-3 »

benoau wrote: post #47
eigencoder wrote: post #5

I don't like USB-C because they all look the same on the outside, but they're not all the same on the inside. Especially my cheap consumer electronics. Sometimes they will charge, sometimes they won't charge, but all the cables look the same, and you don't tend to know in advance.

The thickness / durability of the cable is a pretty good indicator, if it's thin and flexible it'll only do basic charging if it's thick and durable it's because it's packing enough wiring to do power delivery, video etc, everything except probably Thunderbolt.

All standards-adherent cables that are adorned with USB C connectors at each end can supply at least 60W of power.

This has nothing to do with feels.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#174

Post by Telaneo »

It's been a joy to not need to bring 3 chargers along when I travel.

I think the only thing we're missing to make the USB-C experience perfect is cable labelling. It's unreasonable to make every cable perform to the max spec, but if we could standardise on some labelling or colours for cables that are charging-only, 480 mbit (usb 2 speed), 5 Gbit (usb 3 speed), 10 GB (usb 3.1 speed), 20 GB (usb 3.2 speed), plus whatever higher speeds (and I guess Thunderbolt too), then we'd be golden.

I like the cables I have, and by know I know what cables do what, but it ain't obvious without testing.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#175

Post by xp84 »

tempest_ wrote: post #56
jonhohle wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the vast majority of things I need to power or charge, dumb USB charging is fine, and I have a 10-port Anker “IQ” charger that works great for most of those things. Why doesn’t the equivalent USB-C charger exist? I don’t need 65W on each port. I just needs lots of ports for gadgets that can trickle charge for hours at night (4 kids, lots of devices). I mostly want to standardize on USB-C host cables, but no one m…

The reason is because while you want to use the low end the general public does not understand that USB-C is the connector only and that various levels of power and data depend on the cable and the device at both ends. If you sell a 10 port USB-C charged someone is going to plug 10 MacBooks into it and complain it doesnt work. The best I have seen for what you want is https://ca.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-500w-deskto…

Macbooks aren't the absolute best example anymore, since 20W is plenty to charge ARM-based MacBooks in a few hours, so a 200W 10-port charger could do a fine job with 10 MacBooks.

But your point is still valid. As a nerd I really appreciate being able to use say, my 100W laptop charger or the car jumpstarter pack I have to charge up my earbuds or an electric toothbrush, since it reduces the number of weird little cables or chargers I have to keep track of, but it sure does baffle the non-technical majority that their toothbrush charger fits their laptop 'for some reason' but of course does nothing - plus the confusion when they realize they could physically plug the toothbrush into a pair of headphones, or plug two portable batteries together.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#176

Post by benoliver999 »

cogman10 wrote: post #167

I love USB-C. My ONLY problem with it is it's just a bit too small. That creates mechanical problems within the plug which are annoying. Plug it in and pull it out 1 too many times and eventually you get a loose connector cable that needs to be replaced. Generally that's fine as all my chargers have replaceable cables, it's just an annoyance.

I get trouble with the female ports too

I have had a failed port on my laptop - fortunately the laptop can charge on two of its ports but it sucks to have lost one.

I have had a failed port on an iPad, and on my phone. Again I was fortunate to have a fairphone, so I just replaced the port.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#177

Post by Gigachad »

jaimehrubiks wrote: post #20

We'll we ever see usbc in TVs?

For video input or power supply? I doubt we would ever see it for power supply.

For video input it seems almost deliberate since the TV brands all benefit from licensing out HDMI and forcing it to be the only way to connect to a TV.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#178

Post by Gigachad »

breezybottom wrote: post #100

USB-C connectors are so flimsy compared to USB-A, it feels like a real step backward. It barely takes any pressure on the cable to make my charging cable fall out, or to rotate it just enough that it loses connection.

It's because your port or cable are filled with pocket lint. Get a sewing needle and fish it out and it will connect again.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#179

Post by benoliver999 »

Gigachad wrote: post #168
sudobash1 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a problem with USB C cables, and even if I did it wouldn't be a big deal. The cables are cheap compared to the devices they charge. It is broken USB-C ports that frustrate me about them, or ones with worn out clips.

What way are you breaking them? The two failure modes I've seen are the port getting full of pocket lint for phones (easy to fix) and the port ripping off the PCB. The second one is a design issue where some ports are entirely surface mount rather than having the grounding pins go through the pcb to anchor it on.

I have had a few failures and I can only assume it's the second one? I have one on a thinkpad that only works if you hold it in the right position

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#180

Post by cogman10 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #127
chaosharmonic wrote: post #15

I too am a USB-C maximalist, but with a handful of differences from OP: - You lose me at "toothbrush." I don't want personal care items that have internal batteries at all , because they'll eventually die on me while the device itself (brush heads notwithstanding) is otherwise perfectly functional. I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. (I still haven't found a good electric razor fo…

> I'd much rather keep rechargeable AA(A)s on hand for that kind of stuff. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rechargeable+aa+batteries+usb+c But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing c…

> But in practice, I greatly prefer devices with integrated batteries, because they're more likely to be able to give me useful feedback about the battery level (e.g. a reliable low-battery indicator), rather than just winding down, or having a low-battery indicator with only a passing correlation to reality.

That has less to do with the battery being integrated and more to do with different battery chemistries having different voltage curves.

Nothing would prevent a device from accurately detecting battery levels of NiMH batteries. The problem is all these devices are tuned to an Alkaline battery voltage curve which is much more slanted than NiMH. NiMH has a nearly flat curve with a sudden drop off while Alkaline have a pretty steady decent (with a sudden drop off).

Post reply on HN