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I'm a USB-C Maximalist

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Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#221

Post by gumby »

qurren wrote: post #97
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 break about 1 USB-C plug a week. They are simply not designed well for real people who do real things in the world, including physical work, exercise, hiking, woodworking, biking, and the like. They are designed by someone in a corporate office who just never gets out to see the real world. Here's how the last few broke: * Phone with typical inadequate battery + external portable battery pack plugged in, shoved in…

This is a success! USB-C was designed so that the part most likely to fail is the inexpensive plug, not the socket.

One of the problems with USB mini-A was that the socket would fail, meaning the device had to be repaired or discarded. Combined with the short lifetime (about 300 insertions) it was a disaster which is why you almost never see it.

You’d be more unhappy of those failures had happened in your expensive device rather than your cheap cables.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#222

Post by ChoGGi »

hereme888 wrote: post #190
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…

You're probably missing out on the feeling of really, really clean teeth. Regular brushing never gave me the feeling of ALL biofilm getting stripped from the enamels.

Yea, first time I used an electric was great, haven't used a manual since.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#223

Post by qurren »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #199
qurren wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 40gbps is an insane data rate that requires shielding, precision, and testing. There is no way you are getting that for $2. I dunno, Cat8 is 40gbps and pretty cheap. DOCSIS 4.0 does 10Gbps on some really ancient cables. I'm sure Cat9 will do even better, at least the cat people and the doc people are trying harder than the USB people. Unifi even has a PoE-over-coax solution. Add some Anker GaN shit and I'm sure it…

> There is no point to connector standardization if any cable can't do any function. I completely disagree. When the only difference between cables is max speed, that's still a huge improvement over a nest of different cable types, half of which are custom. And it's easy to get into a position where all your USB-C cables differ only by max speed.

Which is worse because they all look sort of the same, but they are not the same.

It's even worse for non-techies, who don't understand what a gbps or a watt is, and who will leave a 1-star review, or worse, trash their cable, because their cable was "slow" but was meant for 240W PD but only supported USB 2.0. They purchased it initially because it had 5 stars.

Ideally, there should only be "5 star" USB cables, and they should all work for all purposes that they can physically plug into.

The situation in the early 2000s is I could spot the cable I needed from a mile away.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#225

Post by [deleted] »

itishappy wrote: post #209
qurren wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I break about 1 USB-C plug a week. They are simply not designed well for real people who do real things in the world, including physical work, exercise, hiking, woodworking, biking, and the like. They are designed by someone in a corporate office who just never gets out to see the real world. Here's how the last few broke: * Phone with typical inadequate battery + external portable battery pack plugged in, shoved in…

> I break about 1 USB-C plug a week. Wild. How often do you break the phone itself?

[deleted]

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#226

Post by throawayonthe »

embedding-shape wrote: post #207
DimmieMan wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HDMI and display port are in a similar boat. Putting the spec on the connector would be so much help. Even purchasing them is a nightmare these days because everything says ultra super duper fast supreme and then the fine print says it's actually just 3.0 (or doesn't say at all sometimes on online storefronts). Multiple time's I've found myself in the store flipping around the box like a rubics cube trying to find th…

> HDMI and display port are in a similar boat. Putting the spec on the connector would be so much help. What if we just have different connectors for different specs? Then you'd know what supports what by what fits into the connection in the first place.

that sounds terrible; HDMI/DP are backwards-compatible on purpose, you can use your fancy-shmancy modern output with a now-ancient display

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#227

Post by firloop »

gumby wrote: post #219
Telaneo wrote: post #174

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 whate…

I scan the emarker on every USB C that comes into the house and add a p-touch label. I chuck out power-only and ultra baseline (60 W/USB 2 cables) with no marker or resistors. Power-only cables could be handy when traveling as they are essentially a condom, but they can only charge slowly and I always have a better cable with me. I wouldn’t mind a PD aware charge-only device but inquire require some MITM circuitry an…

Some cheaper devices I have (e.g. rechargeable LED light strip) _only_ charge via power-only cables. Was maddening when I realized I had thrown out all but one of the cables that can charge it.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#228

Post by rescbr »

crooked-v wrote: post #218
swah wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not buy only 100W power and data cables?

That would be USB4 cables. They do have the problem of being awkwardly thick and stiff if you're using them for a lot of things.

And then there are the crappy devices that aren't compliant with USB PD and only charge with a USB-C to USB-A cable.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#229

Post by acheron »

rootusrootus wrote: post #50
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.

Yeah maybe USB-D will get it right. But probably not. I had such high hopes for USB-C. Now I keep a couple USB-C to USB-A adapters lying around to force the charger (which is just a normal home outlet with a couple built-in USB-C ports) to speak old school USB-A charging instead of trying to negotiate PD with a shitty device that did not implement USB-C correctly. Yes that's the fault of the manufacturer. But the wil…

Unfortunately the EU has written USB-C into law, so there will never be a USB-D. I guess we should be glad they didn’t do this 30 years ago, or we’d still be using PS/2 connectors.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#230

Post by throwaway219450 »

ludwigschubert wrote: post #220
swah wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not buy only 100W power and data cables?

Thickness, and also cost.

Cost, really? A 2m USB4 cable from Belkin is $20 (eg INZ004bt2MBK). You don't save much going to 4 ft, sadly.

I find their cables to be pretty good (the TB5/USB4). They're certainly cheaper than Apple's. They have a soft rubber coating (not quite silicone) and a good bend radius. Compare to the super-stiff (but good) cables that Dell provide with their monitors.

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