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I'm a USB-C Maximalist

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Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#251

Post by vel0city »

russdill wrote: post #75
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.

This is an acceptable failure mode. I'd be nice if there was a standardized LED flash or color that you could get so if your relative said something isn't working, you could ask, "Is it flashing three times?" or whatever. The alternative is barrel connectors. If you plug in the wrong one, there's a decent chance that it a) won't work, or b) never work again.

And then you go someplace, realize you left your charger at home, and find out despite your friend having dozens of barrel type power connector power adapters not a single one match the size/voltage/amperage/polarity of your device.

Or you just borrow their USB-C adapter and don't have any worries.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#252

Post by vel0city »

cgyvbunji wrote: post #11

> What are the chances that I could find the exact charger needed for a GameBoy Colour? Your chance is 100% because the charger for GBC is 2 AA batteries ;)

Yeah, the GBA SP would have been a much better example. What an odd connector. I really need to get around to modding a USB-C port on to mine.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#253

Post by guelo »

vel0city wrote: post #247
guelo wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way to know if it's a "cheap cable", not even by price.

Sure there is. Buy reputable brands from reputable marketplaces that clearly state the specs, and if you get products from them that don't comply stop buying from them.

I'd call that trial and error.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#254

Post by dreamcompiler »

This USB-C toothbrush is something I've been looking for so I don't need to bring a special charger.

What would be even better is an electric toothbrush that doesn't contain a battery that would work with USB-PD plugged in. Why? Because I like putting my electric toothbrush in my checked bag because it's not essential, and technically you're not supposed to put lithium batteries in checked bags.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#255

Post by subarctic »

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 find Philips Sonicare toothbrushes break after about a year, long before the battery gives up. Which i guess is another reason not having integrated batteries would be nice. But then they might not make as much money whenever I buy a new one so they probably wouldn't do that

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#256

Post by Gigachad »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #243

TFineA mentions a USB cable tester. I know very little about testing or all the standards involved in USB. And I would like a way to test cables. Is there a good reason we can't hook one (or both?) end(s) of a cable to a computer and use a program to tell what it does?

Sort of. USB-C cables have an emarker chip inside them which reports the capabilities of the cable. The USB controller on your laptop reads this chip and makes use of the info, but as of today there is no standardized way for the controller chip to pass this info up to the OS. I assume most of them don't even provide an interface at all for the OS to request it.

I vaguely recall someone from Google working on this issue for Chromebooks. I'm surprised Apple hasn't solved this since they control the OS and hardware. For now you can buy tester devices which read the emarker info and show it on a small display. There's also more advanced testers which test the actual signal integrity and error rates, but these are very expensive and made for the cable manufacturers.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#257

Post by Grombobulous »

subarctic wrote: post #255
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 find Philips Sonicare toothbrushes break after about a year, long before the battery gives up. Which i guess is another reason not having integrated batteries would be nice. But then they might not make as much money whenever I buy a new one so they probably wouldn't do that

I've never experienced them breaking that quickly, but it's worth pointing out that the cheap models are far inferior. The motors are weaker and they even come with a worse charger that doesn't come with a normal wall outlet plug.

I don't like USB-C for toothbrushes to charge because there's water in the bathroom. The proprietary inductive charger/stand that comes with Sonicare/Oral-B electric toothbrushes are ideal.

Sucks that they are proprietary but they have been trivially easy to clone by third party manufacturers. $7 on Amazon.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#258

Post by angry_octet »

greggsy wrote: post #231
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 went down the rabbit hole of cable testers, and concluded that that thicker and stiffer almost always meant ‘better’ support for higher speed and charge rates. Anything braided is almost always junk. I don’t have a requirement for anything over 90w though, so I can generally get away with using whatever I have lying around.

Braided works fine? I have plenty of Ugreen and others from Amazon, what matters is what's inside.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#259

Post by Waterluvian »

My son plugged a cheap Switch controller into a cheap Switch charging block/dock to charge the controller. I don’t know who shot first but they’re all dead.

I love USB-C and I guess the device(s) weren’t to spec, but if it plugs, it ought to be safe. Kind of a surprising miss to be honest. Usually the cheap Amazon crap isn’t this bad.

Re: I'm a USB-C Maximalist

#260

Post by vel0city »

guelo wrote: post #253
vel0city wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there is. Buy reputable brands from reputable marketplaces that clearly state the specs, and if you get products from them that don't comply stop buying from them.

I'd call that trial and error.

I've been doing this strategy for years and never had an issue of buying a junk cable.
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