Is there a way to find out what ODM/OEM actually made a rebranded product before you buy it?
USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
371–380 of 530 posts
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#372I actually took a look at those full resolution pictures. The soldering quality of the Satechi dock was awful. Given the price, I was expecting something much better than that.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is mainly because power-tool quality across the board has greatly increased - once you're into a "band" they're much the same, though there are differences it's usually one of "focus" not of quality. If you're dealing with off-brand or no-brand tools, you can still end up with something entirely usable but crappy. The prices usually tell most of the story.
"Project Farm" on YouTube does really great tool reviews with zero BS. There are differences between major tool brands and it's not just a matter of same factory, different brand sticker like with a lot of electronics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpjBJ8aQ3NE is a good example. It's pretty hard to go wrong with any of the major players these days, more about what color you like or their tool ecosystem. I'm into Mi…
I wish that most screws and hand screwdriver heads (I have more electronics than mechanical experience) were designed to not slip/strip in the first place. Torx is great, Phillips is not, I hear that there are alternative cross-shaped screw heads which don't strip, and I don't know if they work on Phillips screws or not. Though I don't have expensive hardened screwdrivers, and most products' screws aren't expensive and hardened either.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#374I'm on the lookup for TB4 dock myself. Caldigit stuff is out of stock. Stumbled upon this promising cheap alternative https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001486390431.html?spm=a2... that is a little north of 100$ and has m2 slot. Not sure if drives dual 5k displays, but it seems it should.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#375If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/
I've recently received my https://frame.work laptop (64 GB RAM 2 TB NVME) and with its expansion card system I can have 4 usb-c, or 2 usb-c and HDMI and DP on it, and if a connector fails the replacement expansion card is 10-20 EUR.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#376I wonder how much e-waste this USB-C bullshit idea generated. It's not even a one-off, "early adopter" problem, considering that even now it's hard to buy something that actually works and you have to churn through many attempts before getting lucky. In contrast, I can't remember the last time I bought a USB-A, HDMI or Ethernet cable/peripheral that didn't work, partly because those specs are self-contained and simpl…
One piece of e waste I had was an entire MacBook Air which was bricked by a USB-C hub with power delivery which Dane highly recommended. Apple fixed that problem by updating their firmware. Apparently even Apple has trouble with USB-C.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#377If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/
Remind me to never buy a laptop without a healthy array of dedicated external ports. This is lunacy.
My laptop has enough ports. But I don't want to plug them all out and in again when taking it from one desk to another one.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#378If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/
Some CalDigit docks have this fun issue where if you plug the wrong sort of adapter into the wrong sort of USB-C port it will brick the port if not the entire device on the other end.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remind me to never buy a laptop without a healthy array of dedicated external ports. This is lunacy.
Yup when you see both the price and the size of these docks, you gotta wonder why even bother with buying a laptop in the first place. If the goal is to hook up two 4K monitors, I'd rather have, say, a desktop computer powered by a threadripper.
I have multiple desks. Each of them has their own docking station.
The only things that move around are my laptop and I. I don't want to carry around a desktop computer and plug in power, screens, and USB hub every time I switch desks.
Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)
#380> Ah, so it’s a Realtek RTL8153! I always found Intel NICs to be way more reliable and stable, but okay, that’s a reasonably popular chip.
Intel doesn't make USB ethernet controllers, they only do PCIe. Realtek has a near monopoly on USB Ethernet, the only other supplier I can think of is SMSC/Microchip LAN7500, and I'm not sure it's any better.
> There’s also a second USB hub, but only a 2.0 one, same vendor, but 0x2817 as the product ID. That slower hub was used for the SD and microSD card reader.
That's the same hub, USB 3.0 just bolts on to USB 2.0 additively & the USB 2.0 world exists in parallel. Both hubs are contained in the same physical chip.