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USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

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Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#471

Post by spookthesunset »

Animats wrote: post #397
worewood wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but there will always be crap for Alibaba for anything you can think of. The solution would be banning charging altogether and adopt only proprietary standards.

No, the solution for the US would be to refuse imports of any power device that lacks UL/CSA approval.

I don’t even think that is required. I think what might be required is simply making it more explicit when a device is or is not UL listed. I shouldn’t have to search Amazon’s “questions” thing on a product listing to see if it is UL listed.

Of course I suppose products that actually are UL listed on Amazon will already mention the fact somewhere in their description.

That being said I’ve had more issues with low voltage crap letting the magic smoke out than mains powered devices.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#472

Post by tenacious_tuna »

zlsa wrote: post #400
tenacious_tuna wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the issues normally present when just charging--I'd say charging is the simplest task. But when I tried to plug a USB C monitor into my mabook the other day I went through every C cable in the house to no avail, despite the fact they all do USB C PD just fine.

For Alternate Mode to work, only cables with high-speed lanes will work (aka USB 3.0 cables). Power Delivery doesn't need these high-speed lanes at all.

I figured it was something like that :) but that does nicely illustrate the problem of C: despite the fact that the ports are all the same, there's reliable way to know if a cable will work for the purpose I'm going to use it for.

Sure, basically any cable can _charge_ a device at some speed, which is absolutely my common application, but for shoveling bits around it's much more complicated.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#473

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

dTal wrote: post #465
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, we had this massive high-voltage transformer that produced about 2,000 volts, at some sick amperage. We used it to make jacob's ladders. That was fun. Until I touched the two bars. I woke up on the other side of the room, smelling burning... me . That wasn't fun...

Good god, you were lucky to live!

You have no idea...

That was nowhere near the stupidest thing I've done...

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#474

Post by spookthesunset »

x0 wrote: post #462
unparagoned wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I last worked with USB, there were all sorts of resistors over the pins telling you about its capabilities. I'm pretty sure usb-c has that as well. Your device should check the spec of the cable and inly draw the amount if power its rated for

Is a resistor really enough to determine if a 5W cable gets 240W?

Current is often measured by putting a small value resistor of a precisely known value and measuring its voltage drop.

I = V/R

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#475

Post by maxerickson »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #406
Tempest1981 wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned this recently: > If you receive a shock, if can affect the rhythm of your heart and cause problems later. We’re taught to go and get an ECG after receiving a shock. Like jump in the car and go to the doctor or hospital, and have someone else drive you. If you’ve received a shock - go get checked out. -jaidan https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27259589

I saw that too but I wouldn't spread it as a fact without a better source.

I recently had some industrial training that made the same point. The recommendation there was to immediately hook up an AED.

You can go into tachycardia or bradycardia (fast and slow heartbeats), so feeling sort of okay isn't the end of it.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#476

Post by _ea1k »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #300
_ea1k wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the non-USB-c cables have any more safety features to prevent that. I'd be surprised if the USB-C ones do.

The original USB standard was 5V 0.5A, which wasn't going to start any fires.

Oh, I realize that I left out important context. I didn't mean relative to other USB cables, but rather relative to other non-standard laptop power cables. This goal is to replace those high power cables, and those did not have significant safeties against damaged wire.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#477

Post by Animats »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #420
Animats wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be impossible for any set of non-damaged, non-defective, spec-compliant set of USB-C cables and peripherals to cause fires. Then there's the crap offered for sale on Alibaba which somebody will resell on Amazon and which will show up on a checkout rack at the gas station. USB-C has very tight tolerances and unusual material requirements. Dirt or water can create a conductive path all too easily with USB-C p…

The solution is obvious, they just need to be constructed of prefabulated amulite.

That's not entirely a joke. "Halogen-free polyamides are explicitly recommended by the USB-IF in the USB 3.1 specification."[1] Most common plastics do not have a high enough resistance to surface tracking, where, as the connector wears, a conductive path appears across the surface due to dirt and moisture.

[1] https://www.dsm.com/content/dam/dsm/electrical-electronics/e...

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#478

Post by MonaroVXR »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #416
MonaroVXR wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the laptop. Don't search for the ASUS G14, the G14 is dead when plug too much power into it. Bold statement, but I've warned you. You need power, your going to hear the fans. There's currently no solution for cooling it quietly.

I'm somewhat confused by all this. My desktop PC has a RX5600, which I understand isn't particularly power hungry (nor powerful), but I still consider it a decent GPU. And the card, with its heat sink and fans isn't all that thick and stays reasonably quiet under load, even though I have a 135W CPU next to it. Could probably be even better if the fans were pulling air directly from outside. At work, we have HP EliteD…

Difficult to give accurate answers because of: "They do get somewhat loud"

- Laptops have components that are very close together.

- The cooling system is sometimes shared between CPU and GPU.

- The other comment under your comment is also true.

- What is more tick laptops? There are "thick" laptops in the gaming laptop and business -department.

" I'm not sure a laptop that requires 200+ Watts would last all that long on battery,"

- Power/resources can be scaled up and down.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#479

Post by balefrost »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #420
Animats wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be impossible for any set of non-damaged, non-defective, spec-compliant set of USB-C cables and peripherals to cause fires. Then there's the crap offered for sale on Alibaba which somebody will resell on Amazon and which will show up on a checkout rack at the gas station. USB-C has very tight tolerances and unusual material requirements. Dirt or water can create a conductive path all too easily with USB-C p…

The solution is obvious, they just need to be constructed of prefabulated amulite.

...as long as you have the necessary hydrocoptic marzlevanes. You don't want side fumbling.

Re: USB-C is about to go from 100W to 240W, enough to power beefier laptops

#480

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

Ekaros wrote: post #281
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #96

Excited for the first ATX power supply which takes USB-C as input rather than the traditional IEC 60320 C13/C14. I mean, it'll probably cause some fires, but it'll be exciting!

Wouldn't ATX power supply outputting USB-C make more sense? They have superior efficiency against your average power supplies...

I guess an ATX power supply accepting 240W USB-C, which is 12V, would only do a tiny bit of DC-to-DC conversion for 5V and 3.3V, passing through the rest as 12V.

And an ATX12VO power supply taking in USB-C would do… nothing?

Heh.

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