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Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

usbc.wtf

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Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#71

Post by dwaite »

a2tech wrote: post #11
dstaley wrote: post #9

I love this idea! I do think the method of picking results needs a bit of tweaking. I tried the most basic case, charging a laptop with a C-to-C cable, and it suggested two Thunderbolt cables and a 5 Gbps cable, all of which are overkill (and less than ideal given their length limitations).

But isn't that part of why the standard is so terrible? Isn't the only way to get maximum power delivery over a Thunderbolt cable? You can probably charge a laptop over a standard cheap USB-C cable..but you might not depending on how many watts your laptop wants.

> But isn't that part of why the standard is so terrible? Isn't the only way to get maximum power delivery over a Thunderbolt cable?

No. Cables should be rated by data speed and max charging rate supported. If it is just for charging, it’ll be a “charging” cable with USB 2.0 speed.

If they don’t give you that but put tech garbage like “USB 3.2 gen 1” instead, keep looking.

There are USB cables rated to supply up to 240W, which most thunderbolt cables don’t currently support.

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#72

Post by xen2xen1 »

paxys wrote: post #14

While the idea behind it is nice, the number of possible outcomes isn't high enough to justify the complex decision tree the user has to go through. Here's a much easier way to represent it: Amazon Basics standard USB-C – slow charging phones, connecting simple peripherals Amazon Basics 100W USB-C with PD – fast charging phones, laptops, connecting monitors Apple or Belkin Thunderbolt – connecting ultra hi res/high r…

Soon enough I'm going to just set up an Amazon recurring delivery of a set of my favorite cheap USB-C cables, with at least some that are 10 foot for night time charging. I'm giving up and going for volume. The bricks don't wear out, the cables always do. And yes, actually real PD all in one bricks / cords are amazing, I'm just not sure what duty cycle mine will handle.

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#73

Post by fasteo »

Slightly off-topic

Just this Christmas I was trying to connect my "portable" (minisforum b550) computer to a portable monitor that only has an USB-C port. So, I would need a HDMI + power to USB-C adapter. I only found the expensive ($100) Club3D CAC-1336[1], which they call "active" adapter.

Any other option out there ? DP + power to USB-C would work as well.

[1] https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2610/hdmi_micro_usb_to_usb...

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#74

Post by [deleted] »

fasteo wrote: post #73

Slightly off-topic Just this Christmas I was trying to connect my "portable" (minisforum b550) computer to a portable monitor that only has an USB-C port. So, I would need a HDMI + power to USB-C adapter. I only found the expensive ($100) Club3D CAC-1336[1], which they call "active" adapter. Any other option out there ? DP + power to USB-C would work as well. [1] https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2610/hdmi_micro_usb_…

[deleted]

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#76

Post by seba_dos1 »

recursive wrote: post #5

Seems to have a lot of holes. I'm going with a use case of connecting an audio interface. I choose "Connecting a device to a peripheral such as a keyboard, mouse, or monitor". Then I'm stuck choosing between keyboard mouse or monitor, with no way to go back. None of these are right.

Just for the record, audio interface pretty much counts as a "keyboard or mouse" here.

The quiz also limits the returned options to Thunderbolt cables once you select "external hard drive" - which is pretty silly; I have plenty of external hard drives around here - all of them use USB 3 and none does Thunderbolt.

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#77

Post by serallak »

kube-system wrote: post #28
russellbeattie wrote: post #21

PSA: USB-C is not Thunderbolt. Yes, you know this already. I know this already. Yet I spent an hour or so just last night trying to figure out why I was having trouble connecting two Macs before I remembered. The error message was something like "Use a Thunderbolt port ..." and as I was only half paying attention, I thought, "Aren't they all Thunderbolt ports on this M1??", then I spent a while swapping dongles aroun…

But USB4 (sort of) is.

Best way that I've seen to explain is: Thunderbolt 4 is USB 4 with all the optional parts active.

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#78

Post by yreg »

gwillen wrote: post #26
whacked_new wrote: post #12

The quiz is simple and to the point, with no cruft, so the overall experience is pretty good. But I have a (slightly tangential) UX/design question: if now you are compelled to remove the Next button from the question pages, how would you achieve it, without reduction of functionality? For example, on the first question, which is a single-choice question, if you make it submit on-click, then the user would lose the a…

Why get rid of the next button? Stop that. Has any actual user ever asked to get rid of the next button?

I do. It's clunky to have to confirm each press of a button by pressing another button.

Re: Usbc.wtf – an article and quiz to find the right USB-C cable

#80

Post by spuz »

conor_f wrote: post #65

It would be a better user experience if it was possible to display the reason no cable could be found. All searches I tried came up with no result so I left feeling frustrated, but then I flicked through this comment section and saw that because I had set "fast charging" and "USB-A", this was an impossibility! If there were other explanations like that that could be easily mapped and displayed, it would improve the U…

I selected any kind of charging cable and got 0 results so I think it's an error on the server probably due to overload.
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