
Hidden standards make USB-C a pain to deal with - notmine1337
https://onezero.medium.com/usb-c-was-supposed-to-simplify-our-lives-instead-its-a-total-mess-626bb2ea3688
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jasonvorhe
I completely disagree. I can put a Type C plug into the port of any of my
devices on the first attempt, the quality of the plug is much higher, the plug
is more stable in any of the ports of my devices, I can charge all my devices
with one charger, I have a docking station that just delivers 4k/UHD@60hz with
both of my laptops (MBP, Pixelbook) and all I need is one Type C plug in my
laptop.

I have a GaN 68W charger with 2x C and 1x A and it's the best travel companion
I've ever had. It's lightweight, small and it just works.

I roll my eyes everytime people complain about Type C. The second Apple
delivered Thunderbolt 3 via Type C it was clear that the dream of having one
universal port for everything doesn't work, then came various ways of quick
charge, some even proprietary. But you can rest assured that anything that's
just Type C will work with any Type C and charging isn't always quick but it
works.

This is so much better than anything we had before.

~~~
colejohnson66
Charging is only _one_ of the things USB-C is capable of. But most people
aren’t complaining about that;[a] they’re complaining about the “alternate
modes” such as DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, etc. And if one wants to use those
“alternate modes,” you can’t use any old cable; you need specific ones capable
of them. It should be obvious why this is a problem: just because two cables
look identical, they may not be.

And not even that! There’s also the problem of bad cables. If the USB
Consortium actually _cared_ about consumer safety, they would aggressively
enforce their trademark against cables falsely advertising what they’re
capable of. But they don’t.

Remember Benson Leung? The guy who was testing USB-C cables from Amazon so you
wouldn’t have to? And then one cable ended up being so bad, it _fried_ his
Pixel Chromebook.[0] Not good.

TL;DR: USB-C was supposed to be “one connector to rule them all,” and it
succeeded at the expense of consumer confusion and possible _harm._

[0]:
[https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XDBFUD9CTN2R/](https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XDBFUD9CTN2R/)

[a]: Except for maybe the people who don’t understand the basics of USB-PD

~~~
brudgers
DisplayPort/Thunderbolt requirements only affect a few people and occur in
contexts where "the correct cable" was already a requirement prior to USB-C.
The problem with USB-C cables from Amazon is they are from Amazon...same as
for regular USB wall warts, SD cards, and many many other categories where
Amazon willingly sells whatever crap it can take a cut of.

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m-p-3
At least in terms of charging my USB-C devices the experience has been good
for me. I know I can carry a single charger (ie: my Dell 100W USB-C charger)
when travelling and it will charge my cellphone and Nintendo Switch as well.

~~~
bhhaskin
Need to be careful about using the port on the switch. It isn't a usb C port
even though it uses the connector. It has been known to brick or damage the
device when used with certain combinations.

~~~
mhh__
That really annoys me (companies using connectors without conforming to the
standard). I have no idea what the state of the legislation is but I find that
EU proposal to make everyone standardise around proper USB-C tempting.

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selfhoster11
These are just teething pains for an emerging, universal charging standard. I
will take some incompatibility between USB-C even for the next decade, if that
means that I no longer need to carry more than one wire and more than one
charger to power all my devices.

~~~
schwartzworld
Just dongles for any inexpensive / older hardware.

~~~
selfhoster11
Older hardware will naturally get cycled out of use by exponential-like decay;
it won't ever go to zero because of legacy requirements and retro device
enthusiasts, but it will be basically zero for most people given enough time.
Inexpensive hardware will just stay with the cheap subset of USB-C without
fast charging, which is perfectly fine.

~~~
schwartzworld
When is this supposed to happen? Lots of USB-A and micro USB devices are still
sold today.

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tw04
Replace: USB-C with RJ-45 and his argument is just as silly.

It turns out both simplified our lives dramatically, and both require you to
do a bit of research before plugging things in.

If you don't want to brick your expensive devices, buy approved chargers. No
different than being able to buy cheap knock-off batteries for devices off
ebay. Will they work most of the time? Sure. Are you risking bricking your
device or burning down your house using that $25 laptop battery off ebay?
Absolutely.

~~~
cedilla
Why would you need to buy "approved" chargers? If the vendor gets to dictate
which chargers I buy, I'm worse off than before the days of USB charging.

Also, a lot of official chargers are cheap, bulky and slow. Third party does
not and has never implied "cheap knockoff". In this case, they aren't knock-
offs at all.

~~~
selfhoster11
You don't need an approved charger, just one that's well-made. It's easier to
use a well-known brand name as a shorthand during the selection process,
because it's generally not feasible for the end user to evaluate a charger on
a technical level.

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raxxorrax
Aside from that, some manufacturers, for example a certain one named after a
popular fruit, decided it would be prudent to save a few bucks and ship cables
that are only able to charge devices, not for any form of data transfer.

Ok, maybe it wasn't to save money and instead force people to use cloud
solutions for data sharing. This way we will end up with a lot of disabled
cables where people wonder why they don't work.

~~~
srtjstjsj
What are you talking about?

~~~
eyesee
The USB-C cables which come with MacBook chargers only work for power
delivery.

~~~
matthewmacleod
This is simply untrue, and I have just verified this by plugging the cable
that was plugged into my charger into a USB-C device and verifying it appears
on the bus.

~~~
eyesee
I believe it works at USB2 speeds only. It's called the "Apple Charge Cable".
I can't verify right now as Apple's online store is down.

~~~
gumby
That’s the default mode of most PD cables, as it is the required standard. USB
3 (err, 3.1 in USB-C-land) is an optional mode in the USB spec.

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Readywater
Man, so true. I’m still mad at LumeCubes for being USB-C, but only being
chargeable from a USB-A to USB-C cable because making C to C charging would’ve
required additional circuitry.

~~~
flingo
It's one additional resistor, I think. The first lot of raspberry pi 4s had
that same problem, and I've seen it in other hardware that uses type-c to
charge.

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gervwyk
usb-c is too fragile. blew out my macbook pro last week when i plugged in the
charger. High power through such fine connectors is just asking for a spark /
short. So sad. Poor design.

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throwbackThurs
My OnePlus 5t USB-C port wore out within a year, this never happened to other
ports.

~~~
yellowapple
Mine didn't wear out quite that fast, but it is indeed finicky, no matter how
much I clean it out. Same with the Nexus 6P it replaced.

My new PinePhone seems to be more solid all around, so hopefully the USB-C
connector on it ain't an exception. It ain't exactly my daily driver right
now, though.

