
Why can’t all my chargers just charge all my stuff? - rishabhd
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/16/15306686/chargers-laptops-pricy-usb-c-one-cable-perfect-dream
======
neverminder
All my chargers do charge all my stuff. But then of course my stuff consists
of Google's Nexus 6P and 2015 Pixel LS - both of them bought in 2015, both
have USB Type-C chargers and both chargers can charge both devices. Google has
pioneered USB Type-C charging for over 2 years now, too bad that other brands
have done little to follow it's example. I do not like Apple at all and I hear
the new macbook is a bit of a joke, but one thing I approve of is all USB
Type-C ports. It's time to switch and ditch the old Type-A. Most of the people
who bitch that they need to carry a bunch of dongles around for a period of
time are the same people who change their phones every couple of years of so
spending more money than all of their old USB devices combined would cost. How
about not carrying around several different proprietary charging bricks
instead?

~~~
manyxcxi
I work with and know plenty of people who groan at the idea of an all USB-C
primary MBP for getting work done that swap phones and other hardware quite
frequently. Also, it's not just about being totally USB-C w/ the MBP:

\- Loss of HDMI port. Big for me because I often need to plug in to a
projector.

\- Loss of SD card slot. I use this a few times a week for the 3D printer at
least. Photographer friends live off the thing.

\- Micro electronics work: You already have to run USB 3 through a USB 2 only
hub to smooth things out with certain devices. USB C will be at best, equal to
that.

\- Not a lot of docking station/monitor support for USB-C yet. Between my two
monitors it's a two wire connection for my laptop to connect to all my
peripherals, none of which are USB-C.

I need four things to charge every device I have, all of which fit in my
laptop bag and provide no confusion (unlike the myriad USB-C cables that look
exactly the same but don't do what you expect): Lightning cable, micro-USB
cable, USB-A charging block, laptop power brick. If I was desperate for space
I could drop the small USB charging block and just plug in to the laptop to
charge.

Now, I'm not arguing AGAINST USB-C, there's just not enough of an ecosystem to
make the transition as easy as what I have today. I don't want new technology
and to spend money on something that at best, breaks even. These are the tools
of my craft, they should make it easier to do my job, solve an acute problem
that I have, or just generally make the experience better in some way. So in
18-36 months when there's a monitor with the 4K (or better) resolution of mine
and a USB-C hub built in that is cheap enough for me to buy two or three, then
I'll be making the switch.

Additionally, if you look at the recent entrants to USB-C, if you've got a
half decent laptop, they're not screaming for you to upgrade to them. For
example, there's no reason for me to upgrade my 2015 MBP to a 2016 touch bar
when they've got practically the same internals. The same goes for all the
other brands out there, if your laptop is less than 18 months old, you're
getting about the same hardware you already had PLUS an ecosystem challenge
with USB-C.

~~~
pwython
Have you seen this hub? A must for the new MBP.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K7C53K2/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K7C53K2/)

Power delivery, HDMI, SD card reader, 3 USB 3.0 ports. I have one at home and
one at my office, they work great.

~~~
Arizhel
Only has 1 HDMI port. One monitor is a no-go. My 5-year-old Dell Latitude has
2 monitors connected to its docking station.

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gumby
USB Type-C unfortunately isn't the panacea it first appeared. Because of all
the alternate modes and range of power options, no end user can tell, just by
looking at it, if a given cable will work. Worse, because of backwards-
compatible fallbacks ("be liberal in what you accept..."), you may plug two
thunderbolt devices together with a cable that only supports USB 2, and have
them "work", just slowly.

I only realized this when I got my first Type C notebook. Until then, it all
sounded marvelous. And on a technical basis I think the Type C standard is
quite well thought out.

However the cables themselves are never marked in any way that describes what
protocols they can support. I hope the USB consortium adds some sort of
marking requirement, or I think we'll see a lot of unhappy users once Type C
becomes widespread.

Labeling is hard (there are plenty of third parties who don't care) but

~~~
phil21
I agree with this. The USB consortium needs to come up with labeling/licensing
standards for cables and do so ASAP. The utter travesty that is this space was
entirely predictable, and they did nothing about it? This is exactly what
happened with USB 1.1 -> USB 2.0 cables, and we're just making the same
mistake twice.

It's so bad that Apple even ships a USB-C 2.0 cord with it's Macbook Pro
chargers. What the heck?!

I've since replaced all the non-3.0 and non-thunderbolt USB-C cables I have so
I have a universal set, but I shouldn't have had to do that and it was rather
expensive (and difficult) to track them down.

------
paulddraper
I don't expect my phone charger and my car charger to be interoperable.

That's just a huge gap in physical requirements.

Phone charger and beefy laptop? Still different, though more similar.

~~~
squarefoot
A charger made the right way would consist of a constant current generator
fixed to an high voltage value, say 24V, leaving the circuit into the
appliance to step down it and draw the required current until voltage drop is
acceptable. This way one could have 100% short circuit protection and multiple
appliances charging in parallel. A phone charger could even be used to
recharge a laptop, it just would take more time to do so but it could be done.

~~~
tinus_hn
The next question is who is going to pay for a charger that can charge an
electric car but is only used to charge a phone. It is more expensive (and
bulky) to provide more power safely.

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Markoff
isn't stressing cable actually healthier than leaving it without any movement
long-term and then suddenly rolling it and breaking inside?

BTW why not just forget about connectors and cables and go with wireless
charging? i am aware of issue for some case scenarios but for majority of
scenarios wireless charging would be sufficient, the thing is it needs to be
really widespread in furniture business so at least all night stands and desks
will have it as standard feature

------
valuearb
Why can't my car run on water?

~~~
jimmichanga
There's no reason to dismiss the design question

