4 ms·

Same. It turns out physical port standardization was a red herring. If I can’t charge my laptop with a cable, it does me no good to have the same physical inter

Same. It turns out physical port standardization was a red herring. If I can’t charge my laptop with a cable, it does me no good to have the same physical interface.

user3939382 3y ago
Maybe we can at least switch to a color standard like we had with the block inside USB 2 v 3 (where 3 was blue). Many manufacturers didn’t/don’t honor it but it’s nice when they do. Color could be added to solve this without having to retool cable factories. The only problem I guess is that USB C is such a mess and has so many possible combinations of features the colors may be hard to remember. Maybe there would be common ones?
- brookst 3y ago
  It could be like resistors, where there are separate stripes for voltage, wattage, data transfer speed, DisplayPort version, thunderbolt support, etc. So you’d know a cable with red-green-black-blue-yellow was good for up to 60w @ 20v, USB 3.2 transfer speeds, DisplayPort 1.4, no thunderbolt, no active electronics.
  - jhoechtl 3y ago
    I would immediately install an app which tells me what the code means.
    - brookst 3y ago
      Jokes on you, USB-IF would change the meaning of colors annually, and prohibit cables from labeling what version of the code they used.
emilecantin 3y ago
For charging a laptop, it's usually easy to tell by the thickness of the cable.
Clamchop 3y ago
But it does do some good? You can use any power adapter and cable that are up to the task of charging a laptop. And some devices do get it right anyway, all the ports can be used for charging. And they can all be used to charge something else.
usrusr 3y ago
Hard disagree: I think it's awesome how all our recent 20V chargers double as perfectly fine (even if wildly overbuilt) chargers for simple one-cell devices like mice or Gopros or, well, anything you throw at them. It's awesome, so much better than having a zoo of chargers standing at the ready. The only thing I miss from the micro-USB days are really lightweight cables (and plugs)
- StillBored 3y ago
  Do they? My laptop charger can't fast charge my phone. And well, its sorta dumb in that regard and is something like the normal 5V 2A max of pre PD charging for nearly everything that can't negotiate the 15V (or is it 20) the laptop wants and the little charger it comes with provides. The aftermarket chargers are much better at supporting a wide variety of voltages, and even QC/etc nonstandard charge modes. But even then, I have a charge dock on my desk which has different colored ports because only one can do 100W PD, two can do QC charging, and some others are 30W limited, etc. Its a crazy mismatch and probably more than half of the time, people are just getting 5V charging.
  - usrusr 3y ago
    Plenty of devices are perfectly fine with plain 5V charging. That's my entire point: instead of a zoo of chargers, you have that one charge dock on your desktop that does it all. I call that victory, not defeat.
- hedora 3y ago
  The USB-A -> USB-C cable that charges my sennheiser headphones can't charge my iPad, but a longer USB-A -> USB-C cable can (using the same USB-A port on the same charger). Also, the majority of USB chargers that came with my Apple devices can't charge my M2 laptop (even when it is suspended), assuming it's not a cable incompatibility issue.
  - usrusr 3y ago
    Devices that consider themselves special enough to deserve a specific fast charge technology can't be expected to charge on just about any USB A, what's complicated about that? Your Sennheiser will fill up just fine in a pinch on the iPad's charger or on the M1 charger. Will the iPad charge on the charger for the M1? Likely, unless Apple sells noncompliant PD chargers or if the iPad uses some oddball fastcharge alternative that isn't PD. PD is carefully specced as a pyramid of "bigger sources can serve all lower level sinks and not just a subset" (yes, cables need to encode their level)
not_a_shill 3y ago
Why not think about it as being able to charge other devices with your laptop cable?
hedora 3y ago
I wonder if the EU is going to amend the USB-C charger requirement to address this.
thiht 3y ago
I can charge my laptop, my PS5 controller, my headset and my Kindle with a single cable next to my couch. It does some good. I don’t care that I can use any cable for charging, I care that if I have a charging cable I can use it with any of my devices.

Same. It turns out physical port standardization was a red herring. If I can’t charge my laptop with a cable, it does me no good to have the same physical interface.

user3939382 3y ago

Maybe we can at least switch to a color standard like we had with the block inside USB 2 v 3 (where 3 was blue). Many manufacturers didn’t/don’t honor it but it’s nice when they do. Color could be added to solve this without having to retool cable factories. The only problem I guess is that USB C is such a mess and has so many possible combinations of features the colors may be hard to remember. Maybe there would be common ones?

brookst 3y ago
It could be like resistors, where there are separate stripes for voltage, wattage, data transfer speed, DisplayPort version, thunderbolt support, etc. So you’d know a cable with red-green-black-blue-yellow was good for up to 60w @ 20v, USB 3.2 transfer speeds, DisplayPort 1.4, no thunderbolt, no active electronics.
- jhoechtl 3y ago
  I would immediately install an app which tells me what the code means.
  - brookst 3y ago
    Jokes on you, USB-IF would change the meaning of colors annually, and prohibit cables from labeling what version of the code they used.

emilecantin 3y ago

For charging a laptop, it's usually easy to tell by the thickness of the cable.

Clamchop 3y ago

But it does do some good? You can use any power adapter and cable that are up to the task of charging a laptop. And some devices do get it right anyway, all the ports can be used for charging. And they can all be used to charge something else.

usrusr 3y ago

Hard disagree: I think it's awesome how all our recent 20V chargers double as perfectly fine (even if wildly overbuilt) chargers for simple one-cell devices like mice or Gopros or, well, anything you throw at them. It's awesome, so much better than having a zoo of chargers standing at the ready. The only thing I miss from the micro-USB days are really lightweight cables (and plugs)

StillBored 3y ago
Do they? My laptop charger can't fast charge my phone. And well, its sorta dumb in that regard and is something like the normal 5V 2A max of pre PD charging for nearly everything that can't negotiate the 15V (or is it 20) the laptop wants and the little charger it comes with provides. The aftermarket chargers are much better at supporting a wide variety of voltages, and even QC/etc nonstandard charge modes. But even then, I have a charge dock on my desk which has different colored ports because only one can do 100W PD, two can do QC charging, and some others are 30W limited, etc. Its a crazy mismatch and probably more than half of the time, people are just getting 5V charging.
- usrusr 3y ago
  Plenty of devices are perfectly fine with plain 5V charging. That's my entire point: instead of a zoo of chargers, you have that one charge dock on your desktop that does it all. I call that victory, not defeat.
hedora 3y ago
The USB-A -> USB-C cable that charges my sennheiser headphones can't charge my iPad, but a longer USB-A -> USB-C cable can (using the same USB-A port on the same charger). Also, the majority of USB chargers that came with my Apple devices can't charge my M2 laptop (even when it is suspended), assuming it's not a cable incompatibility issue.
- usrusr 3y ago
  Devices that consider themselves special enough to deserve a specific fast charge technology can't be expected to charge on just about any USB A, what's complicated about that? Your Sennheiser will fill up just fine in a pinch on the iPad's charger or on the M1 charger. Will the iPad charge on the charger for the M1? Likely, unless Apple sells noncompliant PD chargers or if the iPad uses some oddball fastcharge alternative that isn't PD. PD is carefully specced as a pyramid of "bigger sources can serve all lower level sinks and not just a subset" (yes, cables need to encode their level)

not_a_shill 3y ago

Why not think about it as being able to charge other devices with your laptop cable?

hedora 3y ago

I wonder if the EU is going to amend the USB-C charger requirement to address this.

thiht 3y ago

I can charge my laptop, my PS5 controller, my headset and my Kindle with a single cable next to my couch. It does some good. I don’t care that I can use any cable for charging, I care that if I have a charging cable I can use it with any of my devices.