6 ms·

USBC has been out for over a decade, have you ever run into 2)

hnbear 3y ago
My keyboard came with a usb A to usb C cable which is proprietary in some way. A regular cable doesn’t work for it.
Izkata 3y ago
Up until this year I've had exactly 3 USB-C cables: Nintendo Switch, which is always plugged into its dock; laptop charger, also always plugged in at my desk; and phone charger. No real room for the mistakes they're describing.
- lesuorac 3y ago
  Nintendo Switch is non-compliant [1] so you've already seen (2) it just hasn't been a big enough problem to be visible to you. I suspect a big reason for that is the Switch is a wall<->USB-C charger so you don't try to connect it between many USB-C devices. [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_switch_is_not_usbc_compliant_and_overdraws/ https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_...
  - Izkata 3y ago
    I was responding to the "out for over a decade" part; how long they've been available doesn't mean much if they haven't been very common for consumer electronics for that long. Up until this year I've had only 1 such cable, my phone charger, that could get mixed up in any way... and that one couldn't be mixed up because I didn't have a second unused cable to mix it up with.
    - Ajedi32 3y ago
      I've been using USB-C on basically every consumer electronics device I've used over nearly the past decade. Over the years I have accumulated: 1. A laptop with a USB-C power/data/DisplayPort port 2. A phone with a USB-C power/data port 3. Multiple USB power banks which use a single USB-C port for both charging and discharging 4. A smartwatch with a dock that uses USB-C 5. Multiple flashlights with USB-C charging 6. Multiple bluetooth speakers with USB-C charging 7. A pair of earbuds with a case that uses USB-C charging 8. Dozens of various USB-C cables and power bricks, some of which came included with the products above So far I've had zero issues with any of them. Sure, not all cables support full charging speeds/data rates, but generally speaking I can just plug things in and expect them to work in some fashion. Maybe to iPhone users USB-C feels like a new thing? To everyone else it's been a mature ecosystem for a long time now, which is why a lot of the comments in this thread commenting about it as if it's a brand new, unproven technology seem very strange to me. Edit: Just remembered I also have an air duster and an electric toothbrush that use USB-C. Those didn't immediately occur to me because I don't have to charge them often. There might be more I'm forgetting...
      - Izkata 3y ago
        I'm an Android user, and for your points 5, 6, 7, and 8 all of mine are USB-A to Micro USB (except for a flashlight bought this year which came with a USB-A to USB-C cable, and I use wraparound bluetooth headphones instead of earbuds and get the feeling those designs are just extremely rarely updated). No displayport or smartwatch here, and my power banks all came with A-to-micro or A-to-C cables (mostly the former) - there's a convention in that ecosystem that power flows from the A connector to the other end.
        Ajedi32 3y ago
        Yes, I have seen some products still using micro-B. I've generally just avoided them because I don't want to have to carry another type of cable, so maybe that's colored my perception a bit of how widespread USB-C usage is. For the products you've purchased that came with an A-to-C cable, have you tried using them with a plain C-to-C cable? In my experience usually that will "just work". (Maybe there are some power banks out there that don't support outputting power through their USB-C port. If those exist I've managed to avoid them so far.)
        Izkata 3y ago
        Just tried plugging my phone into one of those power banks like that: The phone recognized it was plugged into USB, but didn't start charging. The light on the power bank did turn on though, so I redid it with a USB power meter: The power bank was sucking power from my phone at about 3.4 watts.
        cesarb 3y ago
        > The power bank was sucking power from my phone at about 3.4 watts. At least on Android, there's an option to change the power direction (IIRC, it's in the same place where you choose the data connection mode). I have to use that option to switch the direction whenever I use the USB-C cable to charge my phone from my laptop, otherwise it tries to charge the laptop from the phone.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    The comment you're referencing is claiming that the Switch is non-compliant at the power delivery protocol level. Assuming that that's true, this has nothing to do with being wired incorrectly, nor is it an implementation mistake that's facilitated by the design of the USB-C plug being reversible. It could literally happen with USB-PD over USB-A/B.

My keyboard came with a usb A to usb C cable which is proprietary in some way. A regular cable doesn’t work for it.

Up until this year I've had exactly 3 USB-C cables: Nintendo Switch, which is always plugged into its dock; laptop charger, also always plugged in at my desk; and phone charger. No real room for the mistakes they're describing.

lesuorac 3y ago
Nintendo Switch is non-compliant [1] so you've already seen (2) it just hasn't been a big enough problem to be visible to you. I suspect a big reason for that is the Switch is a wall<->USB-C charger so you don't try to connect it between many USB-C devices. [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_switch_is_not_usbc_compliant_and_overdraws/ https://old.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/87vmud/the_...
- Izkata 3y ago
  I was responding to the "out for over a decade" part; how long they've been available doesn't mean much if they haven't been very common for consumer electronics for that long. Up until this year I've had only 1 such cable, my phone charger, that could get mixed up in any way... and that one couldn't be mixed up because I didn't have a second unused cable to mix it up with.
  - Ajedi32 3y ago
    I've been using USB-C on basically every consumer electronics device I've used over nearly the past decade. Over the years I have accumulated: 1. A laptop with a USB-C power/data/DisplayPort port 2. A phone with a USB-C power/data port 3. Multiple USB power banks which use a single USB-C port for both charging and discharging 4. A smartwatch with a dock that uses USB-C 5. Multiple flashlights with USB-C charging 6. Multiple bluetooth speakers with USB-C charging 7. A pair of earbuds with a case that uses USB-C charging 8. Dozens of various USB-C cables and power bricks, some of which came included with the products above So far I've had zero issues with any of them. Sure, not all cables support full charging speeds/data rates, but generally speaking I can just plug things in and expect them to work in some fashion. Maybe to iPhone users USB-C feels like a new thing? To everyone else it's been a mature ecosystem for a long time now, which is why a lot of the comments in this thread commenting about it as if it's a brand new, unproven technology seem very strange to me. Edit: Just remembered I also have an air duster and an electric toothbrush that use USB-C. Those didn't immediately occur to me because I don't have to charge them often. There might be more I'm forgetting...
    - Izkata 3y ago
      I'm an Android user, and for your points 5, 6, 7, and 8 all of mine are USB-A to Micro USB (except for a flashlight bought this year which came with a USB-A to USB-C cable, and I use wraparound bluetooth headphones instead of earbuds and get the feeling those designs are just extremely rarely updated). No displayport or smartwatch here, and my power banks all came with A-to-micro or A-to-C cables (mostly the former) - there's a convention in that ecosystem that power flows from the A connector to the other end.
      - Ajedi32 3y ago
        Yes, I have seen some products still using micro-B. I've generally just avoided them because I don't want to have to carry another type of cable, so maybe that's colored my perception a bit of how widespread USB-C usage is. For the products you've purchased that came with an A-to-C cable, have you tried using them with a plain C-to-C cable? In my experience usually that will "just work". (Maybe there are some power banks out there that don't support outputting power through their USB-C port. If those exist I've managed to avoid them so far.)
        Izkata 3y ago
        Just tried plugging my phone into one of those power banks like that: The phone recognized it was plugged into USB, but didn't start charging. The light on the power bank did turn on though, so I redid it with a USB power meter: The power bank was sucking power from my phone at about 3.4 watts.
        cesarb 3y ago
        > The power bank was sucking power from my phone at about 3.4 watts. At least on Android, there's an option to change the power direction (IIRC, it's in the same place where you choose the data connection mode). I have to use that option to switch the direction whenever I use the USB-C cable to charge my phone from my laptop, otherwise it tries to charge the laptop from the phone.
- lxgr 3y ago
  The comment you're referencing is claiming that the Switch is non-compliant at the power delivery protocol level. Assuming that that's true, this has nothing to do with being wired incorrectly, nor is it an implementation mistake that's facilitated by the design of the USB-C plug being reversible. It could literally happen with USB-PD over USB-A/B.