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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
by 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 agoYes, 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 agoJust 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.
- Izkata 3y agoI know I have that option for wireless charging, but at least for this power bank I can't switch the direction. It says on that screen that the connection is controlled by the other device and fails to switch.
- lxgr 3y ago> there's a convention in that ecosystem that power flows from the A connector to the other end That's not just a convention, it's a vital part of the specification :) USB-C devices go to significant lengths to make it hard for users to violate that invariant using an unsafe combination of otherwise safe adapters – that's why there is no USB-C-to-A adapter, for example (because that would let you build an A-to-A cable, and USB-A hosts are not required to detect possible loops/short circuits; USB-C hosts are).
- Izkata 3y agoI mean, I feel like they prefer to keep using A-to-C or A-to-Micro because of power flow instead of packaging C-to-C (and from some quick Amazon searches, C output still looks rare, the majority of what I'm seeing is C input and A output on the power bank itself).
- fragmede 3y agoThose C input ports are usually also output ports.
- lxgr 3y agoAlmost always, as I've noticed only after grabbing a friend's power bank and a C-to-lightning cable for a day trip... I believe an USB-C device port is easier to implement than a host/power supply port, since the host is only allowed to supply Vbus after ensuring that it's connected to a device (by actively probing the resistor connected to the CC pins etc.), whereas a device port only needs to present that resistor. After all, even a passive C-to-micro-B cable can do that.
- Izkata 3y agoSee my other responses in this chain; the only power bank I have that has a USB-C port can't use it for output.
- fragmede 3y ago