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Complicated designs are neither a good nor bad sign. Sometimes complicated designs are just the result of solving complicated problems. And USB-C is anything bu
by hnlmorg 1y ago
Complicated designs are neither a good nor bad sign. Sometimes complicated designs are just the result of solving complicated problems. And USB-C is anything but simple.
- amelius 1y agoIf you have ten types of charger, all of them working fine, and one of them is 10x as complicated as the others, then that's at least a bit suspicious, since more components means more opportunities to fail.
- npteljes 1y agoCould also mean more insurance. In case nothing happens, insurance complexity seems overprotection, but when something happens, nothing is too much for people to get back whatever value is lost.
- rwmj 1y agoFirstly you can have extra components (like the temperature sensors in this Anker supply) that monitor other components, and will shut down the power supply in case of an anomalous condition. Secondly for most circuits, most of the time, you can simply leave out components and the circuit will continue to work, at least on the happy path. For example take a typical PC motherboard, snip off some of the capacitors, and chances are that it'll still work. Big Clive has examples of very cost-reduced circuits where components are simply not mounted - there are even pads on the PCB for them, they appear in the reference design, but the manufacturer didn't include them, and the device will appear to work until it suddenly doesn't.
- amelius 1y agoYou are assuming they use the temperature sensors as protection, and not as a way to drive the circuit to its upper limits.
- mystified5016 1y agoYou clearly have no idea what kind of engineering goes into something like this. All of your arguments are pointless and uninformed. You have no idea at all what you're talking about.
- amelius 1y agoLet me just quote the guy from the video: "An interesting design, but bloody complex. With so many components the probability of some failing is adding up." And using less components so fewer things can break is actually a thing in engineering contexts.
- hnlmorg 1y agoThe GP literally provided you with examples of where additional components can provide resilience while still allowing the circuit to function should they fail. And yet you still reply with the reductive argument that there is some magical one-to-one correlation between component count and probability of failure.