USB-C 'Minefield'

Nitefly

Nitefly

Nitefly

Man of Honour
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
37,341
OK the thread title is a little dramatic but after a browse this morning I'm really rather surprised to see quite how complex and uncertain USB-C charging specifications are. At best, this can lead to crappy charging and, at worst, a fire hazard. This issue is further compounded by the fact that every website in this era is trying to sell you something and product reviews are sponsored / bought, so misinformation is no doubt rife. So, weighing up (a) the risk of looking like an idiot with (b) the fact I am an idiot, I thought I'd flag the issues here whilst simultaneously asking "hurrrr what should I buy hurrrr please help". I should add that I still don't really understand all the nuances of the subject - so proceed with caution!

This link, albeit old, summarises the issues:

https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10916264/usb-c-russian-roulette-power-cords

Since then, I believe the standard has been changed from the now disused 'quick charge' to 'power delivery', which implies 'super fast safe charging'.

On the basis of that, I'm going to plump with one of these to charge my Nintendo switch:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XTMK9H2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1_1_1?smid=A296JJ7EW4ORVE&psc=1

... but the next question is, what wall charger to charge the portable charger! I've read that even rav powers old 36 watt usb-c plugs will damage your devices due to voltage mismatches. Anyway, this one looks like the winner:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Prem...535792103&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=pd+plug+anker

TLDR - I don't know if your houses will burn down / devices bricked, but will my house burn down with these devices? Thanks!

@Phate @b0rn2sk8 @Plainsong @Kreeeee - just tagging to be helpful as I mentioned this issue previously and you may not be aware of some of the crap surrounding this, but you probably are!

On a separate note, this has been one of the most annoying 'research' adventures I've done. Endless GDPR spam on websites and so many 'DANGER DON'T BUY but wooo buy these products and get me commission'. Seems difficult to find any decent info these days.
 
You rang!!

I agree USB C is a minefield, especially if you are going for power delivery.

I think what you have picked will be fine.

If it’s just for a switch, any 5V 10W power brick/power bank and a usb A > C cable will be fine to charge in handheld mode. It will just take while, it will also slowly charge while in use also. That’s all I use outside of the official adapter in the dock.

Just make sure you use a decent cable that it within the USB A/C spec with the proper pull up resistors in the cable and you will be fine. Stick to decent brands like Anker, they are a known quantity.
 
Yeah USB-C could be the next best thing but the unnecessary complexity and propitiatory takes on it are a mess and potentially dangerous sometimes :( surprisingly I found myself a relatively early convert to the merits of it when done right as largely I don't think USB as it stood was in a bad place.
 
Rroff said:
Yeah USB-C could be the next best thing but the unnecessary complexity and propitiatory takes on it are a mess and potentially dangerous sometimes :( surprisingly I found myself a relatively early convert to the merits of it when done right as largely I don't think USB as it stood was in a bad place.
Click to expand...

Not sure I agree, there is nothing wrong with things like thunderbolt, it adds functionality but stays within the principle of the Standard and a proper cable shouldn’t have any issues with it.

Almost all of the problem lies with the race to the bottom and the need for ultra cheap 99p cables people demand. Most people are seriously uneducated when it comes to how electronics and electrical systems work. They don’t appreciate sticking 60w though a thin gage wire will cause fires.

Most people think everything If fine if it has the right plug and cheaper is better value when often it’s quite the opposite and instead should be focusing on quality. They are also completely blind to the fact it’s their huge demand for something for nothing that causes all of these issues.

I used to buy cheap cables, those days are long gone. It’s just a failed economy, a quality cable lasts a lifetime.
 
Ive got lots of anker power products everyone has been Rocksolid and reliable.


For anything powerbank/charger related theyr e the one is recommend.


By 10,000mah metal powerbank looks like an old Zippo from ww2 its so worn and battered, quite cool ^_^

Thier cables are good too, they use thicker gage wires for the power lines than the data lines to help with charging.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

Kreeeee said:
The issue isn't usb-c but usb-pd. I avoid anything to do with usb-pd and just deal with slower charging over 5v where there are none of these issues.
Click to expand...
Really? From what I’ve read PD is the standard that everything should ideally be complying to but it’s ‘quick charge’ products that are quasi-PD that are the villain and have lately been discontinued.

It’s either using USB A/C adaptors from a USB C source (so devices brick because they can’t handle the USB C power), or using a crappy USB C wall adaptor that doesn’t supply the correct ampage / voltage that’s the major issues I think. Of course if you have bonus info on PD, please share!
 
@Nitefly best site for electronics or home stuff reviews is thewirecutter its ran by the new York Times they do full testing (including some dropdowns by outside eexperts) and best thing is they do a brief summary at the top "best pick, second place, budget buy" etc but then below the full testing methodology all thier reasoning etc if you want to read it.

Also they focus on real world use that your likley to need not just the most overpriced highest spec. (But they will usualy have a "totally over kill but if you want to spend the money" category too
 
Tefal said:
@Nitefly best site for electronics or home stuff reviews is thewirecutter its ran by the new York Times they do full testing (including some dropdowns by outside eexperts) and best thing is they do a brief summary at the top "best pick, second place, budget buy" etc but then below the full testing methodology all thier reasoning etc if you want to read it.

Also they focus on real world use that your likley to need not just the most overpriced highest spec. (But they will usualy have a "totally over kill but if you want to spend the money" category too
Click to expand...
Thanks buddy will check that out.

Thanks again to all for the replies :)
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Not sure I agree, there is nothing wrong with things like thunderbolt, it adds functionality but stays within the principle of the Standard and a proper cable shouldn’t have any issues with it.

Almost all of the problem lies with the race to the bottom and the need for ultra cheap 99p cables people demand. Most people are seriously uneducated when it comes to how electronics and electrical systems work. They don’t appreciate sticking 60w though a thin gage wire will cause fires.

Most people think everything If fine if it has the right plug and cheaper is better value when often it’s quite the opposite and instead should be focusing on quality. They are also completely blind to the fact it’s their huge demand for something for nothing that causes all of these issues.

I used to buy cheap cables, those days are long gone. It’s just a failed economy, a quality cable lasts a lifetime.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with Thunderbolt - IMO it should have been a mandatory part of the spec even. But everyone has their own implementation of USB-C in general which often is almost but not quite the same as anyone else causing odd issues incompatibilities and the race to the bottom with some cheap and sometimes dangerous implementations.
 
USB as a standard has gone down the drain ever since samsung et al started using it as a way to charge their phones and crap, it's not a serial communications bus any more, it's been taken over and is now an utterly exploited and desandardised power plug.

In fact ALL standards are going down the drain. Just look at SD, it's gone out of control, You have class 10, then U1 or whatever, now we have App class 42 or whatnot, they have lost the plot - and the hilarious thing is the performance of all these standards totally inconsistent. I have a class 2 cards from decades ago which outperforms class 10 cards lol so you know it's just for mind control to milk money and the physical memory chips are exactly the same. Wake up people.

I don't understand why we have allowed something which is meant to be a standard to become so and polluted destandardised, surely the point of a standard is that it's set a few times and then people build around that. Look how long USB lasted at 5V@500mA and suddenly in the past few years they are now pumping absolutely every combination of voltage and amperage they possibly can through a USB cable! Just stop buying it and it will fix itself!

Sad thing is it's almost impossible to find a decent branded charger which isn't pumping your USB devices with ridiculous non standard currents or even worse voltage boost or some other "intelligent charging" branded crap, how about we stop dumbing down the nation, then we wont need "intelligent charger" any more.


It's sad enough that the phone industry wants to keep their phones as disposable as possible in order to keep milking money and resources and filling the back pockets of the elite, but come on how can we let this happen. They are also responsible for the rise in SSD prices because they want to keep filling disposable phones with it because SSDs last years compared to 24 months for a disposable phone.

Entire industry has lost the plot.
 
asim18 said:
USB as a standard has gone down the drain ever since samsung et al started using it as a way to charge their phones and crap, it's not a serial communications bus any more, it's been taken over and is now an utterly exploited and desandardised power plug.

In fact ALL standards are going down the drain. Just look at SD, it's gone out of control, You have class 10, then U1 or whatever, now we have App class 42 or whatnot, they have lost the plot - and the hilarious thing is the performance of all these standards totally inconsistent. I have a class 2 cards from decades ago which outperforms class 10 cards lol so you know it's just for mind control to milk money and the physical memory chips are exactly the same. Wake up people.
Click to expand...


But a class 2 card would obviously outperform a class 10 cards in certain situations.

Thats why no one uses class 10 for general use as theyr e for sustained read write and generally perform badly in random access, if also guess your class 10 new card is huge and your 20+ year old class 2 card is tiny.

Not to mention there were less fakes "decades" ago when you were in primary school and sd cards didn't exist....



Oh and asim bingo, mind control and wake up!


howabout we stop dumbing down the nation, then we wont need "intelligent charger" any more.
Click to expand...

The nation is being dumbed down because you're now required to actually read and check things? Instead the nation would be "woke and smart" if everything was stuck with 0.5a chargers for everything?

You buy Apple by any chance?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom