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It's 2018 and USB Type-C Is Still a Mess (androidauthority.com)
An anonymous reader shares a column: USB Type-C was billed as the solution for all our future cable needs, unifying power and data delivery with display and audio connectivity, and ushering in an age of the one-size-fits-all cable. Unfortunately for those already invested in the USB Type-C ecosystem, which is anyone who has bought a flagship phone in the past couple of years, the standard has probably failed to live up to the promises. Even the seemingly most basic function of USB Type-C -- powering devices -- has become a mess of compatibility issues, conflicting proprietary standards, and a general lack of consumer information to guide purchasing decisions. The problem is that the features supported by different devices aren't clear, yet the defining principle of the USB Type-C standard makes consumers think everything should just work.
The charging example clearly demonstrates a very common frustration with the standard as it currently stands. Moving phones between different chargers, even of the same current and voltage ratings, often won't produce the same charging speeds. Furthermore, picking a third party USB Type-C cable to replace the typically too short included cable can result in losing fast charging capabilities.
The charging example clearly demonstrates a very common frustration with the standard as it currently stands. Moving phones between different chargers, even of the same current and voltage ratings, often won't produce the same charging speeds. Furthermore, picking a third party USB Type-C cable to replace the typically too short included cable can result in losing fast charging capabilities.
Yet another example of products going out the door while a spec is still in flux -- you get a random collection of things which do and don't work.
This is why being the first adopter of most tech is a dumb idea, because that first generation is going to be shit.
I'm long since over giving a damn about being on the cutting edge, because that edge cuts in more than one direction.
Is this whole mess ultimately due to companies trying to charge too much for licenses to their proprietary charging technology?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Crossover is (mostly) fixed by automatic MDI/MDI-X detection in GbE. Has been a while since I ran into that problem. I do fully agree though. The problem is that the USB-C spec tries to do _everything_, and that cannot work. It is also a stellar example of a really bad design done by smart, but inexperienced engineers. Or by engineers that ignored their experience because they were part of a committee. Kiss rules all engineering that needs to survive in practice. There is no KISS at all in USB-C.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Chief, in my opinion, amongst its many problems is that it's a standard without any form of independent regulatory or licensing body to render verdict on the thousands of devices out there are "compliant" or "not compliant". When I was still doing hardware development, no one wanted to touch USB, it is such a nest of hard problems and impossible solutions. Even things as simple as memory keys might, or might not work on a given host controller and/or with a given version of an operating system. Most of them provably did not obey the electrical spec (pirate code?), but that's ok because most laptops out there did not either, creating some fun and dangerous scenarios which I'm not going to outline here.
And the electrical spec was at least simple to read. The protocol and software spec is much more involved and implementations varied even more wildly.
At the core USB is like it is to ensure a wide ecosystem of cheap components that was all inclusive, and could be easy made in any cheap shop in China. Possibly this is good, in that it ensures access to small and large outfits equally, and in a place like china where one US cent is a big deal, it let everyone in. On the other hand, sometimes that corner you cut shouldn't have been cut and while the device may "work" it doesn't actually work as intended, across the board. And so other standards would require you have your device tested and certified, and made to work as intended. That doesn't really exist for USB. People throw the logo on and launch their stuff out there without any consideration. Then when it doesn't work, they say it's not compatible with X or Y. To a customer, we're left with "what the fuck, is it USB or not?".
The standard was set by the same morons who brought you "USB high speed" vs "USB full speed". To this day, I still don't know off the top of my head which one is USB 1.1 and which USB 2.0. I always have to google it.
In addition to all the madness with charging, they also screwed up the USB 3.x nomenclature. We had a golden opportunity here to leave USB 3.0 referring to USB-A ports (add an extra revision for higher speeds), and have USB 3.1 ref to USB-C ports. That way if you saw USB 3.0 in the specs, you'd know it was a type A port. If you saw USB 3.1 in the specs, you'd know it was a type -C.
Instead they decided to rename USB 3.0 as USB 3.1. So if you see just "USB 3.1" it's referring to a older USB-A style port. If you see "USB 3.1 type C" it's referring to a USB-C port. Unless of course the manufacturer decides to omit "type C" and just call it USB 3.1 in the specs which it's actually a USB-C port. I've had to resort to looking up laptop reviews and viewing pictures of the ports on the sides to confirm exactly what ports it has and doesn't have.
It's like they intentionally trying to make it more confusing.
so apple can sell $29.99 adapters
How many extra pins do you need for a serial connection?
This comment documents you've never used USB-C in your life.
The USB-C connector is what USB should have been from the start. Yes, PD (Power delivery) is optional and you have to be a smart consumer. And it's been knowledge for years now that cheap chinese OEM's were producing non-standard compliant cables and devices that could actively harm compliant devices because the cables and chargers did not meet the spec. That's not USB's fault.
Most of those problems are behind the standard. People also forget that it takes a LONG time for new USB standards to become dominant, USB itself took a decade to become commonplace. USB mini and micro took similar time frames and we aren't anywhere near 10 years yet for USB-C.
Frankly having moved most of my devices to USB-C I love the standard. I don't have to worry about orientation when plugging it in and dealing with the quantum effect where you always have to flip over the USB connector twice to get it to plug in. Not only that but USB-C is the most durrable connector the USB committee has ever approved. And on top of that the Power delivery spec was integrated into the main spec and made standard. In addition the spec has legs in that it can be expanded for increased data transfer much easier than past standards without changing the connector.
USB-C is a god send.
I admit to not looking at these things closely. However, all of my devices now have USB-C and I find it very convenient. I haven't noticed any charging time issues, but I haven't really been paying attention. Maybe for the casual user (most of us), USB-C has worked pretty well?
The USB-C connector is what USB should have been from the start. Yes, PD (Power delivery) is optional and you have to be a smart consumer. And it's been knowledge for years now that cheap chinese OEM's were producing non-standard compliant cables and devices that could actively harm compliant devices because the cables and chargers did not meet the spec. That's not USB's fault.
Would those be USB 2.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB Full Featured, USB Superspeed, USB Superspeed+ or Thunderbolt3 USB-C cables that you are talking about?
I only listed three different types of cables there but they are all different markings and symbols which are commonly used. Apart from the symbol on the plug all the cables are of course identical. Then add power delivery and PD variants of the logos. Non-compliant cables are yet another but relatively small issue, though the ones that carry the compliance logos and slide into the supply chain can be scary.
When people get confused the better solution is not to say that they aren't smart enough, but consider if there are issues with the product.