I just went to charge my kitchen scale and it wouldn’t work until I dug out a USB-A -> C cable and plugged it into my desktop…
It just reminded me of how many devices like that I have. This scale, my wife’s sound torc, some car jumperstarters, and I think a one or two more…
I assume it’s because they just slap a usbc port on a dumb 5v circuit that doesn’t have a power negotiation controller. So the cable and the charger cant figure out the power needs of the device are and just never send any.
All of that because they couldn’t be bothered to put two resistors for the detect pin.
Remember, line must go up at any cost.
Bro have you SEEN the price of resistors lately?
……cuz I haven’t and I assume it’s fractions of a penny per.
But wait. Doesn’t this make them both dumb? I’d expect a modern USB-C charger to still support basic 5v low current lazy devices too. If there’s a USB-A to C cable that works, it must also still be possible to send the basic 5v down a C-C cable.
I also think there’s always going to be a balance between how much a device needs to make and/or how much it needs fast charging to make sense to add the charging circuit for PD/PPS. Even $1-2 on top of the cost can ruin margins in the current electronic market.
USB c has active negotiation for power and communication via a cc pin
The usb a to c cable has a pull up resistor that mimics this and says “give 5v”
Some usb c chargers have a fallback 5v mode for this scenario but not all do
PD includes a 5v option, so you’d think that chargers would default to a dumb 5v/4.5w with no other input, but apparently not… It’s probably something to do with the overcharge protection, or to not (further) harm a device with a damaged charge controller.
Or it could be that my PD chargers are pre pandemic and PD 3.1 fixed this.
Well, I’d expect that if they allowed 5v through but with a low current limit (I think the default 5v standard states quite a low current allowance). They could catch anything drawing too much and shut the port off until it detects disconnection/other reset.
I mean, if they’re thinking about protecting a downstream device, adding this logic would make more sense than just not supplying any power unless a negotiation is made.
In any case, since standard USB ports on a computer will output 5v without anything being negotiated, then it’s really no less safe than any other USB port in that regard.
Surface Pro X is the worst about this. It knows you’re trying to charge it via the USB c ports. And tells you to use their stupid charger instead.
Agreed. Learned this the hard way with my portable 4g router. It’s the pickiest gadget I own with cord and plug selection and it left me hanging when I really needed it and I don’t carry an A to C cord often. I wish I could find a good alternative to the Netgear Nighthawk M1100
Maybe this? : https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-e750/
I haven’t tried this out but I have another one of their travel routers and found it pretty good overall
I have a few routers by them, but not this one. That’s really cool for in the city but I worry about reception. The main reason I got the nighthawk was to see if I could log into work from a hot spring with spotty reception. It has antenna ports hidden under the little rubber feet and it does help the range a lot. Still haven’t tried the hot spring, but I tried it at a family member in the country’s house where the reception is weak and it got me a usable signal. Thanks for sharing. I’ll look into glinet a bit more.
