USB-C has been out for years now and neither of these predictions have come to pass. Your comment aged poorly before you even finished writing it.
USB-C isn't without its problems, but neither of those are one of them.
I have USB-C charging devices that will charge off of some cables, but not off the one that will charge my laptop. I now have a box of weird crappy cheap USB-C cables with taped-on notes that say which toys they'll charge.
I never had this problem with previous USBs. If the cable fit in the port, it would charge and transfer data. Sometimes you needed a different cable or port or something to go faster, but they all basically worked.
However, I do have one other cable that won't do data. I think it came with a cheap charger I bought while travelling. I would certainly like it if there was a label saying charge only or something to that effect, on the incomplete cable.
I thought I was being smart ordering some decent Anker cables until I found out when trying to connect a display that they apparently they only support charging? And maybe USB 2.0 transfer speeds?
So I went back looking to try and figure out what I needed instead. Depending on what the various devices involved support, I needed some variation of a thunderbolt cable (2, 3, or 4?) or a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C or a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C. But then I’m supposed to know something about thunderbolt versus DP alt mode versus god knows what else none of which is clearly labeled or explained anywhere on the devices I’m trying to connect.
But then there’s this handy table from Adafruit that says maybe not? https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/85323 — apparently only Thunderbolt supports video, or DisplayPort? And USB-C “full featured” cables are only for higher speed charging, not displays?
Find 10 sites, get 10 different answers.
Anyway, turns out a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C cable worked for this specific display. Why? No idea. Will it work elsewhere? No idea.
I’ve been in the industry professionally for about 25 years now and I have no idea what cable I need to purchase and have no idea how to tell before I purchase whether it will work for a specific use case. I have no idea what non-technical people are expected to do with this besides try every cable they own and pray.
Are other docking stations not like this?
You have a point though; I'm sure there are abominations out there that abuse the USB spec in all sorts of interesting ways, they just haven't been something I've encountered in my years of using USB-C for everything.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/10xj74r/why_d...
It seems that the committee behind the spec was somehow unable to learn from decades of experience, and did not predict that people would want extension cables, and that companies would make them. That's not an actual problem for me. Not being able to reach my yubikey when I'm using my laptop at my desk, is a problem.
Kinda like saying that I have a bunch of very light indoor extension cords and you are wanting to run an outdoor high amperage device (both 110v in this example). Yea, the interface for both is the same, but one is going to be used far less often and require a much more expensive cable for a reason.
- 2 equal size blades
- 2 unequal size blades
- 3 unequal + ground pin
plus a fourth for 20A
- 1 vertical blade, 1 horizontal blade, 1 ground pin
USB-C cables have one form factor, which is what GP is talking about.
It carried 4K/60, but I haven’t tested it across all our devices to be sure it does full power delivery to all. (If it only works on some, I have no problems sending it back until I get one that works well for all.)
I’ll try to remember to come back and report on thread if I found one that works for all my devices (and what it worked for). It’s not something that I’ve time to carefully test during the week.
I’m thinking I should just spend $70 for the Apple cable because it will probably work.
On my personal desk setup, I don’t charge my Macbook in the same cable that carries video. My wife’s setup is a single cable connection (but she has an Air, so only a single external monitor).
Working from home, I undock rarely, so two cables is not a problem for me, but I want a one cable for the kids who will dock/undock almost daily.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1J7Z21J
I have my laptop (Lenovo P1) connected to my monitor. The one cable charges my laptop from my monitor (slowly) and displays 4k video.
Number 1 absolutely has. I've been somewhat in the market for a tester that I can plug both ends of a USB-C cable into and see what voltage, speed, and other specs it supports since most of my cables have zero markings on them.
Kind of hilarious. It's the only example I've ever seen though so not a real problem IMO.
The cables issue is real, but I don't really see the alternative. Would everyone really be happier if all USB-C cables had to be expensive thick 40 Gb/s 100W cables? No.
In a perfect world require every port to have the supported modes displayed beside it, and every cable to have the supported modes etched on the metal connector or something? Lightning bolt for PD, little screen icon for video, something?
It will fall apart as soon as cheap unlicensed electronics hit the market, but at least in general use “hook this brand name laptop up to this brand name monitor with this brand name cable” would not be a seemingly completely inscrutable trial-and-error problem.
I suspect the real answer is better software support to tell you why something isn't working.
Guess what? That's already the case! Manufacturers just choose to completely ignore that part of the specification.
(This is something Apple should fix at the software level by alerting the user, but it highlights the problem that cables are not readily distinguishable.)
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/05/farsace-iphone-...
At the beginning of USB-C you had devices that were not implementing the standard correctly, and using the wrong cable could fry a device.
Now the devices are better protected, you can charge any device with any charger. Of course the charger needs to be powerful enough but if it's too powerful it's still safe to use.
A common offender is devices which leave out the CC resistors, making them only work with A-C cables. But the soon-to-be-released Raspberry Pi 5 also violates the specs, making it basically only work with their proprietary charger.
It’s possible for noncompliant usb c cable to fry electronics.
I don’t know of any other connector standard where the connector doesn’t clearly indicate or imply the cable’s capabilities. I’m sure they exist, but generally for consumer electronics if a cable fits, it works. Except for usb c.