USB-C PD: New Technology Done Right
hackaday.com
There is a tendency as we get older, to retreat into an instinctive suspicion of anything new or associated with young people. All of us will know older people who have fallen down this rabbit hole…

I wanted to share this opinion on Hackaday about a topic that is the usefulness of a something that has become ubiquitous relatively fast.

This techonolgyy has a lot of potential, what do you think?

  • narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
    251·
    11 months ago

    I generally like USB-PD, as you can generally plug in any PD compliant device into any PD compliant charger and it will charge. The connector doesn’t even matter, PD works over Lightning and for example MagSafe as well.

    What I found to be lacking are these multi-port charging bricks. They do a solid job at charging battery-powered devices, but most of them renegotiate the power contract with every connected device when you plug another one in or remove one. I tried multiple chargers by Anker, Ugreen and Belkin and they all do that. Apparently Apple’s dual 35 watts USB-C charger doesn’t, but manages to renegotiate without a momentary disconnect. It’s only 35 watts though, so it’s not practical for many use cases.

    • Tangent5280@lemmy.worldEnglish
      121·
      11 months ago

      Is there any disadvantage to this renegotiation? As far as I know, it happens to make sure the charging block doesnt burn your house down.

      • Toes♀@ani.socialEnglish
        24·
        11 months ago

        The biggest problem is that devices that aren’t battery powered will reboot.

        Ideally you would have each port on its own isolated bus.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
          11·
          11 months ago

          I suspect a most people call power bricks “chargers” and forget there are non-battery-powered devices that they can power.

      • Great Blue Heron@lemmy.caEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        USB-PD can be used for more than just charging. If you’re running something (a headphone amp for example) from one port of a multi-port brick, you don’t want it to stop momentarily every time you plug or unplug one of the other ports.

      • narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        Yes, if the device isn’t battery powered. Think one-board computers or also docks (for example Steam Deck Dock). The Deck doesn’t turn off, but the dock switches to being powered by the Steam Deck momentarily, which resets its ports as well (display and network disconnects briefly).

    • fidodo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      11 months ago

      I believe that’s because the power needs to be shared between the ports. They normally have a maximum combined output that gets split between devices based on what charging speed they support.

      • narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Yes, but apparently you can renegotiate without briefly disconnecting, as that’s what the Apple charger apparently does. Not sure how this works on a technical level, but all multiport chargers should do that. Most don’t.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.eeEnglish
      21·
      11 months ago

      I carry around a two port 110w GaN charger for the laptops. Fast charges everything else.