[MBCook]

It’s so weird. I have what I would categorize as “cheap crap” that works great. Like an IR thermometer for surfaces or an electric ‘compressed air’ duster (powerful fan with a small nozzle and a battery).

Both work perfectly on proper USB-C and charge. They were both $15 or less. The kind of device where every cent on the BoM may matter.

The devices in my original comment? Hundreds of dollars each. They have to go through certifications to prove they do what they say. The price of two resistors (they don’t need more power) is nothing compared to the MSRP which I already suspect has a lot of profit baked in.

There is no way to guess if a device charges right or not without finding the logo (which I guess could be a lie from an unscrupulous vendor) or finding reviews.

[johnwalkr]

It’s not about the price of two resistors, it’s just incompetence when updating the design from micro-usb to usb-c.

[MBCook]

I agree. I think they took an old design for the USB part of things and just swapped the connector too.

[johnwalkr]

Yes, I think it's a case of the engineer finding a connector that doesn't expose the CC pins (where the resistors go), and not even realizing that something is missing when they update a design from microusb to usb-c.