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by wtallis 875 days ago
Battery fault detection needs to be implemented entirely within the battery pack in order to be worthwhile. USB is more than sufficient for communicating information from a battery pack to a host system.

There's no need to speculate about complicated technology based on ancient patents when there's a simple and far more plausible explanation available: Obviously what this connector provides that Type C lacks is a secure latching mechanism, which is critical because there's no battery in the headset itself.
1 comments
eternityforest 875 days ago
Why not just put a tiny battery in the headset, sufficient for a few minutes of use, like an LTO battery that won't just wear out?

Or add latching to USB-C?

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wtallis 875 days ago
Adding latching to USB-C would largely defeat the purpose of using a USB-C connector, because you'd be throwing away most of the compatibility that the USB-C connector could win. At that point, the USB-C connector would be there merely to check a box on the spec sheet, rather than because it's the right connector for this purpose.

As for a battery or supercap in the headset itself: by all accounts the headset without a battery is pushing the limits of what is a reasonable weight. There needs to be less stuff in the headset, not more.

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eternityforest 874 days ago
There's other applications for latching USB-C, not many, because latching is often terrible, but a few.

Apple is probably big enough to convince the USB-IF to make it an official extension to the spec, if they wanted to.

But definitely not an expert, not planning on buying anything Apple or any VR anytime soon.

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