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by colechristensen 333 days ago
They are likely not following the USB spec correctly. Things like pulling certain pins high or low or having a set resistance between certain pins or communications between the host and device will all affect what goes over the wire and whether the host or the device will accept this. Cables will also have some pins entirely unconnected.

Cheap, bad, shortcuts, etc. will result in an out of spec cable being necessary for an out of spec device to work correctly with an in or out of spec hub. It's terrifically frustrating but a fact of the world.

And this isn't just random no name knockoffs. The Raspberry Pi in certain versions didn't correctly follow the power spec. Both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 either incompletely, incorrectly, or intentionally abused the USB spec. The Lumen metabolism monitoring device doesn't follow the USB spec. This is one of those things where you want a bit of a walled garden to force users of a technology to adhere to certain rules. Especially when power and charging is involved which can cause fires.
2 comments
rjh29 333 days ago
The Nintendo Switch PD charges from every adapter and cable I have tried. However the Switch's power brick itself won't PD charge any other device.
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jamesy0ung 333 days ago
The charger included with the original Nintendo Switch charges my MacBook Pro at 40 watts.
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bondant 333 days ago
I frequently use the Switch's power brick to charge my Thinkpad, as it's smaller and so easier to transport than the Thinkpad's original power brick.
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rjh29 332 days ago
Me too, I have a tiny 30W PD charger + usb-c cable which is enough for my uses, and about 10% of the size and weight of the 65W power brick.
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lxgr 333 days ago
> This is one of those things where you want a bit of a walled garden to force users of a technology to adhere to certain rules.

That’s what consumer protection laws with teeth and electric safety certifications like CE or UL are for, not walled gardens.

History has shown that relying on hardware DRM, like Apple did with Lightning doesn’t prevent manufacturers, from doing dangerous things, because they’ll find ways around it sooner rather than later.

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