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The EU is enforcing USB-C on portable devices
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Berni:

--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on June 26, 2022, 10:36:55 pm ---
--- Quote ---Moreover, the wide support that the law has received from the public comes mostly (but not entirely) from users of iPhones.
--- End quote ---

Why would iPhone users want USB-C support? That kind of implies they think the grass is greener over in USB land but my superficial stereotype of an Apple user is that they think the grass is much better where they are.

--- End quote ---

Well if there iPhone had a USB-C port then they could charge it with the same charger cable that they use to change the iPad or MacBook Air (Those are USB-C not Lightning). They could even use the same USB-C to USB-C cable hanging off the charger to charge there iPhone from a MacBook. But that would make way too much sense, just like letting you store files wherever you want in the filesystem.


--- Quote from: tooki on June 26, 2022, 10:16:20 pm ---That objection doesn’t make any sense. Analog feedback makes no sense at all, and a third wire could easily carry handshaking to negotiate a voltage, just like USB-PD. I think some laptops do that already. (For sure, I know many use a third wire to identify charger types, e.g. genuine or third party, wattage, etc.)

--- End quote ---

Yep you would never want a analog feedback because if anything goes wrong with that feedback line (bad contact, short etc..) the output voltage might just fly off towards the max output voltage and kill the device.

This is easily solved by speaking some digital protocol over the wire, once it becomes a standard the semiconductor manufacturers quickly make cheep tiny single chip solutions to do this negotiation (because they know the market for this is large). So it does not add that much cost to the device and there is no licensing fee to pay for the standard. This also allows to negotiate other things than voltage, like the max current/wattage. It is not practical to make every charger output 5A at all its supported voltages. A tiny compact charger might do 5A at 5V but drop down to 2A at 20V.


--- Quote from: tooki on June 27, 2022, 06:01:33 am ---I think that depends entirely on the mechanical design (e.g. does the housing reinforce the jack, how is it mounted to the PCB, etc). Because many a laptop has died because of a failed barrel jack.

--- End quote ---
Indeed i have repaired a fair few broken barrel jacks.

Not that a barrel jack would help with standardizing when every frigin manufacturer uses a different barrel jack from the massive zoo of jacks. I keep a whole bag of barrel jack adapters if all shapes and sizes for when i want to power a barrel jack device from my lab PSU.

But if you break a USB cable you can just take another one from your box of miscalanius cables you collect over the years.
Zero999:

--- Quote from: Berni on June 27, 2022, 06:36:10 am ---Yep you would never want a analog feedback because if anything goes wrong with that feedback line (bad contact, short etc..) the output voltage might just fly off towards the max output voltage and kill the device.
--- End quote ---
That can be overcome with good design. If the analogue feedback inputs are biased to a slightly higher voltage, with high value resistors, the output voltage will drop to zero, if the feedback is disconnected.


--- Quote ---
--- Quote from: tooki on June 27, 2022, 06:01:33 am ---I think that depends entirely on the mechanical design (e.g. does the housing reinforce the jack, how is it mounted to the PCB, etc). Because many a laptop has died because of a failed barrel jack.

--- End quote ---
Indeed i have repaired a fair few broken barrel jacks.

Not that a barrel jack would help with standardizing when every frigin manufacturer uses a different barrel jack from the massive zoo of jacks. I keep a whole bag of barrel jack adapters if all shapes and sizes for when i want to power a barrel jack device from my lab PSU.

But if you break a USB cable you can just take another one from your box of miscalanius cables you collect over the years.

--- End quote ---
The main issue I have with barrel connectors is the voltages aren't standardised. It's possible to plug a 12V power supply into a 5V device and fry it.
tooki:

--- Quote from: langwadt on June 27, 2022, 06:22:18 am ---
--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on June 26, 2022, 10:36:55 pm ---
--- Quote ---Moreover, the wide support that the law has received from the public comes mostly (but not entirely) from users of iPhones.
--- End quote ---

Why would iPhone users want USB-C support? That kind of implies they think the grass is greener over in USB land but my superficial stereotype of an Apple user is that they think the grass is much better where they are.

--- End quote ---

USB-C cables are used for everything else and the Apple connector is USB2 which is slow for modern devices with multi-mega-pixel cameras

--- End quote ---
That maybe would have mattered in the past, but wired syncing has almost entirely gone the way of the dodo. (In addition to iCloud, which works very well, iPhones have supported local syncing to your computer via Wi-Fi for a long time now.)
PlainName:

--- Quote ---Well if there iPhone had a USB-C port then they could charge it with the same charger cable that they use to change the iPad or MacBook Air (Those are USB-C not Lightning).
--- End quote ---

OK! Didn't know it was half and half land :)
PlainName:

--- Quote ---The main issue I have with barrel connectors is the voltages aren't standardised. It's possible to plug a 12V power supply into a 5V device and fry it.
--- End quote ---

I thought that was kind of resolved by having 5V jacks with a 2.5mm pin and >5V with 2.1mm pin.
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