undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgadgetoid6y ago0 comments

While I totally understand the dream of “use the same power supply for everything” I really can’t emphasise just how much impact “use the flippin’ official power supply” has in support burden.

The rash of people digging out their dusty old 500mA microUSB chargers for their early Pi’s made “have you tried a good power supply” almost a meme.

The Switch not truly embracing USB Type-C makes me grumpy. I wonder if the - possibly dockless and portable only - Switch 2 will rectify that. Ah- to just use a regular HDMI alt mode cable!

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

jrockway6y ago· 2 in thread

> The Switch not truly embracing USB Type-C makes me grumpy.

In the end, it just shows how little standards actually matter to anyone. Are you going to play Smash Bros. on your Playstation? Nope? Then it doesn't matter if they get USB Type-C right or not. Is your school district going to buy a TotallyLegitPi from AliExpress instead of Raspberry Pis? Nope? Then in the end, it doesn't matter. Marketing wins over technical excellence.

The other problem is how incomprehensibly complex the Type C standard is. Another comment thread says it's 300 pages. Nobody is ever going to get that right unless you ship someone a conformance kit and it flashes green to show 100% compliance. That is the fault of the USB consortium, not the individual implementers that couldn't get every detail in 300 pages of technical documentation right. You can't throw Postel's Law away and expect your standard to work. A lesson for us all!

hermitdev6y ago

The problem is if my son or daughter want to play on the switch while the rest of the family is using the TV, they can't plug in for power, so they've got about 2-3 hours before it takes around the same time to charge (I don't really know how long it takes to charge, because they'll keep unplugging it to check the charge level). If it actually was USB-C compliant, I could hand them a cable and charger they could use from the couch, but nope. I'm not going to replace the Switch if the kids break it, and likewise don't plan on replacing if I break it, and if using a non Nintendo charger purportedly voids the warranty on a standard USB-C spec, not going to chance it. Also, not going to funnel Nintendo extra money for a blessed charger.

naikrovek6y ago

Why does no one do any research?!

Using a third party USB Type-C charger on the switch has NEVER caused damage to a Switch and does not void the warranty.

The Switch supports the Type-C Power Delivery spec as well as Qualcomm's QuickCharge spec -- any type-C charger will work, and some will charge faster than others.

naikrovek6y ago· 1 in thread

The USB type C spec IS FOLLOWED on the Switch! Nintendo chose to use (or was forced to use due to the Tegra chipset) a little-used mode called MyDP or "Mobility DP" which is a Display Port mode meant for mobile devices.

That Nintendo chose to deviate from the Type-C spec here is another piece of misinformation with an insanely good staying power. People WANT to believe it, so they never check for themselves and they distrust anyone saying otherwise, just as you are distrusting me right now.

I bet more people will go do research to see if I'm right about this than do research to see if they themselves are ever right about anything.

gadgetoidOP6y ago

I suspect if they'd chosen a regular DisplayPort or HDMI alt-mode they wouldn't have had to shoulder the burden of claims they deviated from the spec. Granted, engineering constraints may have made that impossible but it's clear that people are seeing a "USB Type-C" port on the Switch and making the assumption that it should work with HDMI or DisplayPort alt modes. Just as people see the "USB Type-C" port on the Pi and make the assumption that any USB Type-C power supply will work. I guess the sooner people unlearn that a USB Type-C port indicates any sort of compatibility with a corresponding USB Type-C connector the better.

MyDP appears to be woefully obscure to the point that this misinformation might just as well be the truth for all the difference it makes.

Dell and Lenovo, and probably some other manufacturers besides, are already playing this confusion to their advantage by releasing first-party docks that are guaranteed to work with their laptops.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse