• TORFdot0@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Do not all USB C cables have the capability to do Power Delivery? I thought it was up to the port you plugged it in to support it?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Nope. My daughter is notorious for mixing up cables when they come out of the brick. Some charge her tablet, some are for data transfer, some charge other devices but not her tablet. It’s super confusing. I had to start labeling them for her.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 hours ago

        Come to think of it, all the USB C cables I have are from phone and device chargers so I just took it for granted. Good to know. Thanks for sharing some knowledge with me

        • InputZero@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          5 hours ago

          USB-c cables can vary drastically. Power delivery alone ranges from less than 1 amp at 5 volts to over 5 amps at 20 volts. That’s 5 watts of power on the low end to 100 watts of power on the high end and sometimes more. When a cable meant to run at 5 watts has over 100 watts of power run through, the wires get really hot and could catch fire. The charger typically needs to talk to a very small chip in the high power cables for the cables to say, yes I can handle the power. Really cheap chargers might just push that power out regardless. So while the USB-c form factor is the one plug to rule them all, the actual execution is a fucking mess.