USB-C charging is not as universal as you think

[monkeywadaf]

"But we care about planet, you already have charger at home"
Charger at home: "wtf did you plug in? I don't know how to charge this thing."

[rosalina-dev]

Reading from comments, I agree with most of them and I think this is where things went wrong:
The USB C spec works properly, but for C to C chargers to work with devices, they need new components on the device side that not every manufacturer will be willing to implement correctly. In the case of your pump it's apparently missing some resistors, they only changed the connector without worrying about the specs. Another problem is OEMs making USB C chargers (which everyone calls universal thanks to the OEMs themselves) that only support the preferred charge protocol for the device it ships with. Chargers you buy yourself from reputable brands will try to support as many protocols as they can.
We need charge protocol benchmarks of chargers & devices to become the norm in reviews to hold manufacturers accountable for their low effort at making USB C as compatible as it can be.

[kwakeham]

Doing some development recently and found that high wattage PD things tend to adhere to communications standards, and lower wattage is all over the place. This is 100% companies not adhering to requirements, but also because "oh this works well enough" requires two resistors, while proper compliance requires communications chips, and 90% of them require a microcontroller and the other 10% require writing the same script every other company will write. I'm dealing with this now with both TI and Maxim parts.

[hg-irtb]

From what I can tell, USB PD is a good standard... on paper. The problem is that it came too late after all the other device manufacturers made their own charging standards when USB 2.0 only had 5V, 0.5A (2A max with negotiation) power output. This led to scenarios where manufacturers like Nintendo use charging schemes that are considered out of spec and cause huge headaches for average consumers.

[TheSecondFinest]

"We're not including the charger anymore. Let's be honest, EVERYONE already has like 5 of these lying around at home, right? Especially the USB-C ones that are relatively new and got excluded from the box by major phone manufacturers shortly after they were introduced. You see, it's cheaper for us, I mean, better for the environment. And by that, we mean that our CO2 footprint will get smaller and thus give us a better ESG score and therefore investors. Won't really help the environment at all once everybody orders a separate charger in a separate box in a separate delivery. But you only have to do that ONCE, right? Because the charger is universal..."

[mpx]

"Smart" chargers tend not to work with "dumb" devices (because they quite often fail to adhere to the actual standard). And there's a whole separate issue of different cables supporting different voltages that you haven't mentioned. Still way better than a zoo of coaxial chargers that we used to have.

[awarepenguin]

Louis: Dropping knowledge.
Me: Since when are there USB-C, rechargeable, air mattress pumps?

[beaniiman]

This is why there is a PD standard that things are finally starting to take advantage of.

[MLGaeming]

I was wondering why my power bank had a separate "trickle charging" mode. Apparently it just uses a dumb 5V output instead of forcing negotiations.

[ryqueezy]

“USB-C charging is not as universal as you think” is truly the informative video of all time. I especially loved it when Louis said “It’s chargin’ time” and charged all over the phones.

[h]

My thoughts on this as an European citizen:
Oh, I can see so many lawsuits against those equipment manufacturers. You see, our rules actually state, that your USB-C device HAS to be compliant with the standards. This results in the fact, that every single charger we got in Europe was compatible with every single device we could pair with it. Otherwise the device would be banned, and the company fined up to a few tens/hundred bucks per device sold. And we regularly have devices banned due to being shoddy quality.

[WizardTim]

To be fair the USB C standard does work, a lot of thought has been put into it and I find it allows for fantastic interoperability, however it must be implemented properly which is often not done either because it's the engineer's first time with USB C or it's intentional cost cutting. It is also a standard trying to not only power most low-mid power devices but also achieve very high data rates but still be affordable in all scenarios, as a result it is inevitability very complex.

The air mattress pump was likely quickly modified to accept USB C, they probably didn't realize they needed resistors on CC1 and CC2 or a common mistake is to only use 1 resistor or bridge the two resistors together, this results in the device only working with USB A to USB C cables which always have 5 V and don't use the CC pins, the pump likely has in its instructions "Use only the provided USB A to USB C cable for charging." because they couldn't figure out what was wrong or they never caught it during development.

Modern flagship smartphones often have very intelligent power negotiation ICs that can handle most scenarios, almost always both USB C PD as well as older USB QC and others along D+ D-. However getting full charge rate off them you need not only the right charger but the right USB C cable, unfortunately many companies don't advertise those specifications so it can be very difficult to know what you're actually buying, also expecting the average end consumer to fully understand this without being an engineer themselves is also quite a stretch but I think is reasonable if done properly with good communication of support and adherence to the standards. Consumers already know the meaning of things like 1.8 GHz CPU, 8 GB RAM, 3, 000 mAh battery and 2.1 A charger, supported voltages and currents for USB C PD devices should always be clearly displayed in device specifications on product pages however I find today this is rarely done well or at all.

The framework charger likely doesn't comply with USB C PD charger requirements, many laptop chargers do this in order to save money (looking at you Nintendo). It probably only supports 15 V or 20 V so doesn't power 5 V devices. Chargers at certain wattages are meant to support certain voltages but there are of course exceptions in the standard as well as the fact the USB C police aren't going to come knocking if you cheap out and all the consumer can do is complain a bit.

One thing you don't mention but I absolutely hate and think should be punished are chargers that are cheaply redesigned to use the USB C connector but don't do any intelligent communication, so they just constantly have 12 V on the connector, you plug that into a 5 V device and BANG your device is bricked and of course the company responsible for the dangerous charger will say, "The manual says the charger is only for our device, pound sand".

[webbastler]

The issue here is the charging circuit in the device. I assume that the circuit in the pump is literally a copy/paste job like "hey it worked with micro usb, so let's just slap a usb c on there". Problem being a proper usb-c charger will monitor the CC pins before it delivers any power. A usb-a charger will put out 5V regardless. But to be fair there is o excuse why we couldn't just standardize on maybe 3 to 4 ranges of usb c power all of which *have* to support a set range of voltages with the given currents to reach their power rating:
18W: Needs to support at least 9V
30W: Needs to support at least12V
60W: Needs to support at least 20V
>60W: Needs to support all voltages up to 48V

[Sterlingr]

I remember learning about this a while back when the Nintendo Switch first came out. Some chargers charge it, some only maintain charge level. Some don't work with it, and some even outright can cause damage to it. Not sure if it's still an issue with newer models, but, apparantly it was something to do with the switch's port, and their implementation of the host signal voltages.

[okandemirbaykal]

Very interesting. My experience has been nearly flawless with USB-C compatibility with different devices. However, I should point out that I have a non-bundled (Baseus 65W GaN charger, the old one) charger that charges my friend's e-cigs, my ipad, my s22, my laptops, and every other USB-C device I've ever tried it on. It may be that standalone chargers may "go out of their way" (even though this should be expected) to tick more compatibility boxes than default chargers. Just an FYI, doesn't really fix the fact that USB-C specs are guidelines not enforced as many electronics standards are.

[somethingelse]

Never had a problem with charger swaps. I used a slightly lower output charger for my tablet from day one, and the battery is still going strong, 8 years next month. I'm not a big believer in fast charging as a necessity. I'd rather ease the power into my batteries. Less heat, less stress, longer life. Thanks for the demonstration Louis!

[houghwhite]

It's funny how it's only the connector that is universal, doesn't mean everything magically electrically compatible

[shawnswinferd]

For someone that's supposed to be "ranting", this made a great ASMR video. Thanks ;)

[profosist]

This is something that frustrates me to no end. I tend to buy higher end chargers which both A and C ports on them which can usually get around the issue.

[Stadtionalist]

I honestly never encountered this issue, while I mix up chargers, cables and devices all the time.

Those devices include various brand phones, headsets, charging cases, a dab+ radio, daylight lamp, chromebook, workstation laptop, docking station, wireless mice and keyboards and a dashcam. The only issue I encounter is when I use a 1A or 1.5A output brick (or USB plug on an extention cord or powerbank), my phones and laptops will display a warning that fast charging is not available. Even using an aliexpress micro USB to USB C adapter on random garbo micro USB cable works.

Watching the video and reading the comments, I'm one lucky SOB who should count his blessings.