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I never knew that USB-C extensions are not allowed for a reason (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

135 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There is a reason for USB-C extensions not to be part of the standard. They can be bothersome in the best case and dangerous in the worst.

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[–] [email protected] 206 points 1 month ago (81 children)

Anybody care to sum this up for people who can’t watch videos?

[–] [email protected] 337 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (40 children)

So a standard cable needs to be chipped to show its rating to the device, its not that the device can pull what it wants or can get, but the cable itself tells it what it can supply. Extension cables can’t do that, because it doesn’t know what it’s plugged into, and that would be if they even bothered to put a chip in. They instead piggy back off the chip for the main cable. The problem comes when you you have a 240 watt cable hooked up to a cheap 120 watt cable, with the device being told it can push 240, and starts to super heat the extension cable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (16 children)

Interesting, I'd never trust any USB cable to push anywhere near 100 watts anyway haha good god, the most I ever do is maybe 20w at 5v.

I'll keep that in mind when buying cables in the future though this is very useful info!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a point of reference, Lenovo Thinkpad's have something of a cult following for their reliability and versatility.

My T490s has a USB-C power supply which provides 45w (20v at 2.25a).

The thing is, when docked it's not only pulling power through that cable, but also network, USB devices, and providing video for 2x monitors in 1920x1080. It's kind of astonishing to me how much can be crammed in to one little connector. That said, it's frustrating trying to find a usb cable that works reliably, because as you'd imagine not all USB-C cables support the same specs.