Dear dongle manufacturers, I love USB-C, I think everyone does; it is the bomb... But.... But but but, please stop charging so much extra for it, I can get a USB-A to Ethernet adaptor for $12 AUD but it's going to cost me at minimum $49 AUD for the same branded dongle, even has the same internal chips... Why... Just... Why!

@Condor USB A and C have same interface ICs?

@JoshBent Ethernet Controller chips I mean, doubt the USB's controller would be worthy of such a price hike though

@Jilano True true, but it's sad when buying an official apple product is one of the cheapest options

@lxmcf I have just genuinely never looked into the schematics of usb-a vs usb-c in the same model, but I just feel there's more differences, tagged condor because he probably as we speak is chewing a usb-c cable for breakfast 😉 but yeah the increase sounds more like a different speed class adapter, not for the exact same model

Here's one for 14 https://amazon.com/gp/aw/...

@JoshBent I know very little about IC's other than the stuff I taught myself from tearing apart electronics and trying to hunt down circuitry diagrams haha

But it's strange because they are both Gigabit capped speeds so literally the only difference is the connector and maybe a controller chip, really odd to me.

Condor will swoop in and provide a logical explanation that makes me look like a complete tool though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Dacexi Doesn't ship to Australia :'-(

@lxmcf better be a tool than a fool 😉 let's see what it could be, can't think right now of something besides having majorly different schematics to properly comply with type C standard or something.

@JoshBent Only thing I could think of is higher power draw so maybe higher quality components but pretty sure C only uses like 5% more at max... Hmmmmm

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@JoshBent They don't. USB-C pokey bits have some IC on them and many more pins. This is because it needs to be compatible with all the previous standards of USB (1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1) while keeping the same connector for all of them. That's something that I hate about USB-C. This abstraction needlessly increases complexity.

Anyway, in USB-C connectors, never will all the pins be active at any given time. Depending on the version selected by the peripheral, controller and host, these or those pins will become active. It's a negotiation process (I think? Never really looked much into the spec to be honest.. just its pinout) and if one in the chain isn't compatible.. guess what, it won't work. I hate this abstraction because of aforementioned extra complexity but also, it confuses the consumers! First it was "alright, this pokey bit fits into this pokey bit receptacle so it's gotta be compatible, right" which is indeed correct. Now it's this thing that's supposed to be easier but introduces ambiguity.. "ehm, what USB version is this receptacle in my phone again? Will this wire be compatible?"

And yes USB-C stuff because of its added complexity and much lower availability than classic USB makes it a lot more expensive.. just the other day I bought this USB-C hub for what.. €4.99? Opened it up and found that the hub itself was the exact same PCB as the USB-A hubs that I've been buying all the time for 3 times less money. The only difference that made that shit be sold at a premium was the bloody USB-C connector.
Edit: regarding that USB-C hub.. adding insult to injury, the wires in the USB-C cable were thin as shit. Perhaps it could power some USB sticks or whatever, but forget about an external hard drive or anything like that...

@Condor oh shit that's kind of a pain in the ass, I thought the whole point of USB was Universal, even more so with C having Ethernet, Power, data and display built in...

They've essentially just made a different physical connection without any 'huge' differences

@Condor I guess yeah the adoption of usb-c isn't enough of the market yet to have it literally everywhere, so that kicks the price up significantly too - also just saw you bumped me to 20k, thanks haha

@lxmcf well the promise of usb type-C is a massive change, but there's even problems in simply following or developing proper spec, so you get cables that could quite literally set your phone on fire, because the spec has different layout than manufacturer actually build - atleast it was that way some time ago, might have changed since - atleast I hope it did.

@lxmcf @JoshBent

Just like Bluetooth, it's getting too overengineered. The point of USB is data transfer and power delivery from a master to a slave device, nothing else. Video, Ethernet, everything it's supposed to do alongside its original purpose, develop that in software, I don't care. There's 2 data lines in every USB connection, one for transmitting and another for receiving serial data. USB-C doesn't change that. The only thing it does is "harmonizing all the USB versions".

I can see why the USB designers went for this. There isn't a clear distinction between master (host) and slave (peripheral) anymore since OTG got introduced. And OTG wires are a bit of a pain in the ass. Except that there's literally just adapters available for less than €1 now.. jam one of those into your phone or tablet, and you're golden! In fact, I've got one of them and often use it when I have to type mail. It literally goes into - not around! - the male USB-A plug into the keyboard and that plugs directly into the tablet. Bam! No bulky wire, and everything's connected in style. No USB-C required!!!

I hate USB-C with all my heart. My Nexus 6P is the only thing that has a USB-C port, and like hell am I going to migrate everything that I've built with USB-A to that cancerous shitfest of a standard. "We really need a reversible standard!!" Turn on the light and look at the fucking plugs while you're jamming it in!!! You look and feel when you jam your dick into a pussy too, right?! Fucking hell!

Sorry if I went a bit overboard. I just fucking hate this USB-C thing. Just like those new emoji in Android O, why the fuck would you want to replace something that worked fine to begin with?! And even in USB-C the principle of 4 (active) connections - VCC, D+, D-, GND - remains the same!!! Need more bandwidth? Just use USB 3.0 connectors like every external hard drive has already done for years!!! And for fancy video, use software drivers, for fucks sake!!!

@Condor "overboard", that was pretty calm haha, valid points too

@JoshBent Accurate as ever :3 indeed, I wasn't shouting at or jamming my fist into whatever I'm working with for once, so yeah :P
Currently I'm just doing some gaming on my right display to distract myself a bit from technology. So I guess that that helps a lot.. just that while I was writing that comment, I got a bit caught up in the moment :')

@Condor good points, I love USB-C and want to C all the things, a properly universal cable is amazing and I could justify paying more for that but as you said, it's not all the same which is just redesigning the wheel -,-