Electric bikes and electric scooters should also have this same standard but no every bullshit company still has their own proprietary DRM charger.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Wouldn't that charge very slowly then though? A usb-c charging port seems a bit underpowered as soons as you need to charge something larger than a notebook.
USB-C can do 240 watts. That's the low end of a bicycle fast charger. A standard charger is closer to 150 w.
damn, both impressed and uncomfortable without so much juice going thru a phone charger.
It's done by increasing the voltage to up to 48 V when the device requests it and both the charger and the cable support it. At 48 V that's "only" 5 A, which isn't nothing but nothing to worry about, and your phone will never request it and your normal phone charger won't be able to output this much power anyway.
Is there any indication how much power a USB cable allows if I see them on a shelf? They all say "USB c" and "fast charging", but hardly get into specifics. And a higher price doesn't necessarily mean the cable has higher or better specs.
The cable I recently bought at Microcenter mentioned support for 24 and 48v charging.
USB PD (what is needed for those high power levels) does a handshake where charger, cable, and your device say what power level they can take. So your phone will never recieve the full 240W, even if the charger is rated for that.
Don't really have a clue about e-bikes. But looking through some e-bike chargers on Amazon, they have maybe 100 W to 200 W. USB-PD (EPR) apparently supports up to 240 W. Do note that the e-bike chargers are rated at 54.6 V, though, while PD only supports up to 48 V, and I guess the higher voltage might be required for the cell chemistry. So idk if it would be possible to design your batteries around the USB spec. In any case, you would need a separate charger and special cable to support 5 A over USB anyways.
It would be possible to put in a voltage converter that would boost the 20 volts that's relatively common for USB-C/PD devices to whatever voltage the battery pack needs to charge while increasing the losses on the charge.
A 200 watt charger for a 48 volt 20 amp battery would be okay, but it would take like five to eight hours to charge depending on what kind of losses are involved.
It's pretty rare to see USB-C charger that can handle 200 watts on a single port. More common is like 120, so it would take closer to 10-12 hours to charge that battery with USB-C versus a barrel plug.
And even if the cable is able to handle the 200 watts or more, it would be on the user to remember that they can't plug in their 15 watt charger and actually charge their ebike battery.
So once you take all of that into consideration, given that you're going to need a separate charger specifically for your e-bike battery, then why would it even matter that it's USB-C?
yup, my thoughts exactly, don't really see a any benefit for using USB-C here. What would be good of course is to have any standard at all for these connectors.
My laptop takes 300 watts from a proprietary charger and will only charge via USB-C when off. I don’t think it’s enough power for a bike.
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I'm not aware of any cell type with more than a few volts of potential. If we're designing from scratch you just put fewer of them in series in each pack. There might be problems getting other components conductive enough to facilitate the needed power transfer at a much lower voltage, although now we're outside of what I really know. If it's 40V it shouldn't be a problem.
While you're at it standards for higher power DC would also be good. IIRC there's a few in competition for EVs right now.
That's what I thought too, initially. But then I thought that maybe there is a good reason for the specific 54.6V figure. But I didn't dig deeper
Good point. It's probably an integer multiple of the (nominal? State of charge comes into it too) cell potential. Which is fine, as long as there's another one that's reasonably high but below the USB-PD maximum.
It doesn't matter if it's usbC and it probably shouldn't be, but it should be standardized for the application/size
Hmm. So should our mid-size power standard also be able to push data? And then maybe a third standard for EVs and similar. If AC is okay just a standard plug will do it.
Oh God, that would take ages. I think I'd rather everything be on XLR for heavy duty applications like ebikes and scooters.
Up to 15A, I think.
I have begun soldering in my own xt-60 connectors for battery packs.
I was about to say “Thank the EU for that” and then I saw which community this was posted in.
My adult toys are now the only things I have that are still MicroUSB (or like a 3.5mm jack type connector)😮💨
Both mine and my partners' have the same magnetic 2 contact 5v charger so we get to share cables.
That 2.5mm jack connector is super weird
I guess it makes sense because it's on things that could get wet and the plug is often behind a tiny slit in the rubber/silicone.
My hearing aids use microusb. Plus side: this means my wife doesn't unplug them to charge her phone. Down side she does unplug them to charge the portable battery packs because she's terrible at keeping her phone charged.
you either got really good quality toys, or you aren't using them enough to replace them
Thanks EU. Apple hates you for everything good you do, and I despise them for 99% of what they do.
Wait for the DMA 😉 They really hate when it is enforced
Joypad: "I think sitting me next to vibrator is causing some confusion about what I do. Anyone want to trade places?"
Soundbox: "No."
Also are we just calling eReaders just "books" now? I don't think books use USB.
USB-C screwdiver??
Me still perfectly fine living in the dark ages apparently.
Like a light duty drill
that's not what she called me!
Never had to put up a lot of cabinets?
(I can't find the clip I'm referencing so I hope I didn't make it up)
I have a 2019 DeWalt set for those type of tasks, y'know the rechargeable drill with interchangeable bits.
But a USB-C screwdriver sounds like something to put in someone's Christmas stocking.
My thought process was similar when I first heard of them. I asked my most handy friend why electric screwdrivers exist when drill.
He said that it was primarily because sometimes low torque was needed for delicate tasks and it's much easier to control that in a less high powered device.
I've never had real cause to use one, but that explanation at least seems plausible.
You have a USB-C connector on a book? ....what for?
For charging the battery duh.
The battery that was placed there in case they ever want to withdraw your license to that book, which they can do by shorting out said battery.
No silly the battery is there so the book can play videos of subway surfers on the side while you read.
Don’t forget kitchen scales!
Not quite. My new phone doesn't accept fast charging from my old phone's fast charger.
Now I wish the cheap ones actually connected the resistors to the cc lines to allow you to use c to c cables.
What's the point if you're stuck with an a to c?
Too bad there’s no standards body to sue manufacturers who don’t follow a minimum spec.
Yeah I've taken to returning items and leaving bad reviews on them when they don't add two 5.1k resistors (literally fractions of a penny) to their board layout
Unpopuläre Meinung: USB-C ist überbewertet
Für Smartphones, Kopfhörer usw super. Aber schon beim Laden von Laptops sind die meisten Ports so wackelig, dass ich die nicht nutzen möchte.
Clevo's und Thinkpads (die alten runden, die mittelalten rechteckigen) haben gute Ladegeräte die ne vernünftige Größe haben und nicht so fragil sind!
Super USB-C auch dran zu haben, wenn man dann zB ein smartphone passiv laden kann wie Thinkpads es können. Aber zum selber laden benutze ich den magischen Port nie, sonst ist er schrott und ich hab meine schnelle Datenübertragung mehr.
Auch für Display benutz ich immer direkt HDMI, das ist wackeliger als Displayport (Satan verdamme das HDMI Forum) aber viel robuster als USB-C
Statt vielen Kabeln haben wir jetzt Dongles, weil Hersteller es als Ausrede nehmen weniger sinnvolle Ports zu verbauen. Na toll.
Bin selber aber am umrüsten meiner Kleingeräte. Ports verlöten kann ich momentan noch nicht, deswegen hab ich mir einfach adapter gekauft und bjn fast usb-c-only!
I just recabled two KVMs and I have to do it all again when the replacement comes in.
The moment two video cables and USB are merged into a single USB-c for all my gear, I'm gonna jump for joy.
iPhone be Like ⚡️