Friday, April 22nd 2022
European Union MEPs Agree on Making USB Type-C the Standard Charging Connector
This past week, the EU's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee agreed on adopting USB Type-C as the union's standard charging connector, with 43 votes in favour and two against. It's part of the Radio Equipment Directive and it means that USB-C is now very close to becoming the de facto connector for charging a wide range of consumer electronics. The charging standard will apply to what the committee calls small and medium-sized electronic gadgets and include mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers. Exemptions will apply for devices that are too small to incorporate a USB-C port, such a smart watches, health trackers and some sports equipment.
The directive still has to be approved by the EU parliament, which is expected to happen in May during the plenary session. There will be an initial transition period and the new requirements aren't expected to start to apply until early 2024. In addition to the new directive, the MEPs also want to see clear labelling on devices in terms of how much power they can deliver, since this can sometimes be hard to figure out as a consumer. They also want to see clear labelling on product packaging if a charger is supplied or not. Furthermore, the MEPs want the European Commission to present a strategy with regards to wireless chargers by the end of 2026, to make sure there's some kind of minimal interoperability between the various wireless charging standards. This is said to be to try and avoid market fragmentation, as well as to reduce e-waste and to try and prevent consumer "lock-in" to proprietary charging standards. The EU is said to end up with 11 to 13-thousand tons of e-waste from chargers alone on a yearly basis, so it's not hard to see why the union wants to see a unified charging standard for most electronics.
Source:
The European Union
The directive still has to be approved by the EU parliament, which is expected to happen in May during the plenary session. There will be an initial transition period and the new requirements aren't expected to start to apply until early 2024. In addition to the new directive, the MEPs also want to see clear labelling on devices in terms of how much power they can deliver, since this can sometimes be hard to figure out as a consumer. They also want to see clear labelling on product packaging if a charger is supplied or not. Furthermore, the MEPs want the European Commission to present a strategy with regards to wireless chargers by the end of 2026, to make sure there's some kind of minimal interoperability between the various wireless charging standards. This is said to be to try and avoid market fragmentation, as well as to reduce e-waste and to try and prevent consumer "lock-in" to proprietary charging standards. The EU is said to end up with 11 to 13-thousand tons of e-waste from chargers alone on a yearly basis, so it's not hard to see why the union wants to see a unified charging standard for most electronics.
52 Comments on European Union MEPs Agree on Making USB Type-C the Standard Charging Connector
As to your comment, good thing the EU isn't going after laptops just yet then.
it's just tech shit, who gives a fuck
It was more then just a "charger" port. Data, headsets and other gimmicks pretty much. More robust then typical USB that would break off after a slight bit of tension.
Also, Apple among other companies (HP, Intel, Microsoft) it's behind the USB Implementers Forum who develops the USB C standard, they can suggest anything to improve it. Apple has been running an advertising campaign for years to convince you that Lighting is better, but greed is the only reason. It has already been proven that in the end, the iPhone user, swallows everything.
As for USB PD, which is a separate standard altogether, where the 3.0 spec can do 5, 9, 15 and 20V and is up to 5A. That said, it's possible to use part of the USB PD spec, which is why we have a wide range of different chargers. The normal options seem to be 25-27, 33, 45, 65 and 100W for the time being.
USB PD 3.1 goes all the way up to 48V, with stops at 28 and 36V, but remains at 5A.
The problem is that the EU so far hasn't specifically said which USB PD spec they're going to enforce, as the older USB PD 1.0 spec doesn't support 15V for example and instead has a 12V level which hasn't been part of USB PD since version 2.0.
It's really quite complicated and I guess this is why the EU asked for clear labelling on all products.
The set-up worked as expected for a while, until some people began to complain about the cables detaching from the lappys very easily, to the point where all one had to do was just barely touch the cable or bump the laptop ever so slightly... Note that some the complainers, but not all, were people who occasionally took their machines home at night or to off-site meetings etc...
Since we had a contract with Dell, they first started replacing just the cables, then the docks, then the lappys themselves. Finally our IT Director tore a few of the lappys apart and found that the connectors on the mobo's were extremely thin & flimsy, and would probably all fail soon enough. At that point, he demanded they build us new machines that would hold up, or he would cancel the entire contract.
Once we started receiving the new machines, he took a few of them apart & compared them to the old ones..... and guess what.... Dell had somehow managed to find & install USB-C ports and cables on the new machines that were way moar sturdy & robust than the original ones..... gee, imagine that :)
That was over 2 years ago and we have not had a single failure since then !
I think those managing to break them are using heavier devices, like laptops.
10Gb A to C cables also exist, but are less common
Usb C brings 1. but not 2.
i,m glad to be rid of micro and nano usb B. But IMO if you overengineer the strength of the cable connector, you put at risk the socket. It is an important engineering concept: to design the POINT OF FAILURE or point of wearing. To have some components designed to wear more rapidly to avoid the damage/wear of other parts, eg. Flap and ailerons construction on airplanes.
The Dell example above was interesting confirmation. I know from experience of falling ipad/iphone how grateful i was that 8pin cable end took the damage, not the ipad socket.
Even with top end smartphones the socket is so flimsy! Looking at you, Samsung!
And that's not even considering laptops.
This of course is just the general idea. Lot can be improved from here on.