I want a USB C adapter...

[el01]

Hello good people!

So my laptop has USB-C for charging, but it's also I/O, so I wanna use that as a dock

I want a TON of features in a dock with a relatively low price, so it's difficult for me to find. Can anyone help me find one?
Features(required):

• Another USB-C out (this is the problem in my search)
• At least 2 USB 3 ports
• HDMI
• Under $50 (that's a ridiculous amount...)

Optional (for kicks/nice to haves):

• mini DP or DP
• MOAR USB
• SD card reader build in
• Built in storage???
• Matte Black (to match my ThinkPad)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Blakfetha]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077FZQS95/?tag=theminutiae-20
I can recommend this brand, used to work at a store that sold their stuff and never had a customer return them.

 

[el01]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077FZQS95/?tag=theminutiae-20
I can recommend this brand, used to work at a store that sold their stuff and never had a customer return them.

Looks good!

 

[ricochet]

I second UGREEN... I have one of their USB C and USB 3.0 Hubs. Have worked flawlessly; no hiccups to speak of.

 

[el01]

I second UGREEN... I have one of their USB C and USB 3.0 Hubs. Have worked flawlessly; no hiccups to speak of.

I do already have a UGREEN USB to SD adapter, so I can use that in conjunction with the dongle I guess...

 

[Jello]

I believe they do make one with SD and microSD reader.

 

[chx]

LOL @ brand, these are all made by some nameless Chinese manufacturer. Just because you lucked out with one of them they slapped an ugreen sticker on doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean if you were to buy a second one you'd get the same device and absolutely says nothing about the quality of a different box bearing the same label.

Very, very few labellers are exceptions. Monoprice and Plugable comes to mind. Anker I believe is another exception: they make their own shit, mostly.

To make it worse, this is Amazon and Amazon mixes inventory of every seller based on the UPC code so even if Ugreen happened to make quality stuff, any Joe can send in a counterfeit and now customers of all sellers of that product might get Joe's counterfeit.

 

[pavel]

>Can anyone help me find one?

>Under $50

Hard to do. The company I work for just passed over a project making one. The issue, there are no off-the shelf chips right now that do power/dp to hdmi conversion/usb hub in a single package. Chips that do just one thing at a time have just started to appear. For anything else, you have to use a small FPGA and spend tons of money developing the macro for it because there are also no free macros around on Chinese FTPs yet.

One of challenges is video output. In USB-C, there is an option to shut down a single channel, and use it for display port. But right now, there is no hardware solution on the market to do that (you have to program a separate microcontroller to do talking with the PC.) Instead, existing docks use what's called DisplayLink - sending compressed video in over USB protocol to a proprietary controller. Not the most performant solution.

 

[chx]

What are you talking about? DisplayLink is a tiny fraction of the USB C market, almost all docks happily use USB C DisplayPort alt mode. There are a few very expensive docks calling themselves "5K", I think wavlink and plugable are selling the same device under a different label, that's DisplayLink. Most DisplayLink devices are older and use USB A connectors.

Typically a TPS65982 or TPS65983B will "talk" to the PC (negotiate alt modes), supplemented by a HD3SS460 passive switch -- yes, a USB hub is yet another IC and the DP to HDMI is yet another, these days it's usually a MCDP2900 (which specifically recommends it using in a USB C dongle and since MegaChips now holds all the DP IP from STMicroelectronics AFAIK, it's not easy to see who else would release a different product). I haven't seen a dearth of USB docks though because of this.

 

[pavel]

What are you talking about? DisplayLink is a tiny fraction of the USB C market, almost all docks happily use USB C DisplayPort alt mode. There are a few very expensive docks calling themselves "5K", I think wavlink and plugable are selling the same device under a different label, that's DisplayLink. Most DisplayLink devices are older and use USB A connectors.

Docks that use 2.0 displaylink over type-c are all over the place. That's the thing for sure. I guess, it is the requirement to for support of win xp (which is big in China), or the earlier hardware without alternate mode support. But more importantly, all in one solutions (hub, video out, ethernet) are there.

TPS65983B - is something new, should take a look on that. But even with it, we look at 5+ ICs:

All in one 2.0 and 3.0 hub IC
PMIC
Display port demuxer
USB Ethernet IC with built-in PHY
And still, a microcontroller to commandeer TPS65983B

 

[chx]

Let me repeat; what are you talking about? USB C alternative modes do not require any OS support whatsoever. If I am wrong , please show some links. https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=495&area=en for example, Mac OS 10.5 and Windows XP. Both predate, significantly so, USB C. The last released Leopard build was in 2009 and went unsupported 2011 and USB C was published in 2014. There's not a lick of overlap between the two.

Also, to stop spreading this bullshit, please show some links, taobao or whatnot of cheap USB C docks using DisplayLink. No such thing. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ugr...erbolt-3-Adapter-for-MacBook/32863704575.html you can see this is alt mode because USB 3.0 comes with 4K @ 60 Hz. If it would be DL it would easily be 4K @ 60 Hz but in the so called mixed mode where you use two of the four USB C high speed lanes for DisplayPort and one lane for USB 3.1 Gen 1 (aka USB 3.0) there is not enough bandwidth for native 4K @ 60 Hz.

And, multiple ICs, again, haven't stopped the proliferation of USB C docks.

 

[pavel]

Let me repeat; what are you talking about? USB C alternative modes do not require any OS support whatsoever. If I am wrong , please show some links. https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=495&area=en for example, Mac OS 10.5 and Windows XP. Both predate, significantly so, USB C. The last released Leopard build was in 2009 and went unsupported 2011 and USB C was published in 2014. There's not a lick of overlap between the two.

Also, to stop spreading this bullshit, please show some links, taobao or whatnot of cheap USB C docks using DisplayLink. No such thing. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ugr...erbolt-3-Adapter-for-MacBook/32863704575.html you can see this is alt mode because USB 3.0 comes with 4K @ 60 Hz. If it would be DL it would easily be 4K @ 60 Hz but in the so called mixed mode where you use two of the four USB C high speed lanes for DisplayPort and one lane for USB 3.1 Gen 1 (aka USB 3.0) there is not enough bandwidth for native 4K @ 60 Hz.

And, multiple ICs, again, haven't stopped the proliferation of USB C docks.

I'm not an expert as to what it requires on the software side to enable alternate mode, that was just a guess, but there is enough early PC hardware that simply don't have display port wired to type-c mux/controller. I'm conceding you the point on that. And yes, further research I did just now showed that parts availability became much better that it was just 10 month ago, and a multi-chip solution might in the end come off cheaper than existing 3.0 display link.

It may worth a second look

 

[chx]

but there is enough early PC hardware that simply don't have display port wired to type-c mux/controller.

Citation needed. I never saw a laptop with a USB C port which didn't have DP.

 

[SashaLag]

Citation needed. I never saw a laptop with a USB C port which didn't have DP.

asus t100HA comes to my mind, for example

 

[chx]

Wow! Apparently Asus has a number of these, there's not even USB 3.1 Gen 2 support just Gen 1 (for eg https://superuser.com/a/1250484/41259 ), I thought such shenanigans were only done on motherboards not on laptops. Thanks, I learned something.

 

[Beardedswede]

ANKER is a reliable company with great customer service.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071JV4NPS/?tag=theminutiae-20

I guess you mean a USB C. Input.

 

[chyll2]

LOL @ brand, these are all made by some nameless Chinese manufacturer. Just because you lucked out with one of them they slapped an ugreen sticker on doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean if you were to buy a second one you'd get the same device and absolutely says nothing about the quality of a different box bearing the same label.

Very, very few labellers are exceptions. Monoprice and Plugable comes to mind. Anker I believe is another exception: they make their own shit, mostly.

To make it worse, this is Amazon and Amazon mixes inventory of every seller based on the UPC code so even if Ugreen happened to make quality stuff, any Joe can send in a counterfeit and now customers of all sellers of that product might get Joe's counterfeit.

I have bought from local online site that accept listing from China a few u-green items. Their items has been a better quality than most chinese product I have bought. It might be true that these are rebranded items but at least, they are careful in picking out a good product to affix their brand.