They're super convenient, and I use stuff like them for a few devices, but some of the USB-C things they're suggesting are explicitly disallowed by the spec — any adapter with a USB-C receptacle...
They're super convenient, and I use stuff like them for a few devices, but some of the USB-C things they're suggesting are explicitly disallowed by the spec — any adapter with a USB-C receptacle isn't compliant (page 32 of this PDF). Realistically, they should be fine on A-to-C cables, and there's a decent chance you wouldn't be able to use them on a C-to-C cable anyway because random aliexpress manufactures forget the pulldown resistors all the time...
Not that the non-compliant adapters don't have their uses, you should just know what you're getting into a little I guess.
This needs to be at the top, as soon as I saw the right angle USB c adapters I just stopped reading the rest of the article because it lost all credibility.
This needs to be at the top, as soon as I saw the right angle USB c adapters I just stopped reading the rest of the article because it lost all credibility.
You can! It's just hidden away in the app or through a weird gesture. You can toggle that feature ("Speak to Chat") by holding two fingers on the right earcup until the headphones say "Speak to...
The only ‘downside’ is generally the downside of the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones – that You CAN NOT disable their silencing while you speak – so using them in ‘passive’ mode with Boom Microphone Cable is preferred to meet all needs.
You can! It's just hidden away in the app or through a weird gesture.
You can toggle that feature ("Speak to Chat") by holding two fingers on the right earcup until the headphones say "Speak to Chat disabled."
Pretty good list. I have many of these (or something equivalent). I wish there was an adapter that would convert the old Dell barrel plug adapters to USB–C, as this would make a glut of old power...
Pretty good list. I have many of these (or something equivalent).
I wish there was an adapter that would convert the old Dell barrel plug adapters to USB–C, as this would make a glut of old power bricks useful again. Supposedly one exists on Dell's website, but I have never, ever seen it in stock, or they top out at 65w, which makes me think it's there to give us hope while selling us new 120W USB–C adapters.
I have a car that is pre–bluetooth, so I have gotten a lot of mileage out of the ROAV USB charger / FM transmitter combo. I used to carry it with me on trips because it was easier to just keep my phone paired to it and turn on the FM radio than figure out every single rental car's bluetooth rigamarole, but the advent of android auto has made that largely obsolete.
It should easily be possible to build something similar for a Dell (if the connectors aren't the same anyway already). Combined with a tiny GaN charging brick, it's great :)
They're usually marketed as "trigger" boards or adapters, I have one for my old square Lenovo laptop plug. Basically it's a little board/chip that does the Power Delivery handshake for the correct...
They're usually marketed as "trigger" boards or adapters, I have one for my old square Lenovo laptop plug. Basically it's a little board/chip that does the Power Delivery handshake for the correct voltage. You can probably find one for Dell on Amazon or Alibaba/express.
New PD spec will go up to 48v/240w with compliant power adapter and cable.
My son has a ‘96 Buick with a CD/Tape/Radio but the CD and Tape are shot so he is listening to FM radio a lot. We are still talking about possibilities like trying to replace the belts, getting an...
My son has a ‘96 Buick with a CD/Tape/Radio but the CD and Tape are shot so he is listening to FM radio a lot.
We are still talking about possibilities like trying to replace the belts, getting an OEM radio off Ebay (probably still have to replace belts), getting a newer radio (if it was me it would be a minidisc player that looks like something from a Gundam cockpit) but then it won’t look OEM or getting one of those FM transmitters so we can beam audio from an MP3 player.
Of course a guy with multiple Thinkpads has a blog post about useful connectors. A few of these are news to me though but I don't necessarily have a current use for them. I'll keep them in mind if...
Of course a guy with multiple Thinkpads has a blog post about useful connectors.
A few of these are news to me though but I don't necessarily have a current use for them. I'll keep them in mind if I ever find myself in need though!
There was a time when I was doing a lot of travelling and was often the only WIndows user in a startup that used macs so I carried a carefully curated set of connectors for that particular...
There was a time when I was doing a lot of travelling and was often the only WIndows user in a startup that used macs so I carried a carefully curated set of connectors for that particular situation such as X-to-MDP cables.
This is quite a good post. Thanks for taking the time! How do you find merchants in AliExpress that you can trust? I guess risks are minimal when it comes to adaptors which add angles, but maybe...
This is quite a good post. Thanks for taking the time!
How do you find merchants in AliExpress that you can trust? I guess risks are minimal when it comes to adaptors which add angles, but maybe the hardware end up being a bottleneck if they are of poor quality? For example, transferring files. Or charging?
With AliExpress just avoid things that look too good ro be true, cheap large storage capacities, too-cheap major brands, etc, and you'll be fine. The only issue I have had buying all sorts of...
With AliExpress just avoid things that look too good ro be true, cheap large storage capacities, too-cheap major brands, etc, and you'll be fine.
The only issue I have had buying all sorts of stuff off AliExpress was one time when my address fot mangled and I couldn't get a refund on undeliverable goods.
I use a right-angle 3.5mm audio adapter myself for my earbuds. It's great for my laptop but especially good for video game controllers which often have the jack on the bottom of the controller, so...
I use a right-angle 3.5mm audio adapter myself for my earbuds. It's great for my laptop but especially good for video game controllers which often have the jack on the bottom of the controller, so if the cord sticks straight out it will poke wherever you rest the controller (whether for a moment here or there, or if you rest it somewhere as your regular playing position).
I found an FM transmitter to be sadly useless for me when I had an older car. If you live in an area with a lot of radio channels, there's too much airwave traffic to get a clear broadcast of your own music (if I'm recalling the issue correctly). In those days I simply wound up connecting my MP3 player to a tiny speaker and playing my music through that in the car. I'd just have to bring them inside every so often to charge, I believe.
A little more than 10 years ago I had a tiny pink netbook computer with a USB FM transmitter and a bluetooth GPS. On road trips somebody would sit in the passenger seat and control it. Between...
A little more than 10 years ago I had a tiny pink netbook computer with a USB FM transmitter and a bluetooth GPS. On road trips somebody would sit in the passenger seat and control it. Between Microsoft Streets and Trips and Microsoft’s Media Player it was the best car computer experience I’ve had. The navigator was way better than a Garmin and the system would lower the music volume so we could hear its voice.
This four-port USB-powered Switch has come in handy for me a bunch - especially after I realized I could power it via my power bank. Now whenever I need just one or two more ports, it's very easy...
This four-port USB-powered Switch has come in handy for me a bunch - especially after I realized I could power it via my power bank. Now whenever I need just one or two more ports, it's very easy to make it happen (and I look like a wizard to my peers.)
They're super convenient, and I use stuff like them for a few devices, but some of the USB-C things they're suggesting are explicitly disallowed by the spec — any adapter with a USB-C receptacle isn't compliant (page 32 of this PDF). Realistically, they should be fine on A-to-C cables, and there's a decent chance you wouldn't be able to use them on a C-to-C cable anyway because random aliexpress manufactures forget the pulldown resistors all the time...
Not that the non-compliant adapters don't have their uses, you should just know what you're getting into a little I guess.
This needs to be at the top, as soon as I saw the right angle USB c adapters I just stopped reading the rest of the article because it lost all credibility.
You can! It's just hidden away in the app or through a weird gesture.
You can toggle that feature ("Speak to Chat") by holding two fingers on the right earcup until the headphones say "Speak to Chat disabled."
The major downside is that you can’t program the programmable button for mute
Pretty good list. I have many of these (or something equivalent).
I wish there was an adapter that would convert the old Dell barrel plug adapters to USB–C, as this would make a glut of old power bricks useful again. Supposedly one exists on Dell's website, but I have never, ever seen it in stock, or they top out at 65w, which makes me think it's there to give us hope while selling us new 120W USB–C adapters.
I have a car that is pre–bluetooth, so I have gotten a lot of mileage out of the ROAV USB charger / FM transmitter combo. I used to carry it with me on trips because it was easier to just keep my phone paired to it and turn on the FM radio than figure out every single rental car's bluetooth rigamarole, but the advent of android auto has made that largely obsolete.
Maybe not directly helpful for Dell computers, but I retrofitted my ThinkPad X230 with a USB-C connector a few years back from https://www.tindie.com/products/mikepdiy/lenovo-charging-port-type-c-pd-x220-x230/
It should easily be possible to build something similar for a Dell (if the connectors aren't the same anyway already). Combined with a tiny GaN charging brick, it's great :)
They're usually marketed as "trigger" boards or adapters, I have one for my old square Lenovo laptop plug. Basically it's a little board/chip that does the Power Delivery handshake for the correct voltage. You can probably find one for Dell on Amazon or Alibaba/express.
New PD spec will go up to 48v/240w with compliant power adapter and cable.
My son has a ‘96 Buick with a CD/Tape/Radio but the CD and Tape are shot so he is listening to FM radio a lot.
We are still talking about possibilities like trying to replace the belts, getting an OEM radio off Ebay (probably still have to replace belts), getting a newer radio (if it was me it would be a minidisc player that looks like something from a Gundam cockpit) but then it won’t look OEM or getting one of those FM transmitters so we can beam audio from an MP3 player.
Of course a guy with multiple Thinkpads has a blog post about useful connectors.
A few of these are news to me though but I don't necessarily have a current use for them. I'll keep them in mind if I ever find myself in need though!
There was a time when I was doing a lot of travelling and was often the only WIndows user in a startup that used macs so I carried a carefully curated set of connectors for that particular situation such as X-to-MDP cables.
This is quite a good post. Thanks for taking the time!
How do you find merchants in AliExpress that you can trust? I guess risks are minimal when it comes to adaptors which add angles, but maybe the hardware end up being a bottleneck if they are of poor quality? For example, transferring files. Or charging?
Genuinely curious!
With AliExpress just avoid things that look too good ro be true, cheap large storage capacities, too-cheap major brands, etc, and you'll be fine.
The only issue I have had buying all sorts of stuff off AliExpress was one time when my address fot mangled and I couldn't get a refund on undeliverable goods.
I use a right-angle 3.5mm audio adapter myself for my earbuds. It's great for my laptop but especially good for video game controllers which often have the jack on the bottom of the controller, so if the cord sticks straight out it will poke wherever you rest the controller (whether for a moment here or there, or if you rest it somewhere as your regular playing position).
I found an FM transmitter to be sadly useless for me when I had an older car. If you live in an area with a lot of radio channels, there's too much airwave traffic to get a clear broadcast of your own music (if I'm recalling the issue correctly). In those days I simply wound up connecting my MP3 player to a tiny speaker and playing my music through that in the car. I'd just have to bring them inside every so often to charge, I believe.
A little more than 10 years ago I had a tiny pink netbook computer with a USB FM transmitter and a bluetooth GPS. On road trips somebody would sit in the passenger seat and control it. Between Microsoft Streets and Trips and Microsoft’s Media Player it was the best car computer experience I’ve had. The navigator was way better than a Garmin and the system would lower the music volume so we could hear its voice.
Interesting timing following the post about organizing little tech things.
This four-port USB-powered Switch has come in handy for me a bunch - especially after I realized I could power it via my power bank. Now whenever I need just one or two more ports, it's very easy to make it happen (and I look like a wizard to my peers.)