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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: October 17th, 2023

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  • It’s much cheaper than equivalent hardware at home- redundant hardware, hot spares, redundant power, UPSes and generators, etc. And good network access with really good peering arrangements- something residential ISPs can’t offer.

    That said, do most people need all that? No.

    It’s just like AWS. AWS makes sense for a narrow swath of businesses - businesses that can’t afford the capex to run their own data centers and have needs more advanced than less expensive services. Any company over a certain size isn’t going to pay the 10x premium for AWS over their own data centers and infrastructure. But for small businesses with advanced needs it’s the only way to afford things.



  • That’s not physically possible, negotiation is required for voltages over 5V. And the voltage may not be within the spec of the device. USB-PD provides higher voltages in order to push more power through a USB cable. Higher voltage means higher wattage for the same amps, meaning less power lost due to cable resistance. You can’t just push 5V 10A through a USB cable or it would melt, but you could push 20V 2.5A, for the same 50W total but with a non-melty cable. So the voltage may not be precise and is usually used to drive a buck converter at the other end to drop it down to a usable voltage again. All this requires expensive components and complex firmware.

    What you’re probably looking for is a regular 12V DC power supply. There’s just no need for all the expensive USB-PD negotiation for your use case.

    Plus, as others have said, USB-PD chargers will disconnect all devices whenever power requirements change. This can happen at any time even without the devices being unplugged-re-plugged, it happens whenever the power needs dictate a switch to a new USB-PD mode.