HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why are there no good USB-C hubs?

15 points by dgrin91 ↗ HN
For years you have been able to buy a USB-A hub with lots of ports that provide data & power. For some reason though its impossible to find anything like that for USB-C. I was looking for a hub that has 4 USB-A ports & 4 USB-C ports with data & power for all and I cant find anything at all. The most I could find is 2 & 2, and usually with a bunch of other unnecessary ports.

This made me think: is there some technical limitations here? I feel like the demand should be there since it was there for USB-A, and USB-C has already been out and popularized for many years. The only reason I can think why such a product doesn't exist _at all_ is because of some technical limitation like power draw or something.

4 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 19.1 ms ] thread
delgaudm
I would love to know this too, especially as all the devices are now standardizing to USB-C. Trying to connect 7 or 8 USB devices, trivial with USB-A is darn near impossible with USB-C from what I can tell.

That and all the weird cable / port incompatibilities makes it all the more confusing - which might be why there are no hubs.

And don't get me started on the super confusing USB-C cable length limitations.

For the person (me) who doesn't have a deep understanding of all this it is a confusing mess.

tedyoung
It's all those unnecessary ports I can't stand. I don't need the HDMI, SD card, network, etc. plugs. Just gimme more USB-C Gen2 and maybe some Thunderbolt. I'm fine paying the equivalent of a Caldigit TS4, I just don't need most of those ports.
sircastor
I think it’s mostly a matter of cost. USB-C Is more expensive to implement. More signals, more expensive chips. Remember a couple of years ago all those USB-C cables that were damaging hardware?

On top of that (and I’m not familiar with the handshaking or anything) USB-C is both USB-3/4 and Thunderbolt. The latter is daisy-chained whole the former is one-to-many. I wonder if that’s added complexity.