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December 8th, 2020 01:00
USB C Hub for Multiple purpose?
Hello,
Hope anyone can help us. We bought a Dell e590 and a Portable S14 LCD which powered by USB C but the power for the e590 is a USB C type too which we cannot use both device at the same time. Is there any HUB available on the market that we can buy to use both device at the same time (Charging via USB C & USB C for Portable S14 Screen).
if the USB can supply a power is the HDMI port can supply a power too? I was thinking maybe if the HDMI port of e590 can supply a power might be worth trying to get USB C to HDMI cable ? Thank you.
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jphughan
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December 8th, 2020 06:00
@jayyyV First, a USB-C to HDMI cable can only connect a USB-C output to an HDMI input. It cannot be used to connect an HDMI output to a USB-C input as it appears you'd want to do. But HDMI outputs also only provide a very small amount of power, nothing like USB. So even if the video signal could travel in that direction (it can't), your display wouldn't be getting enough power.
Some portable displays have HDMI inputs specifically to be used with devices that don't have video-capable USB-C ports, but it looks like the model you have doesn't offer this. And even if it did, you'd then need to connect the display to a separate power source, which would be less convenient. Your display only has a USB-C input, which means it can only be fed by a video-capable USB-C output.
In terms of multi-purpose adapters, there are several that include a USB-C power passthrough port. They allow you to connect a USB-C wall charger to the adapter and it will pass power through to the laptop. And many of them will also use some of that power for the hub itself in order to provide more power to its own USB ports, which can make it more reliable to use with high powered USB devices like USB-powered external hard drives. However, I've never seen one that included a video-capable USB-C output, which is what you'd need in this case. Even hubs that have a USB-C data-only port (rather than just a power passthrough port) are still fairly rare today. So that might not be an option.
In terms of what you CAN do, I can think of a few possibilities:
Note that if you use USB-C power passthrough through either a multi-purpose hub or a display like the M14, typically the hub/display will "skim" some power from the source, which means the system won't receive as much power as the power source is providing. So for example if you have a 60W power source, the system might only see a 45W source because the passthrough device is using some of the source power to run itself. The passthrough device can't provide power to your system and draw power from it at the same time, so it does this instead. But that behavior can cause the source system to complain about a low power USB charger even when it won't do that if the same charger is connected directly. That's normal in this situation, and the end result isn't all that different anyway because if you connected the power source directly, the system would see a full power source, but it would end up having to use some of that power to run the display/hub anyway. But just be aware of that. The other option would be to get a higher wattage power source so that the laptop still received full power even AFTER the passthrough device skimmed power off. But some passthrough devices also have a maximum amount of power they can pass through, regardless of the source. For example, the ThinkVision M14 will skim off 15W for itself, but it will only pass through 65W max to the system. So if you connect a 60W source, you'll get 45W passed through. But if you connect a 90W source to the M14, you'll only get 65W to the laptop, not 75W.
jayyyV
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December 9th, 2020 00:00
@jphughan sir thank you very much for your answer. I don't know why i ask this on the Dell forums whereas the machine was a Lenovo. Apologies on this. Have a good day!