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Nintendo Switch 2 Dock USB-C Compatibility

(www.lttlabs.com)
298 points croes | 10 comments | 31 Aug 25 23:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.612s | source | bottom
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alex_f_k ◴[01 Sep 25 03:57 UTC] No.45089306[source]▶
From lttlabs:

> The inability for most docks to support the Switch 2 may not be malicious from Nintendo. It might just be a poor or lazy implementation of the USB-C specification

From the verge [0], 2 months ago:

> When I analyze the conversation between the Nintendo Switch 2 and its dock, I can see the two devices begin speaking in Nintendo’s own flavor of “vendor defined” language early in the conversation, before they sign off on any video output. And then, seemingly before the dock confirms that it’s engaged video-out, they send over 30 proprietary “unstructured” messages to one another.

> […]

> According to Antank, which says it checked with its chip supplier, that hexadecimal string “is indeed the current key being used by Nintendo.” My other sources are less sure.

I'm pretty sure lttl's conclusion is plain wrong. It is not JUST lazy USB-C implementation, but a purposefully designed special proprietary protocol on top of USB-C

[0] https://www.theverge.com/report/695915/switch-2-usb-c-third-...

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KeplerBoy ◴[01 Sep 25 06:39 UTC] No.45090090[source]▶
Seems Nintendo has good reasons not to support it with 3rd party devices: Their own dock has active cooling, so with generic dongles the switch wouldn't be able to enter the docked performance mode (or have to throttle down pretty soon) and would have to output a blurry mess to 4k screens.

Not a great user experience.

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crote ◴[01 Sep 25 07:17 UTC] No.45090300[source]▶
Sure, but what about 3rd party docks which do have adequate cooling? And how is it a good user experience to just silently refuse to work?

If Nintendo genuinely cared about experience they'd just follow the standard and work with any dock, then pop up a notification if it notices that the device is overheating - perhaps even with a "We recommend the official dock" text.

The current behaviour is completely unacceptable and needlessly user-hostile. There's no way around it: their USB-C implementation is broken.

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1. KeplerBoy ◴[01 Sep 25 07:24 UTC] No.45090333[source]▶
I agree that their behavior is user-hostile, but doing it their way gets rid of all of the ambiguity involved with USB C.

I kind of understand why they would rather break their USBC support intentionally and make it very clear that video out is only happening with their dock. Especially considering their audiences.

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2. SifJar ◴[01 Sep 25 08:40 UTC] No.45090782[source]▶
> doing it their way gets rid of all of the ambiguity involved with USB C

At that point, why use USB-C for the dock connection at all? Just use a proprietary connector if you're not going to follow the standards.

Having a separate USB-C port for charging should satisfy e.g. the EU regulations requiring that, I think. (Assuming that is the reason they used USB-C in the first place)

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3. Eater_of_food ◴[01 Sep 25 08:58 UTC] No.45090888[source]▶
Presumably, sticking with USB lowers costs. Just buy mass-produced ports rather than invest in tooling to build a bespoke port.
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4. alpaca128 ◴[01 Sep 25 09:12 UTC] No.45090962[source]▶
> make it very clear that video out is only happening with their dock

What about it is "very clear"? It worked on the Switch 1, it's expected to work as it's USB, there is no error message, it just will appear that maybe the USB dongle or HDMI cable or whatever is defective.

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5. KeplerBoy ◴[01 Sep 25 09:53 UTC] No.45091214[source]▶
The switch 1 situation also wasn't great with reports of switches being bricked or picky about 3rd party docks. I guess that's why they stopped trying to be compatible at all.
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6. pjjpo ◴[01 Sep 25 12:18 UTC] No.45092133[source]▶
> At that point, why use USB-C for the dock connection at all?

To satisfy charging expectations with the same port as display that they decided to do something proprietary with. On the flip side, why not do that when people will buy the console no matter what?

7. tzs ◴[01 Sep 25 14:46 UTC] No.45093059{3}[source]▶
The choices aren’t limited to USB or bespoke. There are thousands of mass produced non-USB connectors available at any major electronics parts distributor.
8. pathartl ◴[01 Sep 25 18:07 UTC] No.45095100{3}[source]▶
They already produce custom designed ports in order to add some tolerance to make it easier to dock the device.
9. naikrovek ◴[02 Sep 25 13:42 UTC] No.45103011[source]▶
> At that point, why use USB-C for the dock connection at all? Just use a proprietary connector if you're not going to follow the standards.

They are following the standards. They don't have to communicate with devices that they don't want to communicate with. There's no requirement in the USB spec that connected Type-C compliant devices interoperate in all cases.

10. naikrovek ◴[02 Sep 25 13:46 UTC] No.45103052{3}[source]▶
There was one dock which did this, and firmware on the Switch 1 quickly worked around the problem the Nyko dock had, and Nyko released new hardware which prevented the problem that the Nintendo Switch firmware update worked around.

The Nintendo Switch wasn't super picky about docks, but in order for external display to work, the dock had to support the mobile DisplayPort protocol that Nintendo used, "MyDP" instead of vanilla DisplayPort, which is what most devices supported at the time the Switch was released. Again, that wasn't a non-compliant thing on the part of the Switch, the Switch just used a technology that wasn't commonly used by much else, which is very commonly done by Nintendo.