Is it possible to switch OFF the charging over USB-C from the USB-C docking station?

The USB-C docking station is great - it’s certainly cleared up clutter and cables on my desk and means that I can use my laptop like a desktop when I’m at the office.

However I would like an additional feature to be added and that’s the ability to switch off the power over USB-C please. I believe it’s good practice to allow a battery on a laptop to drain/discharge rather than run as plugged in and charging all the time - and when I’m connected to the dock this is not possible.

Thanks, Matt.

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Hi Matt,

Thanks for posting, and glad to hear things are working well!

Charging behavior has become quite complex, and Power Delivery/Charging is controlled entirely by the host system’s charging controller. Some OEMs include software to give the user a bit of control over exactly the behavior you describe, temporarily disabling charging and allowing the battery to discharge to a certain percentage.

The feature you mention could technically be possible, but it would add extra complexity, cost, and potential for misunderstanding for many users. So given the various trade-offs – especially adding more complexity to the already too-complex world of USB-C behavior – we made the decision when designing our charging products to continue to leave charging control up to the host system.

EDIT (6/9/23): With that said, modern systems also charge intelligently to minimize battery degradation. Here is a video that actually demonstrates how laptop charging works with USB-C docks: https://youtu.be/8-ZlLYBjfhA

Hope this helps clarify!

Thanks,
Gary

Thanks for the well informed and considered reply Gary.
My previous laptop - a Lenovo - did allow me to go into a battery-life prolonging mode - which let the battery regularly discharge to I think 75% even when plugged in. The swanky new HP laptop I have doesn’t seem to have this capability - so I was hoping it would be something implementable on the docking station.
Aside from that, and the need occasionally to power cycle to get everything to work, the docking station is a great product.
Cheers, Matt.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the kind words!

If you continue to occasionally need to power cycle, please email support@plugable.com – we’ll have a look at some system logs and see if there are any HP updates which may help.

Cheers,
Gary