Is it feasible for a USB-C hub to function that supports power-delivery, alt-mode and has 2 - 4 usb-c ports?
My use case:
HP EliteBook 850 G5 that supports TB3, etc., but has only one USB-C port. I’d like to standardize on USB-C power supplies, but I want people working in the field to be able to use USB-C alt-mode external displays at the same time. So, ideally, I’d have a hub into which I could plug a USB-C power supply, a USB-C alt-mode (DisplayPort over USB-C?) external display, then plug that into the laptop’s USB-C PD/Alt-Mode/TB3 port.
Unfortunately, some devices these days have only one USB-C/TB3 port, yet I want to connect more than one device to it at the same time. It seems there is no properly-functioning device on the market today for this use case.
Hi There,
Thank you so much for reaching out to us, this is such a great question!
Currently, we do not have any individual hubs or adapters that have more than one USB-C port on the device, and they either support Power Delivery and Data, or just Data.
Our USB-C MD101 (www.plugable.com/products/usbc-md101) is a USB-C adapter that has a USB-C PD port, so that a USB-C PD Power Supply can be attached, a single USB 3.0 port, and an HDMI port for connecting an external display via a single USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port on the system. This follows some of the features you are looking for, but it does not have any additional USB-C ports, aside from the USB-C PD port.
I hope this information helps, if you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us directly at support@plugable.com.
Thank you for your time,
Marc
Product Owner & Technical Support
www.plugable.com/support
The external monitors we use in the field are usually USB 3.0 with DisplayLink, but we’d like to start using USB-C Alt-Mode monitors, such as the AOC i1601fwux or the ASUS ZenScreen MB16AC. These displays REQUIRE USB-C Alt-Mode to work and when your only USB-C port is consumed by a USB-C power adapter we come up short. I’d be thrilled if Plugable came up with a solution.
We have financial services professionals (auditors) we send into the field at client sites where having external USB-powered monitors is handy and being able to use USB-C Alt Mode is probably more reliable than DisplayLink.
Hi There,
Thank you so much for providing this information! The key is the fact that the displays you utilize are USB-C powered, and connect via USB-C Alt-Mode. We do not have any adapters or docks that allow for this feature. This is mostly due to the fact that Alt-Mode only allows one display to be connected via each USB-C port, while also accepting Power Delivery. Some Thunderbolt 3 based systems allow for two separate devices to access the two features of the port (Alt-Mode and PD) at the same time, but we currently do not have a solution for this type of configuration.
I hope this information helps, if you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us directly at support@plugable.com.
Thank you for your time,
Marc
Product Owner & Technical Support
www.plugable.com/support