Is there a USB-C dock that can deliver enough power for the FrameWork 16 yet?
I’ve had no luck searching for such a thing; the highest amount of USB-C Power Delivery I can find in a dock isn’t enough to cover the FW16 with a discrete GPU. “Everyone” seems to produce docks with enough juice for Apple systems (makes sense, big market), but the closest currently seems to be Dell’s " WD19S 180W" which can only supply 130W.
You would need 240W power supply that provides it with USB-PD. There is not yet any official chargers from manufacturers that would provide that.
Maybe starting next year there starts to be 240W PD chargers.
That Dell dock uses a proprietary protocol above 100W, not EPR. I have seen a Dell monitor which was 140W with EPR, but that’s the only Thunderbolt dock I know of with it.
Frameworks 180W PSU, as far as I’m aware, is the highest delivery available on the market right now over usb pd. It is not enough to power the device under high load, as you say. For better or worse, it’s part of the gamble they’ve made with betting on the future.
ive heard of a 240w pd charger, but not a dock.
that charger was also basically impossible to get hold of outside of the chinese market (it was for a phone iirc, not sure how a phone battery can even charge off that much power without exploding). for all i know its also just a proprietary protocol anyway.
as for docks i dont reckon you would be able to get more than 140W at the highest end (like most usb-c pd stuff on the market right now)
Phones only take what they negotiate the charger does not charge the phone, the phone takes power from the charger to charge it’s battery.
It is poor practice to use the idea of a ‘charger’. The term is a PSU a Power Supply Unit. It offers power and provides power but does not charge anything.
The charging in terms of phones and laptops is done by the device.
In the sense of a 12V static lead acid battery, for example, it can be charged without a protocol. Although 12V Li-ion batteries do contain a BMS a battery managment system.
With you on this, I eagerly await a good quality dock with full EPR passthrough or built-in PSU. When I last searched for it couple months ago, I didn’t find anything at all.
Decided to give it a go, and only found this one, which claims that it can negotiate up to 140W (5A@28V) and pass through 130W (4.65A@28V).
My use case is fine with 90W charging while I work, and when I game, I can plug in the 180W charger, so I’m going to wait until I can buy a dock which can supply or pass through the whole 48V.
There is a Delta Electronics branded 240W PD EPR ‘available’ that Framework tweeted about back in (I think) August.
I ordered one from Mouser a while back, and got a delivery update email today, shifting the delivery date forward to the first or second week of Nov (previously it was the end of Nov).
I don’t recommend anyone be like me and buy it, until after reviews and 3rd party testing can verify it won’t kill your gadgets. That being said, there are a few non-AliExpress/AliBaba sources for it if anyone else ignores me and wants to buy/try their own.
I have no idea what it is coming with (just a brick, with detachable cables, just a USB-C cable and you have to source your own country specific plug, etc), which again should temper some impulse buyers.
Digikey has a 240W charger that should be shipping at the end of the month:
I got mine from DigiKey, and it’s a Delta PSU. So far so good.
I have a USB-C power tester tool but it can only negotiate and detect 140W PSUs, so it also states that I have a 140W PSU with the Delta 240W. It says the same for the FW 180W PSU.
I can confirm it is drawing 230W from the wall when I’m at full tilt (Cinebench 2023 and FurMark at the same time). It drops to 160W if I set Windows to Balance Mode, which is what was recommended for use on the 180W PSU (and now I see why that is).
Now I see why the 180W was not enough to keep the battery untouched while at full tilt.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any docking stations that can provide anything past 140W, mostly because Apple have laptops uses 140W USB-C PD and everyone will start making accessories if Apple uses it. I don’t think Framework has the reach to convince large USB PSU makers to make anything beyond 140W for now.
My CalDigit TS4 supplies 100W and it’s enough to keep the laptop from draining the battery on light work, but not so much heavy CPU or GPU loads. I could plug in the 240W PSU in a second USB-C port on my laptop - they don’t add up, only the more powerful PSU gets used.