The USB-C connector on the touch screen is quite vulnerable to damage (I found this out the hard way!) and since the cord is captive at the screen end and the unit cannot be disassembled, breakage could be expensive (Snapmaker generously replaced mine under warranty, thanks again Miriam!). This is particularly a problem when the enclosure is used since this moves the screen further from the hub, stretching the coiled cable and stressing the connector in its weakest direction, plus the connector is vulnerable to catching as the enclosure is lifted off.
A neat solution to this is to use the cable clip supplied for the tool head cable as a strain relief. I want to suggest Snapmaker should supply two of these clips in the kit, but it is still worth repurposing the one and improvising something to hold the tool head cable as strength is not important for this.
I bought an extension cable, so no stretching anymore.
Good, and congrats on spotting this BEFORE braking the plug (or did you have to get the touch screen replaced like me)? Also, what if you break the plug while you are printing the strain relief? (The standard bootstrap problem with print-your-own-printer!)
I was suggesting a solution that preserves the build quality and would be very easily implemented by Snapmaker to avoid having to replace broken touch screens in future.
Itās an obvious issue right out of the box, if you plan to use the touch screen off of the holder. If you do, then the extension cord is probably a worthwhile investment.
Which obviously makes you smarter than me! But I am using the touch screen on the replacement holder in the official enclosure. I built the machine and enclosure exactly in accordance with the (very excellent) instructions. It would not be obvious to non-computer types that a standard USB-C extension cable can be used.
I donāt believe itās a standard USB-C cable (USB-C connector yes), but I could be wrong. Iām using mine with an enclosure as well, and very rarely ever remove it from the holder.
Unfortunately itās not a standard usb-c cable, but you can use some standard usb-c extension cables. But not all. The ones that work seem to be the ones that are listed as compatible with Nintendo Switch.
This is the one Iām using:
-S
Snapmaker support sent me āscreen_cable_holder.gcodeā but Iām not allowed to upload non-pictures yet and it is far too long to embed as text. Ask them nicely, they are very helpful! I did not print it as I think my solution is more in keeping with the high build quality of the machine. The official one is a good deal more complex than snapUserās version.
You must cut off some insulation around the connector, otherwise the contacts do not mate.
I am just today doing a āpost mortemā and have cut all the plastic off the plug on my failed unit. The metal part of the plug had broken off a little transition PCB between the wires and the plug, so this was the problem in my case. Unfortunately the PCB is encased in epoxy and I cannot determine which wire went to which pin, but I have asked Snapmaker for this information. If they give it to me, repair should be quite easy as USB-C connector breakout boards are widely available.
I think that PCB is an inline serial adapter custom for the touchscreen. Itās not a straight usbc breakout board.
I do not see any evidence or reason for that. There does not appear to be any components on the PCB, I think it is just a transition between the cable and the connector. I saw the above about some extension cables not working, but USB-C āstandardsā are poorly enforced and there can be partly provisioned cables (Power Delivery only, USB-2 only etc.) Pin to cable in USB-C is not 1-1 due to the cable reversibility, but I see no reason why this would not just be USB-C with Power Delivery and either USB-2 or USB-3 data transfer (there are enough cores in the cable for the latter).
USBC is being used for the form factor of the plug only. The data channels in the cable contain the full USB2 connector for the thumb drive port as well as a serial line to talk with the microprocessor in the controller.
Standard USBC extension cables are active and contain a booster chip to keep high SNR on the data lines. Snapmakerās RS232-esque serial line is not compatible with the active signal boosting chips for differential USBC signaling. This is why the āwii compatibleā USBC extensions do work, the wii does a nearly identical thing.
The main evidence Iāve seen is there is a lack of a serial to USB adapter IC on the controller main board. Itās possible I missed it during my teardown, but I somewhat recall someone else doing a teardown on the cable and discovering an inline serial adapter chip. Could be misremembering here.
Anyways, what youāre proposing isnāt an issue, as long as weāre mindful of what data channels are being used in the cable.
Thanks Brent, that does make sense, but there would not need to be a USB to Serial adapter IC in this scenario. The cable has two independently screened groups of cores, one has four cores which would be right for USB-2 and that could be the thumb drive port, with the other group being a proprietary serial link for the hardware interface redefining the USB-3 pairs. Makes me wonder why they used USB-C at all rather than something proprietary and more robust.
My advice refers to the plug of te extension cable that goes into the receptacle of the controller. This receptacle is to deep and the contacts cannot be reached bij the male connecter. Therefore I removed a few mmās of the insulation of the plug.
I did not have to do this on the one I purchased, but this has definitely been the experience of others on some cables.
-S
