Spoiler: I'm his colleague. I kept as strict professional/personal isolation as I could, which is why I didn't discuss it much.
I had to take a step back when I took an NDA to the knee. Plus some other local hurdles.
We're normal people like everyone else. This work is quite rewarding, although complexity has skyrocketed since Kernel-side connection manager for USB4 was implemented. Definitely pick up a Type-C PD analyzer, 4-channel scope, current probe, breakout, and start poking at products around you to learn. (Just not anything EPR yet; you'll fry out your analyzer's eye diagram, kid.)
For industry news and cool tech I'd recommend following Benson instead. He is aware of the ins and outs of his professional station, and serves as a better ambassador for the technology. I'm more of his hardware-biased understudy, and a heckler from the peanut gallery.
Closing, here's some tool suggestions for those wanting to heed the call to action:
Good breakouts are the hardest part to find. Wilder has an excellent "PD coupon" but it prices out most hobbyists. Team-Solutions has the much more accessible Acute Co Tw "AC034 Type-C Breakout Board", but you need to look for "USB Type-C Fixture" on their rather old website.
For analyzers Ellisys Type-C Tracker is the most polished suite, but runs around $5k for single DP/USB4 unlock. TotalPhase PD analyzer is "lingua franca" for Benson since it runs on Linux and his team designed the underlying open-source hardware, however the decode lens hasn't been updated in a very long time. Cypress CY4500 I've found some packet parsing bugs (crosschecking with other analyzers), so always double check the decoded data. Saleae Pro may be your best bet; it is common at Fruit Companies, and Saleae provides a generous hobbyist discount.
I had to take a step back when I took an NDA to the knee. Plus some other local hurdles.
We're normal people like everyone else. This work is quite rewarding, although complexity has skyrocketed since Kernel-side connection manager for USB4 was implemented. Definitely pick up a Type-C PD analyzer, 4-channel scope, current probe, breakout, and start poking at products around you to learn. (Just not anything EPR yet; you'll fry out your analyzer's eye diagram, kid.)
For industry news and cool tech I'd recommend following Benson instead. He is aware of the ins and outs of his professional station, and serves as a better ambassador for the technology. I'm more of his hardware-biased understudy, and a heckler from the peanut gallery.
Closing, here's some tool suggestions for those wanting to heed the call to action:
Good breakouts are the hardest part to find. Wilder has an excellent "PD coupon" but it prices out most hobbyists. Team-Solutions has the much more accessible Acute Co Tw "AC034 Type-C Breakout Board", but you need to look for "USB Type-C Fixture" on their rather old website.
For analyzers Ellisys Type-C Tracker is the most polished suite, but runs around $5k for single DP/USB4 unlock. TotalPhase PD analyzer is "lingua franca" for Benson since it runs on Linux and his team designed the underlying open-source hardware, however the decode lens hasn't been updated in a very long time. Cypress CY4500 I've found some packet parsing bugs (crosschecking with other analyzers), so always double check the decoded data. Saleae Pro may be your best bet; it is common at Fruit Companies, and Saleae provides a generous hobbyist discount.