At least they’re forward about it - I’ve lost count of how many bike accessories claimed to be USB C, but they only charge when connected to their specialized cable that converts from USB A to C.
Double-sided USB-C connections require a handshake before sending voltage. USB-A ports can have the 5v line active at all times. Cheap USB C gadgets often don't make the handshake, they just use it as a 5V input, necessitating an A to C cable.
I think you're overstating this. The "handshake" is purely 2 simple resistors correctly installed. The problem is a lot of folks do it wrong for various reasons, most likely never testing with anything more than type a to type c cables.
If you add 5.1kΩ pulldown resistors on the CC lines for USB-C, you can get the standard 5V without a handshake although current may be limited by some chargers without negotiation.
One of the many deficiencies of usb-c (who knows what power your cable supports, charger supports, if you accessory will charge, of it will connect at all)
There is no handshake, all that's needed are two 5.1 kΩ pulldown resistors. By omitting them the manufacturer saved all of about 0.1c and made their device incompatible with compliant usb-c chargers.
Janky is directly proportional to cost. Grandstream are the jankiest and least expensive. I like the Cisco 191; it is a fine unit but costs about $100-120.
Oh nice! I have been working on my own too! (https://havenphone.com). I was planning on the exact same model and pricing as well.
I am curious: have you gone down the tr069 rabbit hole? If not how do you plan to do endpoint management?
Are you using a Fanvil H2W? Too? That was my first phone choice.
I also learned of https://www.beanstalk.club from this thread as well. Looks like there are a few folks trying to do similar services without the proprietary hardware and waitlists.
Now the problem is that they're not "dumb" enough as they have a web browser, youtube etc, but that can be considered fine because the experience for those is so bad that it's unlikely to get addicting.
It blows my mind that the current Cisco ATA is $150+.
For the service I am building (havenphone.com) I used Grandstream HT801 with success with voip.ms. I don't love how easy their cloud can take over the device though.
I went the DIY route (you can find the details as a parent comment). But, I had good luck with voip.ms as a SIP provider. It is inexpensive at $1.10/month for the phone number and $0.008/min for calling. And it has a pretty good history of user forums, wiki, etc for debugging hints with various hardware.
I am working on a similar service for my own needs (and some other friends). But, my current plan is to hit $100/yr or so but the hardware is included in that cost. I am assuming $2/mo for costs of the number and minutes and retail costs for VOIP hotel phones is about $50. Hopefully the hardware costs amortize out and then I can offer a discount to users on subsequent years.
(If you want to go DIY you can save quite a bit of money too- I provided some breadcrumbs for doing that in my comment on the parent)
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