How Nintendo locked down the Switch 2’s USB-C port and broke third-party docking

There is always a reason why USB-C Ports “only work” as you expect. In the early days, it was incompetence or naivety. Later, often the manufacturers are cheap. But in the case of Switch 2 Nintendo, it appears to be intended.

With Nintendo Switch 2, it should be easy to connect the new and most expensive console in video glasses or TVs when traveling away from home. USB-C makes it so. But Nintendo has intentionally broke Switch 2 compatibility with these devices, using a new encryption scheme and a form of designated encryption chip. freedom.

I did not find evidence of this encryption chip myself-but when I analyzed the USB-C PD traffic with a Power-Z test, I could clearly see the new Nintendo key does not act like a good USB citizen.

If you are wondering why there is no key sidewalk 2 on the market, this is the reason. Even JSAux, the company that designed its reputation by overcoming the Deck Steam Dock marketing, tells us that it stopped its plans to build the Dock Switch 2 due to Nintendo’s behavior. It is not simply because the 2 key now requires more effort, as previously reported; It is that Nintendo made things more difficult in this generation.

That “U” in USB is not always “globally”, but this is generally true: if you connect any USB-C adapter on a HDMI transformer or the dock or axis in a USB-C laptop or tablet or mobile computer that supports the USB-C video out, you can expect to see your screen appear automatically on TV.

Magic is usually possible due to a simple and unified group of guidelines that any company can follow to make the laying station or the “conversation” axis to the computer. In fact, it’s very simple, I can make fun of a basic version for you here:

This conversation, using uniform messages (known as “organizer”) on a USB-C PD protocol, takes a small part of a second.

But as you doubt now, Nintendo Switch 2 does not do it in this way. When you connect the 2 key to a berth or a third party axis, it may refuse to negotiate the authority. At other times, you will get the strength you ask, but then the conversation will stop suddenly.

Because that when Nintendo Switch 2 begins talking in the code – only royal messages can decompose their symbols.

Now, you may wonder how I can see any of this, encrypted or not. But all you need is a broker to inhale the USB-C Energy Delivery Movement that passes between the dock and the portable nintendo, such as the Power-Z KM003C that you bought for this story. I connect one of its ends in the 2 key (and other comparison computers), and another end of it at the 2 switch berth (and other sidewalks for comparison), connect it third Do the port to my Windows with a long cable, then launch its application to record passers -by.

When I analyze the conversation between Nintendo Switch 2 and its sidewalk, I can see the two devices start speaking with the Nintendo flavor of the “specified” language early in the conversation, before logging in to any video outputs. After that, it seems before the cage confirmed that he was involved in the video, they send more than 30 “unorganized” messages to each other.

You do not have the other USB-C axes and sidewalks tested by the same conversation-with one noticeable exception.

As of today, only one third party claims that he is compatible with Nintendo Switch 2. You will not be surprised to hear that when I tested that Antank S3 Max is worth $ 36 (AKA Siwique TV Dock Station), I found that she was talking about the encrypted Nintendo.

Not all A message in the same order exactly like Nintendo, which provides a slightly different amount of electricity, but it sent almost the same encrypted messages and responses to Nintendo requests, including a repeated symbol I feel curious in particular: 33 01 0 0 0 0 01 01 6D 68 33 0 0 0 0 0 01 01 6D 68.

According to Antank, who says he was examined with his chips supplier, this twentieth chain “is in fact the current key that Nintendo uses.” Other sources are less confident.

But as with Nintendo Switch 2, our TV illuminates after Antank sends these encrypted messages.

But this does not mean that any company can only copy Nintendo orders and expect its berth to continue to work. “We expect Nintendo to limit the third -party sidewalks and accessories through the system updates to maintain the safety of the device and the system,” says Winnie Chen, a spokesman for JSAXX. freedom.

It seems that Antanik agrees. “Yes – the key must be considered vulnerable to change,” writes the actor of Ananka, who goes by Suzy. “However, our products support firmware updates, and any future changes on the authentication key by Nintendo can theoretly process through programs, ensuring its constant compatibility.”

Why is any of this a big thing, especially when Switch 2 comes with his dock in the box? Well, it is not just large TV sidewalks. Nintendo also broke the compatibility with Carrier The sidewalks that you can take on vacation or to the hotel room, and with video glasses like Xreal One, which costs more than or more than switching 2 alone.

To fix that, you will seem to need completely new, JSAux, Antank and Xreal devices. Although Xreal originally seemed to indicate that it was a temporary problem that just required a “technical amendment”, Xreal now says that the reform will need a new tool called Xreal NEO. Good news: Xreal spokesman Ralph Judis tells freedom The new device is already working in the laboratory and will be charged “later this year”.

Another argument I heard on Reddit: Why should Nintendo not have the ability to protect the Fly-Light and SUPPLIES switch that may harm the new hand and raise more calls to the support of Nintendo customers?

There, I may indicate that locking things down is not necessarily a repair. When Nintendo released the original key in 2017, the annex makers were likely to know how to break the Nintendo protocols of the inner academic, and it claims that some of them (NYKO) led to the damaged hand.

I expect some Nintendo EGLE-Elege fans that Switch 2, unlike the original key, needs to properly operate the active air to operate it: the official Dock from Nintendo is now fans, and that the console has holes below that may be blocked by external corps. (Actually, the Antank berth already prevents those holes!)

But before you suggest that the holes and fan are completely necessary, please know that the cooling fan in Switch 2 does not actually cool key 2, and that the Antank Layer does not seem to run Switch 2 more than the official sidewalk. I ran Cyberpunk 2077 For a straight hour with each berth, then pull a thermal camera, and Antank appears to be slightly cooler. Perhaps more airflow across the screen and background of the control unit of banned openings. Through this logic, the console may work even cold if Nintendo allows you to use USB-C to Dongle HDMI instead of a berth. If it is not only imprisoned!

Mostly, it is the principle of the matter. USB-C He should You just have to work, here is a place where it is usually in, however, Nintendo prevented him from doing this.

Nintendo will not confirm or deny that she uses encryption and documentation chips to lock video outputs from Switch 2. No comment was made for this story.