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God, yeah. I try to label the USB-C cables directly by capability with my label maker, if they are more than basic charging cables.
by booty 6d ago
God, yeah. I try to label the USB-C cables directly by capability with my label maker, if they are more than basic charging cables.
- theturtle 6d agoI use a white paint pen. DATA and NO DATA.
- SAI_Peregrinus 5d agoI use wire cutters. Non-compliant cables get cut & discarded. I've got a dedicated USB condom with USB-PD support for cases where I want to block data, since those are always charging and I want the negotiation to work for fast charging.
- dataflow 6d agoWhat marker do you use to mark them? Is the ink durable and easy to read?
- aaronax 6d agoA label maker, as they said they use, prints durable and easy to read labels.
- dataflow 6d agoWhoops, thank, I can't read - I misread label maker as label marker!
- mceachen 6d agoI bought a cheap pack of 5 colors of 3m electrical tape. Each cable gets one or two pieces of tape: Data: White if usb2 Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue) Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps Power: None if low/no Power Delivery Yellow for 45W PD Red for 65W+ PD
- dataflow 6d agoLove this, that sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!
- user_of_the_wek 6d agoYou could even do combinations of colors like on resistors.
- Evidlo 6d agoMight get sticky residue after a few years
- dns_snek 6d agoI suggest finding something else, electrical tape starts coming off after a few years, leaving behind sticky residue that's impossible to remove without some kind of solvent. Same goes for masking tape.
- notpushkin 6d agoHeatshrink?
- dns_snek 6d agoHeatshrink is great if you're making cables but you would need a really high shrinkage ratio to fit over the connector and then shrink enough, the common cheap stuff is usually 2:1, maybe 3:1. You could cut the heatshrink tube, wrap it around the cable and then secure it with transparent tape. It would slide around but at least it wouldn't leave residue on the cable. Maybe clip-on cable markers like this? [1] Easy to 3D print if you're so inclined. [1] https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/pb-250-sm0c/cable-marker-0-15-0-5mm-0-9-pk250/dp/1891367 https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/pb-250-sm0c/cable-marke...
- notpushkin 6d agoI’ve thought about just putting it on the connector itself. It may look stupid though.
- zxexz 6d agoSomewhat recently, on a wild night out on the town, I ended up buying a USB-C <> USB-C cable tester[0]. Using it, I managed to find a few amazing cables amongst my collection. Gave away the others with context. I want something like this for every type of cable. [0] https://caberqu.com/20-42-c2c-caberqu.html https://caberqu.com/20-42-c2c-caberqu.html
- unwind 6d agoI like your idea of a wild night out! Note to others: that tester board looks fairly passive, i.e. I don't see (mention of) a microcontroller to talk to the chip that high-powered cables must have. So I guess it's somewhat limited in the number of things it can check?
- gunalx 6d agoMore often than not just knowing the contact has OK connection is good enough. As far as I know the marker chips is mostly to tell the devices to not abuse the cable.
- alias_neo 6d agoI have a cheaper version, it does basically all one needs by telling you how many conductors the cable has, if it's only got 4 lights lit up it's a simple USB2, more power LEDs is a higher power charging cable, more data pairs, higher data throughput/USB3, nearly all of the lights (usually bar 1 of the CCX) it's full DP/Thunderbot, data, charging, A/V etc. Sometimes it even shows USB-C connectors that are only wired for one orientation!
- zimpenfish 5d agoThe Treedix[0] can query e-marker chips. [0] https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-cable-tester-usb-tester-for-data-transmission-and-power-transmission-cable-testing-resistor-testing-type-c-emarker-for-usb-a-micro-b-micro-b-3-0-type-c-lighting-mini-b https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-...
- zxexz 5d agoHuh, looking at the photos, they really don’t do the board justice. It’s a gorgeous thing to look at and one of the only “bare pcb” tools I’ve used that still functions after years of being thrown in a backpack. It is Fully passive I think (the newer BLE one does emarker queries etc.). But it does the job very well. I haven’t had it fail to identify the capabilities of any cable yet.
- zimpenfish 5d agoI went for a colour label system - one colour for type of cable (C-C, A-C, etc.) and one colour for capabilities (power, usb2, usb3, usb4+, etc.) Makes it super easy to find, say, a data microUSB (blue, orange) for the Audiomoth) or a simple charging microUSB (red, orange) for the old blood pressure cuff).