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Somewhat 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

by zxexz 6d ago

Somewhat 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 5d ago
I 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 5d ago
  More 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 5d ago
  I 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 ago
  The 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 ago
  Huh, 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.
tmountain 5d ago
What makes for an amazing cable? For USB, if it carries data and power, I’m usually pretty happy with it.
- alias_neo 5d ago
  For USB, if it can carry 65W+ of power to my laptop as well as the Keyboard/Mouse inputs, 4K/60Hz display and audio back to the monitor as well as KB/Mouse and perhaps some external storage or network adapter, that's a pretty amazing cable. I also have preferences between my cables by the quality and aesthetic, I prefer some over others because they look or feel nicer even if in testing they contain the same conductors, but that's just ... me. I currently have 3 such cables connected to my work laptop each sending 4K/60Hz video to each of my 3 x 4k monitors, audio to my soundbar and one of them is powering the laptop at 90W and sending my keyboard, mouse and webcam inputs back.
  - tmountain 5d ago
    Thanks, that's helpful!
  - booty 5d ago
    Wow... have you found cheap cables that are able to display video despite not being advertised as such?
    - alias_neo 5d ago
      Generally no, you're far more likely to get something that DOESN'T do what's asvertised in my experience. You can almost always tell the second it's in your hand; in order to do the high throughput stuff, 20Gb, 40Gb etc, the wire is much thicker and stiffer, it needs conductors for all of those contacts. Ive never counted but it's something like 20 of them vs 4 in a standard cable. Of course always C to C; the A connectors with the extra contacts in between the normal USB 2 ones still aren't enough.
      - booty 5d ago
zimpenfish 5d ago
I've got a Treedix[0] which does A, C to Lightning, mini-B, C, MicroB3.0, and Micro. Super handy for identifying the nonsense C-C cables you can chuck. [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-...

by zxexz 6d ago

unwind 5d ago

I 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 5d ago
More 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 5d ago
I 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 ago
The 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 ago
Huh, 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.

tmountain 5d ago

What makes for an amazing cable? For USB, if it carries data and power, I’m usually pretty happy with it.

alias_neo 5d ago
For USB, if it can carry 65W+ of power to my laptop as well as the Keyboard/Mouse inputs, 4K/60Hz display and audio back to the monitor as well as KB/Mouse and perhaps some external storage or network adapter, that's a pretty amazing cable. I also have preferences between my cables by the quality and aesthetic, I prefer some over others because they look or feel nicer even if in testing they contain the same conductors, but that's just ... me. I currently have 3 such cables connected to my work laptop each sending 4K/60Hz video to each of my 3 x 4k monitors, audio to my soundbar and one of them is powering the laptop at 90W and sending my keyboard, mouse and webcam inputs back.
- tmountain 5d ago
  Thanks, that's helpful!
- booty 5d ago
  Wow... have you found cheap cables that are able to display video despite not being advertised as such?
  - alias_neo 5d ago
    Generally no, you're far more likely to get something that DOESN'T do what's asvertised in my experience. You can almost always tell the second it's in your hand; in order to do the high throughput stuff, 20Gb, 40Gb etc, the wire is much thicker and stiffer, it needs conductors for all of those contacts. Ive never counted but it's something like 20 of them vs 4 in a standard cable. Of course always C to C; the A connectors with the extra contacts in between the normal USB 2 ones still aren't enough.
    - booty 5d ago

zimpenfish 5d ago

I've got a Treedix[0] which does A, C to Lightning, mini-B, C, MicroB3.0, and Micro. Super handy for identifying the nonsense C-C cables you can chuck. [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-...