I remember back when USB-C was becoming a _real_ thing, with the EU getting fully onboard and setting dates for full compliance being required for every device manufacturer selling things there. This eventually forced Apple, albeit a few years earlier than required, to switch from the venerable Lightning connector to USB-C, which they had in fact been a part of developing.
In those days when the connector was not merely being used for data, but relied on now for power, a problem became apparent when cables sold online started being overwhelmed with current and failing, sometimes with significant consequences. This wasn’t like the Samsung Galaxy Note, where batteries were at fault, but poorly-engineered cables with insufficient gauge wires and insulation.
USB-A 2.0 connectors are pretty simple, with 4 contacts to do power, ground, and serial data. It had its limits for many things, both speed and power, because clocking higher can only get you so much more speed over copper and without shielding. Adding more connectors is the best way to do both things, and while Lightning could have done this more effectively, USB-C was set to push the envelope of what the most common connector in the world could do.
Do you remember the funny looking USB connector on some older portable hard drives and phones? Samsung used this on a few of the Galaxy devices and I pity the users who had to keep one of these ports clean and cables from being damaged, as it’s the most awkward one I can think of, more so than the USB-B port which you’re most familiar with on printers.
As you can see, that’s just adding more wires to the mix in a side car, but it was a real thing that had it’s use for a few years before bigger, better cables came along. More likely it was a manufacturing problem first, which is why you don’t hear about USB-C cables being an issue anymore. With the proliferation of the connector, better communication and negotiation of data and power became widespread. A more basic USB-C cable like an Apple 2m charging cord, is only USB 3.0 at best, but features more lanes for power. How do I know this? Let me show you.
This neat board has USB connectors on two sides, with USB 2.0, 3.0 A ports and USB-C on the left, and a USB-B, -C, Micro-B, Micro, and Lightning on the right. It can also tell if there’s shielding present, which the Apple USB-C charging cable definitely has. I’ve not read deeply into the manual, but there’s also an ID LED, which may indicate some extra intelligence in a cable.
This neat little board is pretty cheap, runs from a CR2032, has a power switch, optional DC power in, and can give you a pretty good idea of how good, or bad, your cables are. Want to know if an A-to-C or A-to-micro is power only? Easy!
Power-only -C cables are very common, which is good, but can also be frustrating for those used to the -C connector being useful for power and data. The number of times that you’ll grab a short -C cable and plug it in to a device, to then have it charge but not mount, will be greater than zero. It’s pretty easy to test, and I think that my next tip will also be useful for those who hold a cable to examine what it might be able to do.
Those lights mean that there are at least 4, and maybe up to 8 actual wires present. This represents actual physical copper inside. If you think back to the Apple cable, then you begin to understand how many more wires are present. Even in that photo there are many, many LEDs not lit, but that’s not to say that you don’t own a cable that can light up most, if not all of them.
Do you have a USB 3.1 gen2 NVME SSD? Does it have one of those short cables that’s really, really stiff? There’s a reason why it’s 1) short, and 2) stiff. The first is that high clocks mean that the errors over a distance are more likely, so fast cables tend to not only be short for aesthetic reasons, but cost and complexity and reliability all factor in. This cable is from a RAVPOWER 1TB NVME SSD and it almost gets the full tree. It’s short, less than 12″, and really resists being bent.
It was tricky to get the cable to bend all the way from one side of the board to the other, but I was able to make it work. It’s shielded, and using all of those other side channels in the RX- and TX- but not both of the D- D+ and the other CC line.
You can find this little widget on most any online marketplace or go to https://treedix.com and order direct. I bought this one through an eBay seller, and did not go for the optional polycarbonate case.