4 ms·

TIL; there are different types of USB-C cables with functional differences. How do you know what type the cable is? Is is possible to detect it visually?

pixl97 7y ago
You can detect it visually by the sparks and smoke coming out of your device.
- ineedasername 7y ago
  Sure, but what color sparks? In my experience, standard orange sparks mean you just killed a component. Blue sparks mean you just did something very interesting, but not too healthy. Green sparks mean you're scraping thin the boundaries of reality, and Eldritch horrors are looking at you in hunger.
XaspR8d 7y ago
Also curious about differentiation strategies, if anyone has tips. I'm guessing the marketing materials for the cables isn't even sufficient to tell them apart in many cases. It's tempting to build some sort of test rig for this (though I hardly have the background for it)...
- cesarb 7y ago
  I don't have a USB-C device right now to check, but according to https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-typec https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-c... there might be some information at /sys/class/typec/<port>-cable
- pault 7y ago
  There are lots of testers on the market, but it's hard to differentiate them and I'm sure many of them are garbage. I need one myself, but I haven't had the time to do the research yet.
ProblemFactory 7y ago
The USB-C ecosystem is quite a mess. Most cables are either limited functionality, or not up to spec that they advertise. Frying your devices with nonstandard chargers or cables is easily possible. You can't tell them apart visually, and you can't always trust the specs promised on Amazon either. There are testing tools like https://www.tindie.com/products/aroerina2/usb-cable-checker/ https://www.tindie.com/products/aroerina2/usb-cable-checker/ There was a Google engineer (Bensen Leung) who bought, tested and reviewed all the cables he could find, but with the shutdown of Google+ the archive seems to be lost.
- samwhiteUK 7y ago
  Benson Leung is the person who wrote the OP link....
  - k_sze 7y ago
    Wait, what? I see "Tyler Ward", not "Benson Leung". Unless you're telling me they are one and the same.
    - cesarb 7y ago
      A HN moderator has just swapped the link (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362538). When the above comment was written, the article this pointed to was still Benson Leung's.
      - k_sze 7y ago
        Ah, ok. :)
- n1000 7y ago
  Leung's Amazon reviews are helpful: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFLICGQRF6BRJGH2RRD4VGMB47ZA https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFLICGQRF6BR...
- matzab 7y ago
gadgetoid 7y ago
In my experience the ThunderBolt 3 cables are the ones you want to plug into your laptop and route nicely behind it so you can tuck your dock somewhere aesthetically pleasing... but they have a 10cm bend-radius and are only 40cm long. They're also usually marked with a little ThunderBolt and also perplexingly a little "3" presumably in case there's a ThunderBolt 4 sometime in the future that's mad enough not to release with its own connector specification.
- NocturnalWaffle 7y ago
  You mean USB4? https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-4-faq,38766.html https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-4-faq,38766.html
Havoc 7y ago
You close your eyes and pray that it’s compatible

pixl97 7y ago

You can detect it visually by the sparks and smoke coming out of your device.

ineedasername 7y ago
Sure, but what color sparks? In my experience, standard orange sparks mean you just killed a component. Blue sparks mean you just did something very interesting, but not too healthy. Green sparks mean you're scraping thin the boundaries of reality, and Eldritch horrors are looking at you in hunger.

XaspR8d 7y ago

Also curious about differentiation strategies, if anyone has tips. I'm guessing the marketing materials for the cables isn't even sufficient to tell them apart in many cases. It's tempting to build some sort of test rig for this (though I hardly have the background for it)...

cesarb 7y ago
I don't have a USB-C device right now to check, but according to https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-typec https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-c... there might be some information at /sys/class/typec/<port>-cable
pault 7y ago
There are lots of testers on the market, but it's hard to differentiate them and I'm sure many of them are garbage. I need one myself, but I haven't had the time to do the research yet.

ProblemFactory 7y ago

The USB-C ecosystem is quite a mess. Most cables are either limited functionality, or not up to spec that they advertise. Frying your devices with nonstandard chargers or cables is easily possible. You can't tell them apart visually, and you can't always trust the specs promised on Amazon either. There are testing tools like https://www.tindie.com/products/aroerina2/usb-cable-checker/ https://www.tindie.com/products/aroerina2/usb-cable-checker/ There was a Google engineer (Bensen Leung) who bought, tested and reviewed all the cables he could find, but with the shutdown of Google+ the archive seems to be lost.

samwhiteUK 7y ago
Benson Leung is the person who wrote the OP link....
- k_sze 7y ago
  Wait, what? I see "Tyler Ward", not "Benson Leung". Unless you're telling me they are one and the same.
  - cesarb 7y ago
    A HN moderator has just swapped the link (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362538). When the above comment was written, the article this pointed to was still Benson Leung's.
    - k_sze 7y ago
      Ah, ok. :)
n1000 7y ago
Leung's Amazon reviews are helpful: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFLICGQRF6BRJGH2RRD4VGMB47ZA https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFLICGQRF6BR...
matzab 7y ago

gadgetoid 7y ago

In my experience the ThunderBolt 3 cables are the ones you want to plug into your laptop and route nicely behind it so you can tuck your dock somewhere aesthetically pleasing... but they have a 10cm bend-radius and are only 40cm long. They're also usually marked with a little ThunderBolt and also perplexingly a little "3" presumably in case there's a ThunderBolt 4 sometime in the future that's mad enough not to release with its own connector specification.

NocturnalWaffle 7y ago
You mean USB4? https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-4-faq,38766.html https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-4-faq,38766.html

Havoc 7y ago

You close your eyes and pray that it’s compatible