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Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

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Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#21

Post by regularfry »

justusthane wrote: post #12
aquir wrote: post #5

Good stuff, but it's telling me that my USB-C Thunderbolt cable has been plugged in upside down but the connector handled this. I was not aware that you can plug in something into USB-C upside down!

I wasn't either (insomuch as I had never thought about it), but it makes sense if you think about it for a second. If you have one end plugged in one way, and the other end plugged in the other way, each individual wire is flipped from where it should be. The fact that you _can_ plug it in either way means that the device on one end needs to be capable of recognizing that and logically reversing it. Same as automatic…

It's not always the case that the cable will correctly fix it. I think (hope?) any that any which didn't would be out of spec, but they exist...

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#23

Post by denkmoon »

I get that the connectors are identical but I find it odd that people find it so challenging. Thunderbolt is the thick and short cable. If it's not thick it's not gonna work well and if it's over a metre it's not gonna work well. cf my pile of thin long "basic" usb c cables.

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#25

Post by Neywiny »

ricardobeat wrote: post #19

I remember seeing a recent analysis where the vast majority of cables from Amazon misreported their capabilities. Is this tool going to be able to catch those, or blindly report what the chip advertises?

I think for real cables the delta could also be explained by damage or just a bad plug-in attempt, so even if you're not trying to detect counterfeit cables it could be useful to know:

1. What does the host support

2. What does the cable support

3. What does the device support

4. What actually got negotiated

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#26

Post by theanonymousone »

I would like to ask an LLM to rewrite it as Python CLI script. Is it even possible, or some Swift-only functionality is necessary?

P.S. Some time ago I learnt through HN of a one-line command in macOS which revealed the power (Wattage) of the connected charger. Can't find it now, but it was very useful.

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#27

Post by consp »

denkmoon wrote: post #23

I get that the connectors are identical but I find it odd that people find it so challenging. Thunderbolt is the thick and short cable. If it's not thick it's not gonna work well and if it's over a metre it's not gonna work well. cf my pile of thin long "basic" usb c cables.

Thunderbolt 4 passive (over usb) is 0.8m in length, longer cables are active, up to two meters I think, so they do exist.

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#28

Post by wallst07 »

denkmoon wrote: post #23

I get that the connectors are identical but I find it odd that people find it so challenging. Thunderbolt is the thick and short cable. If it's not thick it's not gonna work well and if it's over a metre it's not gonna work well. cf my pile of thin long "basic" usb c cables.

How do you define "thick" or "short" to a non-engineer/tech person? Relative to what exactly?

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#29

Post by poisonborz »

sagacity wrote: post #22

This is pretty nice, but why do a lot of Mac apps insist on living in the menu bar?

Making 1 click to access is faster than typing the app name in finder. Dock is usually full and used for different type of apps. Makes also constantly visible output possible with standard ui patterns.
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