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A nearly perfect USB cable tester

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Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#111

Post by mleo »

mrandish wrote: post #92
Vogtinator wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK that's just when plugging in a USB 3 device into a USB 2 port or using a USB 2 cable.

> that's just when plugging in a USB 3 device into a USB 2 port Dell XPS laptops (and some others) can also warn if the charger isn't providing the full wattage the laptop is rated for. This warning is an option that can be turned off in the BIOS settings. I usually turn it off because I sometimes intentionally do day trips with a smaller/lighter portable charger which delivers 45w to my laptop which can need up to 6…

My wife's work laptop gives this stupid warning anytime any USBC charger is plugged in, other than the Dell brick. So even a dock delivering 100w would get a complaint. The Dell brick offers non-standard charging at 140w, which can't get replaced by standards compliant, smaller chargers.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#112

Post by lozenge »

dijit wrote: post #97
Aurornis wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so shipping with a chunky cable that doesn’t even carry decent data feels like a bizarre oversight. USB 2.0 can support up to 480 Mbps. It’s more than fast enough for any audio stream you can send to a DAC. Your headphones don’t need USB 3.0 5 Gbps speeds. USB 3 requires extra wires with different properties that need to be controlled more tightly, which can impact cable flexibility. If your headphones used USB 3 w…

Nobody said the headphones needed USB 3. The point is that the cable is physically thick and rigid (like something you'd expect to carry serious data) but doesn't. Meanwhile Apple ships a thinner, more flexible cable that supports the same USB 2.0 speeds and equivalent power delivery. The cable B&W chose is worse ergonomically for no functional benefit. That's the kind of mismatch the Treedix exposes.

A thick cable tangles less easily.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#113

Post by Telaneo »

graemep wrote: post #110
tomcam wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. I couldn’t have said it better. In general for the 40+ years I’ve been a programmer I have detested the practice of not surfacing diagnostic information to users when technology makes it possible to do so in a clear and unambiguous way.

Most users tend to ignore diagnostic information. "What did the error message say" "I don't know."

This is because error messages have historically been bad, unintelligible, un-actionable, and hard to separate from soft errors that don't actually matter.

'Segmentation fault. Core dumped.'

'Non-fatal error detected. Contact support.'

'An error occurred.'

'An illegal operation was performed.'

'Error 92: Insufficient marmalade.'

'Saving this image as a JPG will not preserve the transparency used in the image. Save anyway?'

'Saving as .docx is not recommended because blah-blah-blah never gonna give you up nor let you down.'

I can't blame any normal user from either not understanding nor giving a shit about any of these. If we'd given users actionable information from day 1, we'd be in a very different world. Even just 'Error 852: Couldn't reach the network. Check your connection to the internet.' does help those who haven't turned of their brains entirely yet.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#114

Post by goodmythical »

dijit wrote: post #97
Aurornis wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so shipping with a chunky cable that doesn’t even carry decent data feels like a bizarre oversight. USB 2.0 can support up to 480 Mbps. It’s more than fast enough for any audio stream you can send to a DAC. Your headphones don’t need USB 3.0 5 Gbps speeds. USB 3 requires extra wires with different properties that need to be controlled more tightly, which can impact cable flexibility. If your headphones used USB 3 w…

Nobody said the headphones needed USB 3. The point is that the cable is physically thick and rigid (like something you'd expect to carry serious data) but doesn't. Meanwhile Apple ships a thinner, more flexible cable that supports the same USB 2.0 speeds and equivalent power delivery. The cable B&W chose is worse ergonomically for no functional benefit. That's the kind of mismatch the Treedix exposes.

For headphones? I'll take the more robust cable any day. The thinner it is the sooner I'm going to have to replace it.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#115

Post by goodmythical »

Aurornis wrote: post #102
dijit wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's woven USB-C cable gets dragged around with iPhones, iPads and laptops daily and manages durability at half the thickness. Durability doesn't require rigidity... in fact for a headphone cable, rigidity is the opposite of what you want. Stiff cables tug on the headphones and transmit mechanical noise.

You don’t wear your iPhone or iPad on your head with the cable plugged in all day like you do with headphones. Apple’s USB iPhone cables wearing out prematurely is so common it’s a meme.

Not sure why you're being downvoted.

Maybe Apple's changed their cables recently, but the fragility is the reason I avoid Apple cables.

Especially in headphones. The number of times those broke during a bike ride or run was way to high for me to keep wasting money on them knowing full well they weren't going to last more than a few months just like every other Apple headphone I've ever had.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#116

Post by AceJohnny2 »

seanalltogether wrote: post #20

I wasn't surprised to learn that when Linus Tech Tips released those new usb-c cables, that they all sold out almost instantly. They put their entire reputation on the line to claim (and label) the exact capabilities of their usb cables. Isn't that all we really want?

They lost me at "our conductors are coax!". USB is designed around differential signaling, which is what twisted pair excels at.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#117

Post by fmajid »

fmajid wrote: post #21
scq wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. What it can affect though is the bandwidth of the cable, meaning e.g. for HDMI cables, they might not support higher resolutions or framerates. If it's on the border you might see random disconnects or screen blanks. The quality degrading is not something you will see, as it's a digital protocol. "Audiophile grade" HDMI cables are likely to just be a Shenzhen bargain-bin special with some fancy looking sheathing…

Indeed. If I want super high quality cables, I get them from Blue Jeans Cables, who tell you exactly what Belsen or Can are cable stock and what connectors, as well as the assembly methodology.

Belden or Canare. Pesky autocorrect.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#118

Post by tredre3 »

Barbing wrote: post #88
Gigachad wrote: post #3

The thing that has been bothering me for a while is that the USB spec allows for software detection of capabilities. You can read the emarker data and see the supported protocols, speeds, voltages, etc. But there is not standard for usb controllers to present this data to the OS. So it’s stuck in the low level firmware and never passed up. In theory we could have a popup box that tells you that both your computer and…

Perhaps someday it will earn the same level of importance as charging; iOS 26 calls out slow chargers on their iPhones, so you can run to the Apple Store and buy a fast one! They probably have to weigh potential new hardware sales against added complexity. I have counterpoints too but: I believe they try to protect users’ mental models of their ecosystem (which perhaps I appreciate when I don’t notice, and can’t stan…

> iOS 26 calls out slow chargers on their iPhones, so you can run to the Apple Store and buy a fast one!

You jest but that notification (it's been a thing on Android for at least 8 years, and on thinkpads for at least 10) has been very helpful to me. Sometimes the negotiation just fails and being told is helpful. Sometimes the charger lies about its specs and once again it's helpful to have a hint, rather than expect everybody to systematically have usb testers on hand.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#119

Post by tetromino_ »

Attempting to access treedix.com (the advertised product) gives me

> Access Denied

> Sorry, you do not currently have the necessary permissions to access this site, or this site may not be available in your region.

Are they geoblocking the USA from even viewing their site for some reason?

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#120

Post by joshvm »

dijit wrote: post #59

I actually purchased one of these as this article has surfaced before. It’s well worth the hype, I used it to audit all my cables (both for home and work) and it’s amazing how many thick and unwieldy cables are actually terrible for data. For example I purchased a pair of B&W Px8 S2 noise cancelling headphones, which boast a DAC if you connect via USB-C directly, the cable it came with though was thick but only rated…

I started buying Belkin TB5 cables which are around $50 a pop. They can easily power a laptop at full load and can stream video at any reasonable resolution/framerate I might need. I've yet to find a need for an NVMe faster than 20 GBps nevermind finding USB4 enclosures, or that the cable supports up to 80. They're also not nearly as chunky as the Dell cables, which are good, but seem to have very rigid shielding.

I keep a few converters for older devices and servers that don't have (m)any C ports, but as far as a consumer "forever cable" goes, TB5 feels close. Certainly the cable's bandwidth is beyond what most people need, unless you're editing 8k video or continually shuffling hundreds of GBs between external disks.

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