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A nearly perfect USB cable tester

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Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#131

Post by ben_w »

lpcvoid wrote: post #129
ben_w wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"anymore"? Over a decade ago, a coworker had a path for updating some app's files to a database, and it was taking something like 10 minutes on certain test inputs. Swore blind it couldn't be improved. By next morning's stand-up, I'd found it was doing something pointless, confirmed with the CTO that the thing it was doing was genuinely pointless and I'd not missed anything surprising, removed the pointless thing, an…

I do feel like the industry has taken a nosedive quality wise over covid in particular. Lots of new people only in tech for the money, no deep idea about computers. But I know stories like yours from a decade past as well. A tale old as time, but compounding in recent years - IMHO.

Could be, but I think the rot I see now predates the pandemic, possibly with reactive, possibly even before then: https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2024/04/07-21.31.19.html

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#132

Post by Barbing »

tredre3 wrote: post #118
Barbing wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I do jest, it’s a great feature. I never considered charger negotiation failure!

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#133

Post by dijit »

goodmythical wrote: post #115
Aurornis wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because the woven cables are quite durable.

https://www.techgearlab.com/topics/electronics/best-usb-c-ca...

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#134

Post by izacus »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #45
publicmail wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thunderbolt cable

This is the solution, but it is 1) expensive and 2) Thunderbolt cables are quite short compared to regular USB-C.

Well they do want it all so they can pay for all, right? :)

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#135

Post by Telaneo »

ben_w wrote: post #125
Telaneo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

30 or so years back, one of the Mac magazines had a customer support quote along these lines: "I don't understand, it says 'System Error Type 11', and no matter how many times I type 11, nothing happens!"

Now imagine if that error said 'Error 11: A memory error occurred. Your program may be faulty or misbehaving. Contact your software vendor." That's miles better than what most things provide.

That one's a good example of why these things are hard. The user could have been running 5 different programs, any one of which caused this error, and MacOS can't point the finger at anyone. Not to mention that the problem could be MacOS itself, or the user being a dunce who misconfigured something. I'm not sure if that error can occur without 3rd party software being involved, but if it can, then that error message might need to be even more vague, helping the user even less. Not to mention it could just be faulty hardware.

A paper manual offering troubleshooting steps for each error would be really helpful. Just 'Error 11. Consult your manual.' and the manual actually telling you what the problem could be is also miles better than what we usually get.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#136

Post by Telaneo »

encom wrote: post #124
Gigachad wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true of basically everything. Even trivial home maintenance people will just put up with things being broken most of the time over learning how to fix them.

I've lived in this apartment for about a year and a half. It took me until last week to put up lights over the stairs. I've been walking on the stairs in the dark, some times using my phone as a light. I'm an electrician.

Physician, heal thyself. The cobbler's children have no shoes.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#137

Post by stoneman24 »

Telaneo wrote: post #113
graemep wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

The author Terry Pratchett had some of best error messages in his Discworld novels. The Hex computer could produce the following

++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start.

+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++

+++Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#138

Post by vladvasiliu »

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…

> Honourable mention to the USB-C cables that ship with Dell Ultrasharp monitors (both pre-USB4 and post). Those support basically everything except Thunderbolt 4 despite being unmarked.

I have one of those. They are thick and unwieldy af. Since I've borked the usb connection on my monitor because of static discharge, I no longer use it and figured I'd repurpose it for my digital camera, for which I used to have a short cable that was sometimes annoying. This cable is so freaking think and hard that it'll move my (admittedly somewhat light) camera on the table.

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#139

Post by ben_w »

Telaneo wrote: post #135
ben_w wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 or so years back, one of the Mac magazines had a customer support quote along these lines: "I don't understand, it says 'System Error Type 11', and no matter how many times I type 11, nothing happens!"

Now imagine if that error said 'Error 11: A memory error occurred. Your program may be faulty or misbehaving. Contact your software vendor." That's miles better than what most things provide. That one's a good example of why these things are hard. The user could have been running 5 different programs, any one of which caused this error, and MacOS can't point the finger at anyone. Not to mention that the problem could…

This was 30 years ago, it was Mac OS classic with co-operative multitasking and zero inter-process memory protection, when the error comes up the only option was "restart" (the computer, not the task).

Re: A nearly perfect USB cable tester

#140

Post by mxfh »

Like the price point and portability of the base Treedix testers.

Talking about near perfect wishlist:

Some standard hardware with fail-safe power connections a set of fully wired ports like in display-less Treedix USB platine tester version.

On the other side powered and extended diagnostics through USB-C can then be done from any smartphone or pc providing the display and updateable extended software layer.

Bonus for connectivity to some brother label printers.

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