Re:Ever Plugged a USB in Wrong? (2019)
by Dylan16807 on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @05:22PM
(#22049840)
Whatever bug you're hitting is unfortunate but it's not really related to telling cable capabilities by sight.
Knowing the data rate of a cable is an utter mess. But for charging, every cable can do 60 watts. For most purposes the difference between 60 and 100 watts is pretty minor.
Re:Ever Plugged a USB in Wrong? (2019)
by NovemberWhiskey on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @03:25PM
(#22048897)
>Nor Thunderbolt
It's possible they exist, but I have yet to have personal experience of an actual Thunderbolt cable that didn't have a thunderbolt mark on the connector.
For example, I have a Fiio bluetooth adapter which will not charge with a high rate charger, only a USB-A 5v charger via a USB-A -> USB-C adapter. Is it my MacBook and iPad charger’s fault? The cable’s fault? Fiio’s USB-C chipset fault? Beats me - I have no way to know or find out, since I don’t have the tools to sniff out who is not handling the charging protocol properly (and yes, this could be the cable, since there is silicon attached to the USB-C plugs on both sides of the cable which may be involved in the negotiation as well).
This isn’t a huge problem for me now, since I have very few USB-C cables, and none which are not effectively always plugged into a charger. However, in a decade I’ll have to figure this out with a box of cables with wildly differing capabilities.