Discussion
Technology: The (nearly) perfect USB cable tester does exist
Onavo: I just want one that tells me the maximum voltage and current supported by a USB C cable.
wolfi1: there are several: one that is moderately priced and which I consider myself to buy is the JOY-IT UM120
Modified3019: I’ve had one for a while as well. I don’t use it often, but frankly I couldn’t sort my cables without it.
Gigachad: 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 other device support higher speeds/more power, but your cable is limiting it.Apple seems best able to do this since they control the hardware and OS, yet they aren’t doing it either. Users are just left to be confused about why things are slow.
amelius: I want one that sends a pseudorandom data stream and tells me the bit error rate.
avian: > In theory we could have a popup box that tells you that both your computer and other device support higher speeds/more power, but your cable is limiting it.I'm pretty sure my old Dell XPS laptop with Windows 10 had pop-ups just like this."This device can run faster" or something.
LoganDark: Even Apple now has one of those, when you plug something into the USB 2 port on the MacBook Neo.
atoav: [delayed]
contingencies: Got this recently for USD$3 on sale: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006848187940.html
Onavo: Thanks, why do you prefer that particular model?
Eisenstein: [delayed]
jmalicki: So you're saying there is something to audiophile grade HDMI cables?
graemep: I suspect most users do not even realise things are slow.
