We like USB-C here at Hackaday, but like all specifications it is up to manufacturers to follow it and sometimes… they don’t. Sick of commercial cables either don’t label their safe wattage, or straight up lie about it, [GreatScott!] decided to DIY his own ultimate USB-C-PD cable for faster charging in his latest video, which is embedded below.
It’s a very quick project that uses off-the-shelf parts from Aliexpress: the silicone-insulated cable, the USB-C plugs (one with the all-important identifier chip), and the end shells. The end result is a bit more expensive than a cable from Aliexpress, but it is a lot more trustworthy. Unlike the random cable from Aliexpress, [GreatScott!] can be sure his has enough copper in it to handle the 240W it is designed for. It should also work nicely with USB PPS, which he clued us into a while back. While [GreatScott!] was focusing here on making a power cable, he did hook up the low-speed data lines, giving him a trustworthy USB2.0 connection.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone test USB gear and find it wanting, though the problem may have improved in the last few years. Nowadays it’s the data cables you cannot trust, so maybe rolling your own data cables will make a comeback. (Which would at least be less tedious than than DB-25 was back in the day. Anyone else remember doing that?) USB-C can get pretty complicated when it comes to all its data modes, but we have an explainer to get you started on that.
TBH, i am amazed about how many loose ends the USB C and USB-PD leave out.
There is just too much freedom and combinations that your average person cannot make any sense of it.
Couldn’t they just fix a few types of cables and a few types of capabilities to ports? Right now there are probably hundreds of combinations when you account for 2 devices and a cable connected together and a normal person somehow has to figure it out. With most often tiny microscopic labels next to the port nobody can understand and see, but also often times missing.
And don’t get me started on PD. Couldn’t they just fix a set of spec for what an adapter of X watts should do? It would be great if any 2 adapters of the same power were interchangeable, but they are not.
If you want to know it gets even worse. I had an OEM HP motherboard (maybe a Blizzard2?), and when I finally found the documentation (on Archive.org, HP website had deleted it) it claimed no video outputs on the motherboard, well guess what, the USB C port had Alt Mode and the motherboard did have video!?!
Well at least that is a nice undocumented bonus, rather than a port that all the documentation makes you think SHOULD do one of the many not USB2.0 features of a USB-C port but actually doesn’t…
I’ve seen plenty of stupid in USB-C that are still technically spec compliant, which just means I really can’t hate the spec enough… Once you add in all the folks using it out of spec, it just gets worse.
The standard does that. Standards-compliant chargers, therefore, do. Solution to your complaint: stop buying bad chargers.
the real problem is in the definition of “they”
“they” are companies trying to min max bill of materials and labor to profit. companies plural so good luck forcing “they” to do anything
He just needs to be sure he trusts the wire he got from alixpress, instead of the finished cabled made with ( maybe ) same wire.
^ this, I was wondering how it’s possible to buy real copper wire from Aliexpress with any sort of certainty.
Measure its diameter (that’s obvious, the AWG of the wire is a well known standard for possible current)
Put 12A in it and check its voltage drop. It’s a 2mn test with a lab power supply.
Copper has a very well known resistivity of 17.8 nOhm.m, so the voltage drop will be current * 2 * wire_length * resistance, with resistance being the resistivity divided by the area of the section of the wire. You can use an online calculator, and you’ll get an idea of the resistance thus the section from the voltage drop.
Wanna know a secret? There’s a far easier way. Apply an open flame from a lighter to the bare wire. CCA will curl up whereas copper will not.
That’s the lazy uneducated way compared to voltage drop testing lmao
Yep
Flame test won’t work for the steel cables. Yes, steel.
Apparently it’s been a thing for awhile as I found an old power cable that a magnet stuck to.
Will that help identify copper alloy, etc.?
It’s easily testable on arrival. Strip some bare wire and hold it in a flame. Copper wire will stay intact, while copper clad aluminium will warp and melt. I think electronics Youtuber BigClive did this recently in one of his teardown videos.
Not sure I’d agree, making your own of those sort of connectors is tedious only because it takes time, it isn’t actually likely to go wrong unless you have no idea what you are doing and the singling done on such connectors are likely to be much more forgiving. Where USB-C, at least with the intention to run at anything beyond USB-2 speeds (and if all you need is USB-2 why wouldn’t you use the much much simpler to use connectors!!!) you have a huge number of conductors to hook up still, but now on a much much smaller connector, and thanks to the higher signalling speeds surely more problems actually maintaining the signal integrity. All along with probably wanting to put a chip in your cable to give access to the higher power levels, and at those higher levels your starting to want a multicore cable with some rather thicker cores to handle the power…
Why does it seem like I am the only person who has never had issues with USB-C or PD? I just buy quality cables and chargers from well known brands and leave it at that.
This DIY option is pretty cool, though. Could be a fun project.
I think you might be. The latest debacle for me is that the charging port on my phone is starting to fail, so that it is unreliable regardless of what charger I use. Cables/chargers from reputable suppliers do last longer, but none of them pass the “give it to a 13 year old” test.
Because you have been insanely lucky? Or perhaps never want more than USB2 spec stuff from the USB-C connector?
Though you do make a valid point getting reputable stuff will make a difference, especially as the USB-C standard terrible as it is is now being ‘used’ without actually bothering to be standards compliant all over the place – it has become the default connector for everything even when a barrel jack would have been more sane…
heh that’s what i was thinking too. in both of these ‘dangers of usb cables’ articles. i’m not worried about an advanced persistent threat hacking my usb cables…but i am worried about a cable that won’t take data, or won’t take power. and i’ve simply never run into that.
OTOH, my approach is totally different than yours. i only buy the cheapest of anything, and everything ‘just works’ because i don’t care about fast charging. if i had a usb-c charging port on my laptop, i’d have to be a little picky but my phone charges over night whether it takes half an hour or 3 hours.
Yeah as long as you don’t need huge data speeds, USB-PD or worse high power marked cables USB-C is mostly alright, as you are not really getting into the weeds of the standard in what you need, all you really have is a new frock on the USB2 cable…
You’ll really start to feel the USB-C cable hell when you want to run external GPU on your gaming handheld, or drive a high resolution display, network interface etc, all while also charging and still needing a few regular USB ports for the external KB/Mouse on your annoyingly fitted with only USB-C port machine. As suddenly you need that data rate (my experience says even decent branded cables tend to be lying on the data rate they can actually manage (at least on the longer cables I need)), and also need the high power throughput, and it all has to work at once and stay really stable or you’ll get file corruption, flickering screen etc. As it is the only cable you have connected and its doing everything it really needs to actually be able to handle it – in effect once you are really making use of USB-C in a way that somewhat justifies its existence over the other USB connectors it frequently becomes awful.
i can imagine a world where usb-c replaces hdmi for tv / monitor, and hopefully by the time that happens all my cables will be good enough for it :)
Buying unbranded μchips from China to embed in your usb cable is the “most trustworthy” option?
Exactly. The alternative is… wait…
Maybe measure the current draw of a cable that’s not plugged into a device. If it has hidden circuitry, then it should pull something.
There’s a story about a fellow that stole power from the utility by tapping the feed before the meter.
He got away with it for much longer than most folks do, because he fed the stolen power through a contactor whose coil was powered by the main breaker.
If he’d put the contactor further away from the panel he might have gotten away with it, but an elf eared investigator heard the contactor in the wall.
Anyway, the cable’s nefarious clandestine circuitry may only power up when there’s already power delivery occuring.
USB-C is a victim of it’s own success. It is a horrible physical interface which constantly breaks and wears out. Micro-B was so much better in that regard and Micro-A even better. It is a horrible mix of standards where you never know if the cable or the port will support the specific feature you need. Yes, I am technical enough to validate the cable and sort through all the standards, but the average person and certainly not my parent’s are able to figure this out.
Was Micro-B really better than USB-C in the durability department? I believe it instinctually but everyone online keeps harping about how durable USB-C is compared to micro-B so I don’t really know
On the other hand I have had many micro USB connectors fail, both on device side and on the cable but have not had a USB C connector fail yet.
USB-C is a very good connector, it’s reliable and safe and technically superior in every aspect to any other USB connector. The issue is in the penny saver, those you decide, like the OP, not to wire all the connector but only few wire (and cheat with a µChip) and thus save money from cabling. Leading to USB-C to USB-C cable buying being a lottery, since you’ll never know what you’re gonna get. I’ve bought so many USB-C to USB-C cable from Amazon and returned so many that I hope, Amazon will stop those sellers from never selling their crap again (I guess that the return rate of a product is a good sign that’ll prevent bad seller from selling).
There’s only one good cable: the one that has all its wires wired as they should with the right section, right insulation, right shielding, right resistors. Once you have one, you keep it and you can drop all the other one.
I’ve broken the USB-C connectors on diarrhea of cables, including e.g. very expensive apple ones.
I’ve never broken a USB-B connector, and I’ve used those as load bearing components in some lamps.
The right cable is the one that is to hand and works.
i wish people would provide data — even anecdata — instead of “constantly breaks and wears out.” i’ll start.
about a decade ago, i found two bad micro usb cables and i thought “these things are constantly breaking and wearing out”, just like you did. so i ordered 3 different cheapo micro usb cables, thinking at least one of them would work. the first one i opened up worked and in fact i think i’ve only thrown out one micro usb cable since. iow, they last really well for me, especially considering the abuse they endure.
i’ve never had a usb-c cable or connector fail or disappoint in any way. i’m not a demanding user but
and like Duncan said, the right cable is the one in your hand. and i’ve never seen micro-a in the flesh so i contest your assessment that it’s better :)
I would trust a name brand cable more than DIY. They likely have automated testing and at least semi automated soldering.
At best I would trust DIY equally, only after building or buying some kind of cable testing device that could verify correct wiring.
It’s your own diy, if you don’t have the competency, don’t do it.
Cheap cables already have two thick wires for the power so I don’t see the issue that he’s trying to solve against the danger of shorting leads or breaking the connector(s).
That’s because USB-C is reversible, and it spread all the power on multiple wires into the cable to avoid too large wire (and rigidity). The thick 5V/GND wire is USB-A era cables. If you have a lot of thin wires and the manufacturer used even thinner wire than expected, they are more likely to break when twisted/bent, and, possibly short inside the cable.
USB = over complicated mess
I’ve made some short USB extension cables with loose plugs and silicone insulated wiring. Both the silicone and the weaving (without the stiff extra outer shell) make these cables very flexible, and they are nice to use.
The cables I made are 10 to 20cm long. I have one hub lying on my desk, and I use these cables to plug in stuff like Logic Analyzers, ST-Link Clones and other programmers and stuff. The cables are long enough to get to my projects, but they are so short they never can get tangled.