Charging with USB C, does the cable matter?

[@joelnrs]

I think the transparency is refreshing. Marketing hype and sponsored content really makes it difficult for the average person to make a good buying decision on products. Great job on showing all the data and allowing the performance of the cables to speak for themselves.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks!

[@fiveangle]

Thanks! The wattage loss is great, but skews all longer cables toward the "worse" range, even if they are great for their length. It might be nicer on future videos to rank them like you have with cost/foot on the Y, but Loss/foot on the X, so all cables can be judged against each other for general construction quality. You could also use something like a dot ("•") on the graph for cables that support ≧ 10Gbps data, and an cross ("x") for those that are only 480Mbps. Great test info ! Thanks for doing what we all wished we could ourselves ! Now if only we could find a quality 6' silicone sheathed cable that supports 100W (now 240W) charging and 10Gbps or greater data transfer. One can dream :)

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks! The 2nd and 3rd videos have more metrics and maybe are a little clearer, the first in the series is always an experiment. 4th round will be out soon enough and yeah, a bunch of 240w cables will be in that one. Graphing, well, all the graphics can still use work. Ultimately, I decided the watts loss per cable is what matters since they are individual units. It is a good idea to use different symbols for the graph. I do include the cost per foot, resistance per foot, etc on the data available here: www.allthingsoneplace.com/usb-cables I usually put in a note on the cables capabilities (but I don't verify the data path speed which is beyond my equipment, I have lots of power measurement gear). The allusive perfect 6 foot cable...

[@CosmicSeeker69]

I'm 1:40 and stopped the vid at the chart (with a WTF) for exactly the reason you pointed out...

[@AlphineWolf]

Anker has a 3 feet and 6 feet silicone cable

[@DB-47]

I like so much your in depth breakdowns and analyses of power supplies and this not so commonly analysed topic - cable ESR. I checked my cables using Power Z KT002 USB tester and I was surprised that for instance bundled USB-C to Xiaomi 65W and Samsung 45W (both 2.0 speed ; 5A e-mark) have nice ESR (88 - 94 mΩ) while for instance USB-C cable made by Belkin costing almost 40 USD (3.1 Gen 2 ; 5A e-mark) resulted into 120 mΩ and Apple USB-C cables are compared to that B tier products (2.0 speed ; 5A e-mark) having average ESR 142 - 160 mΩ

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks for sharing! If you liked this one, check out round 3, kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHWYqpuLgbt9mtE round four will probably be out in January or February. But it is true no way to no, no one tells you any specifications on cables, it is like modern devices and battery capacity, no one tells you that either.

[@wwjoshdew]

The best 6 or 10 foot cable for when the outlet is far away from where you need to charge.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

The second iteration of this video has a little more detail and the cables broken into groups. Comparing way too many usb cables with too much data. 😀 kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3TVfax-lsRnpKc there will be a third video at some point…

[@CyberCheese392]

I was going to go with Baseus but then at the end of the video I saw how it looked like, and that it was without a threaded cable, and then I realized I was looking at the graph wrong regarding weight, and that it actually is desireable because it relates to durability.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Yeah, I use the Baseus cables quite a bit, even though they aren't the 'best' cables, they are light and functional for charging.

[@BossFightDatabase]

I freaking love this channel

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks!

[@robwasnj]

Very interesting video. About a year ago I went nuts trying to find a short one foot USBC cable to replace the one that came with my DJI drone controller so I could use a tablet. I wanted something with right angle connectors preferably. After buying 3 cables that didn't work I wound up finding one by anker that did but it had straight connectors which was less than ideal, still it was a quality made cable and transferred data. Eventually a found another brand that stated right on the ad it would work made by skyreat and it's been great although it seems like a very thin cable. In my opinion USBC has been the most confusing thing ever with all the different cables and standards as well as low quality cables that may not even work (some only worked with a specific side facing upwards, a friend of mine told me that's wired wrong). It'd be really nice if a manufacturer produced a line of cables that simply supported everything and made them available in all lengths with different jacket materials and both straight and right angle connectors. Of course they'd be expensive but for those of us that want every cable we own to simply work for every task it'd simplify things.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Yeah, it is complicated. I know the cable can do a lot too so depending on what you find it is all over the place for results. The real thing the manufacturers need to list is resistance of the cable connector to connector. At least then it’s simple enough to pick the lowest value for maximum efficiency in charging. In terms of other features standardization exists but it’s a so confusing with thunderbolt, usb 2, 3.1 gen 1 and gen 2. But yeah in my roundup the thinner baseus cable actually didn’t do bad but it was a charging only cable. Anyway thanks for watching and thanks for the great comment. I do have a part two looking at more cables and have had a few suggestions so a part 3 is likely.

[@robwasnj]

@@AllThingsOnePlace I must have watched 20 of your videos today, some of the results were very surprising like the apple chargers that are actually the worst of the bunch. Your efforts are appreciated, thanks again!

[@AlphineWolf]

Iniu has right angle cables on their website

[@mastercheif91]

Love the concept behind this video but it's missing an important bit of info: length normalized results. It's entirely expected that shorter cables would have lower resistance, so to compare them to cables of longer length is unfair. The table that would be most useful is resistance per foot of cable.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks! And yes, this was a quick concept to get an idea of what works. I agree that a resistance per foot graph and table would be great. I will add that into the next one (and the data from this one as well). There is also the not-insignificant resistance of the connectors but those will always be part of a real cable. I made a reference cable with large gauge wire for repeatability testing as well (with connectors).

[@TCPUDPATM]

Apple I’m curious how high end data cables would compare! They have heavier cables for power form what I’ve seen. What I don’t know is whether those are thicker than these.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

This video has a lot more cables in it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHWYqpuLgbt9mtE In general the higher speed data cables do a little worse. They are thicker to accommodate the shielded twisted data pairs.

[@spajettycate]

amazing and informative video,. I learned something new today ,. so do you suggest buying a new cable for my e.g. new smartphone to have better efficiency at charging my device? or just stick with the free cable that comes with the device?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks for watching! It all depends on your needs. If you are charging a phone with a USB C to C cable then chances are the cable is good enough. The larger devices like laptops you may want to look into something. The apple type (lightning) cables get covered in round three of usb cables and generally were okay.

[@blubbspinat9363]

thanks for the detailed test. I was also curious to see if USB2.0 cables were better for just charging as they do have less conductors for data transfer and thus allow for thicker power wires for same cable diameter. I actually bought a 3m long Stouchi C-to-C 2.0 cable. Using a TC66C i determined a loss of about .18V at a current of 1.5A while operating my Dell E7240 notebook with a PD trigger adapter. I think this is quite good, especially considering cable length. Could you please make a test of those and maybe a comparison of equally thick USB 3.x vs USB 2.0 cables?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I have some more USB cables to test, some are USB A to USB C and are 2.0 data and power. Some are 3.0 data and power. For your able that current and voltage that gives about 120 milliohms which for a cable of that length is very good. I will have to pick one up to check it out. I am assuming the brand is Satechi?

[@optimus6858]

thanks it would be nice to include universal units like meter for cable length 1:37

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Good point.

[@maratamzayan8898]

Nice video. Did you ever use the JSAUX cables? They are good for their price, but I am not sure if they deliver full power. Thanks.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I haven’t yet but I can give them a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@mechaxjoe]

Which usb-c to usb-c cable is best for the Switch Lite?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I hope cables don't present an issue for charging. It looks like some forums recommend a cable with a resistor so possibly an emarked cable, but that is going to require vconn, which means a pd power supply, but then the switch may not work with the power adapter. This is what happens when a company decides to implement not-compliant with a standard. No idea what it works with. I've seen recommendations to only buy the official nintendo accessories. Steam deck is also not compliant. The standard is free also so not like there's some huge licensing fee.

[@iu1191]

This is great .... ANy chance you can do a comparison of cables with an LED screen to see how accurate their readings are?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Thanks. Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.

[@Orangemushroom554]

Anker cables are more expensive, so I'm not considering them. Baseues cable or Ugreen 100w cables?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

The UGREEN and Baseus cables did well.

[@ewicky]

What was the movie reference you made at the end?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Oh yeah, I said "another round" (English title) three times, movie that came out in 2020.

[@snh4228]

Nice video. Hope it's alright to ask a cable question here. I have a 65w anker charger (not the gan prime) and and 65w charging speed anker power bank. When I use a standard anker 100w charging cable I hit about 63 watts on the charge (according to the power bank screen), but when I use a more expensive/smarter anker 100w usb 3.1/thunderbolt 3 data cable, I hit the full 65w from the charger. Why would one hit 65 and not the other? is the more expensive cable able to do some kind of communication with the devices or something?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Yes, one cable has an e-marker chip in it. This tells both the device and the charger to allow the current to go beyond 3 amps, up to the USB limit of 5 amps if available.

I have to choose between Anker Powerline 100w or Baseus cable 100w which will be better ?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

The anker looks better from the tested data.

[@PapaBlake]

What cable would you suggest for apple 140 watt block

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I'm still looking. I have a bunch of new cables to test.

[@rileystar86]

Could you do one on a brand called jsaux a 10ft cable

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

On the way! Thanks. I think that will make round 3.

[@djdelarosa25]

Does USB-IF certification matter for a 1 m charging cable that will only be used for low wattage (

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I think 95% of the cables I have are not certified. Wattage is a step away from the thing that matters for power loss, current does though, as the losses in a USB cable are primarily current^2 times resistance. At 15w, it could be 5V which would be 3A, so you could see some pretty major losses in the cable from bad cables. One method is to use a 5A or 100W rated cable minimum to minimize losses if going non-certified.

[@RainBitcoins]

Ugreen 240w PD3.1 is by far the best I've had to date

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Yeah, it's a heavy cable.

[@was77m]

Will you please compare 3in1 100 watt or 2in1 100 watt cables from Baseus or any other reliable brands.

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Hmm, I haven't seen any 100 watt ones yet. They obviously have to do something different to get 5V and 20V to not burn devices out if you plug in the other end to more than one device. I will have to check it out.

[@was77m]

@@AllThingsOnePlace yes please do check eagerly waiting

[@user9b2]

Does efficiency actually slow down the charging time?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

So, only on really fast charging devices, or devices using high current, it can have an effect. Say the power adapter produces 100 watts, a good cable might get 98 watts to the device, a bad cable may get 92 watts to the device. Doesn't seem like a lot but yes it can slow down charging.

[@sophiarodriguez1861]

You're AMAZING!!! THANK YOU!!! 😍

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

The round 3 is quite a bit more comprehensive. Round 4 will be out at some point relatively soon hopefully.

[@khoadang108]

wow. Thank you so much😀

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

You're welcome 😊

[@jammies701]

Nice vid mate

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I'm sure there's one of these comments from like a month ago I'll reply to in like another month.

[@tanjum420]

Why didn’t you just measure the resistance with an ohm meter?

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

I could but I don’t have a milliohm meter that will pass at least a couple amps through the cables to get a good reading of the few milliohms on some of these cables. So, a four wire measurement in this setup was easier with the gear that I have. Some cables also require a voltage and some logic to pass signals, apple lightning…

[@MrRicardoFrancisco]

UGREEN

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

They aren’t bad.

[@the_game]

talk a little faster

[@AllThingsOnePlace]

Yeah, I don't know what the prize was to speed through this one but I won it.

[@the_game]

@@AllThingsOnePlace haha yes! 🏆