The Widespread Use of USB-C Cables: A Deep Dive into Their Performance and Limitations

USB-C cables are a ubiquitous feature in modern electronics, allowing for the charging and transfer of data between devices with ease. However, their popularity also raises questions about their performance and limitations. In this article, we will delve into the world of USB-C cables, exploring their capabilities, the challenges they pose, and what to expect from them.

The Rise of USB-C Cables

USB-C cables have become increasingly popular due to their versatility and convenience. They can be used to charge devices, transfer data, and even power larger devices such as laptops. This has led to a proliferation of USB-C cables in various industries, from consumer electronics to automotive and industrial applications.

The Importance of Proper Cable Selection

When choosing a USB-C cable, it is essential to select one that meets your specific needs. With the increasing demand for high-performance cables, manufacturers have begun to develop cables with improved specifications. However, this has also led to a proliferation of cables with varying levels of performance.

In our research, we tested 13 different USB-C cables to determine their performance and limitations. We used a range of devices, including smartphones, laptops, and power banks, to simulate real-world scenarios. Our testing included measures such as current flow, voltage drop, and resistance, providing us with valuable insights into the performance of each cable.

The Worst-Performing Cable

One of our most surprising findings was that one particular cable, designed for use with USB-A devices, performed poorly in our tests. Despite being marketed as capable of handling high currents, it failed to meet our expectations, overheating during testing and exhibiting excessive power loss.

This poor performance was attributed to the cable's high resistance, which resulted in a significant voltage drop. This means that even at moderate current draws, the cable would still consume excess power, potentially leading to reduced battery life or increased heat generation.

The Impact of Cable Length

Cable length is another factor that can significantly impact its performance. As we demonstrated through our testing, longer cables tend to have higher resistance, which can lead to decreased performance. This highlights the importance of selecting cables with suitable lengths for specific applications.

Our tests revealed that some cables, despite being shorter than others, performed better due to their lower resistance. However, when considering price and value, it's essential to weigh the benefits of a longer cable against its potential drawbacks.

The Need for Standardization

One of the challenges we faced during our testing was the lack of standardization in USB-C cable specifications. Unlike other industries, there is no universal agreement on wire gauges or voltage drop limits. This allows manufacturers to make claims that may not be entirely accurate.

Our research revealed that only five of the 13 cables we tested met the maximum recommended voltage drop limit set by the official USB Type-C specification document. This highlights the need for standardization and more stringent testing protocols to ensure that consumers are not misled by inferior products.

Conclusion

While USB-C cables have become ubiquitous, their performance and limitations cannot be ignored. By understanding the challenges they pose, we can make informed decisions about our purchasing choices. Our research demonstrates the importance of selecting high-quality cables with suitable lengths and specifications for specific applications.

In conclusion, our investigation into USB-C cables has provided valuable insights into their capabilities and limitations. We hope that this article will serve as a guide for consumers seeking to understand more about these ubiquitous cables.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis is a USB-C cable and you probably havesome of them lying around as well becausethe USB-C connector is nowadays widely popularwhen it comes to connecting electrical devices.With it you can not only charge things up,you can also transfer data as well as videoand audio signals.Doing all of that with just one cable is prettyawesome and I am a big fan but that does notmean that everything is perfect.For example in a previous video I built this100W powerbank that like the name impliescan output close to 100W of power througha USB-C cable which can be used to power biggerdevices.And there are already plans in place to increasethis output power even more up to 240W whichis enough to for example power a full sizedfridge.But as you might know with great power comesgreat responsibility and by that I mean ifyou mishandle a wire with too much currentthen things can get pretty hot and dangerous.Of course this test setup was a bit exaggeratedbut a not well made USB-C cable can come witha bigger resistance meaning it will producemore power losses in the form of heat.I actually noticed such a problem while testingmy 100W power bank and that is why I orderedmyself 13 USB-C cables from all sorts of popularand not so popular brands which I will properlytest in this video to find out how much abad USB-C cable can mess up your chargingexperience.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by Keysight's RF Backto Basics Bootcamp.So if you are like me and think that radiofrequency is black magic then this fundamentalscourse of RF engineering is for you.This free 3 part bootcamp covers the basicsof RF signal chains and network analysis,signal analysis and signal generation andmodulation.If you are curious then click the link belowand get started right away.To start off off let me clarify that whilechoosing all my 13 USB-C cables, I didn'tcare at all about how fast they can transferdata or audio and video signals.I only cared about their power rating andnowadays there appear to exist either 60Wcables or 100W cables.Now you might be asking yourself; since cablesare basically just copper wires; why can wenot draw 100W aka 5A at 20V with a 60W cablewhich normally only does a maximum of 3A at20V.Well, first off you are correct to think thata copper wire can not limit the current flowingthrough it by itself unless it is very thinand thus acts like a fuse.But instead the cable comes with a so-calledE-Marker Chip that lots of USB-C cable productdescriptions love to mention and this chipsits very close to the actual USB-C connectorlike seen here.What it does is basically communicating withthe power source and/or device and tellingthem that it can handle 5A at 20V so 100Wwhich the power supply then happily offers.But if the Cable does not come with such aE-Maker Chip like every 60W cable out there,then the power supply only delivers just above3A before turning off its output.At least in theory because while doing testslater on I actually tricked a power supplyto output 100W of power through a 60W cable.I did this by using such a USB tester whichlike the name implies can not only test yourcable and power supply features but also measuresthe most important electrical values, veryuseful stuff.But anyway by using a 100W cable on the inputand a 60W cable on the output of the tester,you can trick the power supply to output 100Wwithout a problem.And the last thing I would like to mentionabout those E-Marker chips is that they areoften advertised in a way to suggest thatthey somehow stabilzie the noisy and unregulatedoutput voltage of the power supply.But by doing a quick test with my oscilloscopeyou can see that the noise level before andafter the cable is about the same so I canassure you that all the E-Marker Chip cando is telling the power supply what voltageand max current to output, nothing more.Ok with that out of the way we should havea basic understanding of how these two wiretypes differ from one another but the questionis now what cable I ordered comes with thelowest resistance.This is important because the resistance directlydetermines how much voltage gets lost acrossthe cable and how much power of the original100W from the power supply gets convertedinto useless heat through the cable.Of course to keep the resistance low you coulduse very thick wire or real high quality solderconnections and connectors but for such cablesyou also need to keep the price point in mind,so I am curious to find out how those manufacturersstruck a good balance.So for my resistance test I used like previouslyshown a 100W power supply in combination witha USB tester, to mainly see the flowing current,a USB C PD Trigger board, to select the 20Vrail, and a constant load to actually draw100W of power.And to precisely measure the voltage beforeand after the cable I used my Keysight multimeterthat comes with lots of digits.Sadly though directly measuring at the USB-Cport was not possible but I tried gettingas close as possible to it during all measurements.And with that being said I tested out all13 cables at 100W while writing down the currentflow and the voltage before and after thecable to later calculate the voltage drop.And while doing so I quickly discovered theworst performing cable which was this USB-Ato USB-C one that supposedly even works with6A so 120W because it is using some specialXiaomi charger standard.I noticed it because it simply got hot duringtesting and even reached an outter temperatureof above 40 degrees Celcius, crazy.But I guess if you want a seat warmer thatcan also charge your phone then this cableis for you.And as it turns out it comes with a totalresistance of 430mΩ which does not soundlike a lot but at a current draw of 5A, thatequals a power loss of 11W aka 11% of the100W we started with, that is insane.I mean with this excess power we could forexample slowly charge up a second phone.But anyway the good news here is that allthe other cables I tested didn't feature sucha temperature rise so at first sight theyall seemed acceptable until at least I filledout my excel chart with the measurements andcreated this beautiful graph.There you can see all the resistances of mytested cables along with the power loss theycreate at 100W.And for me most surprising was that knownbig brands cables like Anker that also producegreat powerbanks, do feature a higher resistanceand thus power loss in comparison to otherprobably smaller brands that I never heardoff.And according to my graph you would probablyalso think that this cable here won the comparison,but it definitely got a big advantage becauseit is only 30cm long.And as you might know the longer a wire thebigger its resistance will be.So if we do a bit of math and convert allthe mΩ values into mΩ per meter valuesthen you will quickly realize that this cableis not the best one but instead one over here.And if we add the price tag now then you mightthink that we got some good options here butthere is one last thing we have to keep inmind and that is the official USB Type-C cableand connector speficiation document.There we can find out that there are no specificationsfor wire gauges but instead just referencesmeaning every manufacturer can decide on theirown how thick their power wires will be orwhether they use one or two of them.But what is obligatory is the voltage dropwhich they define with a maximum of 500mVincluding the cable resistance and the contactresistance of the connector.So if we check back on the measurements anddeduct a bit for measuring errors then wecan see that at best only 5 of the 13 cablespassed this requirement which is shocking.At this point I was not even sure whetherthe cables were too old to meet these newspecifications or whether I misunderstoodsomething or measured completely incorrectlybecause these results are certainly not favouribleand I can't really crown a winner becausethere is no superioer cable among them.But please don't be scared or anything touse your USB-C cables at home now becauseeven in the worst case they only heat up alittle bit.And luckily this will not get worse in thefuture because the new standards will onlyincrease the voltage and not the current whichis mainly responsible for the power losses.And with that being said I hope you enjoyedthis video and learned a thing or two.If so consider supporting me through Patreonto keep the show going.Don't forget to like, share, subscribe andhit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.