this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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USB was supposed to rule them all but it's now a mess of standards sharing the same connector. Different speeds, voltage, charging protocols, alt modes, even the number of pins used is variable.... For those asking, the thing is available on Kickstarter

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[–] fjordbasa@lemmy.world 51 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I’m not sure if there’s supposed to be a picture or video but the media doesn’t load for me (both on web and iOS voyager app).

How is this different from existing USB cable testers available from places like Amazon and AliExpress? In reading the description I didn’t see anything that set it apart

[–] cralder@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Loads for me. It is a video of a small device with a screen. Both ends of a usb-c cable are connected to the device and the screen shows the max power, max data speeds and other information about the cable.

[–] quiescentcurrent@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Interesting, I just uploaded the .mp4 directly to lemmy and assumed this to be working. How else would you share a gif/short video?

[–] fjordbasa@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No idea. As much as I love lemmy I’m not exactly shocked that directly uploaded media isn’t seamless. I thought it was my lemmy client, but it didn’t load when I checked from the web, either.

[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 1 points 2 months ago

Here in sync. I clicked the preview in a repost and it didnlt load.

Clicked through to the original post and it loaded... It took about a minute and a half to load though.

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

On Raccoon on Android from within EU it works. Hope that helps you narrow down the problem.

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

But on Jerboa (also Android) it doesn't work the same seamles way: It's shown as a link and I can tap it and open it in Firefox and it will play fine in there.

[–] IllNess@infosec.pub 4 points 2 months ago

Just to let you know, video works for me on desktop Firefox. Thank you for posting.

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I had video but no audio.

[–] BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Clicking the link in the text works for me. Clicking the media for the post does not work for me.

[–] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

For me it's just black. Using Boost

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Out of curiosity, is there a reason that this couldn't be an Android app? I would think that there should be some way to check a cable's functionality by plugging it into a phone and a computer.

[–] dabaldeagul@feddit.nl 32 points 2 months ago

It could be, but I imagine the reported capabilities would be limited by the connected devices. So if your phone doesn't support USB SuperSpeed 80gbit/s, it wouldn't be detected by the app.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cable testers can bypass all of the standard driver and USB negotiation bullshit before anything else. I would imagine building a device to manually control when and how the connections are made is much easier than fighting for low level device control on systems like Windows, macOS and Android.

[–] quiescentcurrent@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Pretty much. I'm not even sure if regular USB ports can talk to pins individually, let alone test them for shorts.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

(thinks out lound..)

If you could force different speeds and different voltages, you can make some guesses as to what the cable might support.

USB packets use CRC checks, so a bad checksum may indicate a speed or physical problem. (Besides stating the obvious, my point is that doing strict checks for each USB mode gives CRC more value.)

I just looked over the source code for libusb (like I knew what I was looking for, or something) and it seems that some of the driver(?) components hook really deep into the kernel. There might be a way to test specific parts of any type of handshake (for dataflow or voltage negotiation) to isolate specific wires that are bad by the process of elimination.

I think my point is that a top-down approach is likely possible, but it's probabilistic.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Genuine question: in what ways does it differ from what ChargerLab’s existing km003C does, other than a “cable health” percentage? The other functions seem similar to me.

[–] SatyrSack@feddit.org 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This one also measures data transfer speed. As far as I can tell, the KM003C only measures power transfer capabilities.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Gotcha, thanks!

[–] delirious_owl 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't trust anything sold on kickstarter.

But if someone launches an open hardware version of this on crowd supply, I'd back it

[–] TriflingToad@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why? do you think it's gonna hack your wire or something?

[–] delirious_owl 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Because there's a high amount of scams on kickstarter that never deliver. Whereas crowdsupply has a 100% delivery rate

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Not even necessarily scams. I backed the CHIP sbc by nextthingco back in the day and it turned out fine. Then I backed their next project and they got tied up with a lawsuit over the name and wound up bankrupt.

[–] plumcreek@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

The ports should be on the same side of the device. As it is, short cables can't be tested.

[–] BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

The current funding level remaining is for 69 euros, 78 us dollars. Supposed to include shipping to anywhere in the world from Austria.

[–] valkyre09@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Anybody got slink to the kickstarter / article for those of us curious but unable to see the video? (Or even a product name)