Your USB-C Cable STILL Sucks I Built a Better One (DIY or Buy)
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Date: 2025-06-18
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Comments and reviews: 20
arjovenzia
This reminds me of a project I did many years ago trying to get a WiFi dongle working up a mast. I soon figured that the voltage drop was the limiting factor, with only 5v to play with any loss was a problem. I ended up feeding 12v up some cat5, using whites as ground, orange blue n brown as 12, green/white as twisted data, and a 7805 at the dongle end to give a clean 5v. Even with a bit of voltage drop had plenty of headroom. Achieved a reliable 25m usb run. The engineers at work insisted it would never work, to long for the usb data. But it worked flawlessly for 11mbs wifi
Why bother you might ask The dongle was modified to have a 4 element yagi built from popsticks an hot glue, mounted in a butter container, taped to a broomstick, shoved into the gutter. This was pointed at the local McDonalds almost 1km away so I could get free WiFi. It timed out after an hour, but was easy to reconnect, and only had limited ports, so no gaming or bit torrent, n kinda slow. But was enough for casual surfing, messaging, that sorta thing. 3g phone data was hideously expensive, and I was only going to be there for a few weeks, no point getting the phone line connected.
Voltage drop is a hard thing to explain to non electrical people who find it hard to understand why you would use a $50 usb-C when 'the same thing' can be had for 5 bucks on eBay. And then complain their phone takes hours to charge
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This reminds me of a project I did many years ago trying to get a WiFi dongle working up a mast. I soon figured that the voltage drop was the limiting factor, with only 5v to play with any loss was a problem. I ended up feeding 12v up some cat5, using whites as ground, orange blue n brown as 12, green/white as twisted data, and a 7805 at the dongle end to give a clean 5v. Even with a bit of voltage drop had plenty of headroom. Achieved a reliable 25m usb run. The engineers at work insisted it would never work, to long for the usb data. But it worked flawlessly for 11mbs wifi
Why bother you might ask The dongle was modified to have a 4 element yagi built from popsticks an hot glue, mounted in a butter container, taped to a broomstick, shoved into the gutter. This was pointed at the local McDonalds almost 1km away so I could get free WiFi. It timed out after an hour, but was easy to reconnect, and only had limited ports, so no gaming or bit torrent, n kinda slow. But was enough for casual surfing, messaging, that sorta thing. 3g phone data was hideously expensive, and I was only going to be there for a few weeks, no point getting the phone line connected.
Voltage drop is a hard thing to explain to non electrical people who find it hard to understand why you would use a $50 usb-C when 'the same thing' can be had for 5 bucks on eBay. And then complain their phone takes hours to charge
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AdrianStaicu82
I am surprised there are no cable testers out on the market to simply test conductivity. Would kill the crappy cable industry in the next second.
Also a cable should not have any chips. I hope the next cable version will be analog, with a simple feedback and a dirt simple voltage request by using a simple voltage divider. Charger would create the exact voltage, and the voltage divider would send a signal if the device wants more or less power. The feedback wire would indicate how much voltage is actually arriving and would be used to measure power loss over the wire. The idea is not fully formed since it takes no considerations of the extreme cases, if wires break or get a short circuit. But with 2 resistors at the end device you could get any voltage, and the charger would produce any required voltage, and do all the heavy work in detecting crappy cables and limit the power loss over the cable and even connectors. And the beautiful part. if you can get ANY voltage at the end, with some adapters even the old devices with simple jacks could be powered by usb. It's like having an universal power supply for all devices.
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I am surprised there are no cable testers out on the market to simply test conductivity. Would kill the crappy cable industry in the next second.
Also a cable should not have any chips. I hope the next cable version will be analog, with a simple feedback and a dirt simple voltage request by using a simple voltage divider. Charger would create the exact voltage, and the voltage divider would send a signal if the device wants more or less power. The feedback wire would indicate how much voltage is actually arriving and would be used to measure power loss over the wire. The idea is not fully formed since it takes no considerations of the extreme cases, if wires break or get a short circuit. But with 2 resistors at the end device you could get any voltage, and the charger would produce any required voltage, and do all the heavy work in detecting crappy cables and limit the power loss over the cable and even connectors. And the beautiful part. if you can get ANY voltage at the end, with some adapters even the old devices with simple jacks could be powered by usb. It's like having an universal power supply for all devices.
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danielegger6460
Your test setup is really weird and I have some doubts about the correctness of the measurements so the numbers should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. It would probably have been easier and more accurate to simply use 2 USB-C socket breakouts, use your short dummy (or even create a dedicated one with 2 big bus bars back to back) to establish the baseline loss of the connectors and then then use a multimeter to test the resistance of the cables. I've also tested a lot of cables but I actually care about USB4 functionality, too. IMNSHO it is really tough to have a self-made solution compete with a complete cable since the raw cable alone in a decent quality is already way more expensive than a complete USB4 cable. Regarding your cable introspection I also have one comment: Not just the gauge is important but also the material, aluminium has a 37% percent higher resistance than copper at the same diameter and some of your cables clearly used aluminium, maybe there were also some copper coated aluminium ones.
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Your test setup is really weird and I have some doubts about the correctness of the measurements so the numbers should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. It would probably have been easier and more accurate to simply use 2 USB-C socket breakouts, use your short dummy (or even create a dedicated one with 2 big bus bars back to back) to establish the baseline loss of the connectors and then then use a multimeter to test the resistance of the cables. I've also tested a lot of cables but I actually care about USB4 functionality, too. IMNSHO it is really tough to have a self-made solution compete with a complete cable since the raw cable alone in a decent quality is already way more expensive than a complete USB4 cable. Regarding your cable introspection I also have one comment: Not just the gauge is important but also the material, aluminium has a 37% percent higher resistance than copper at the same diameter and some of your cables clearly used aluminium, maybe there were also some copper coated aluminium ones.
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colewelden
I cant believe this popped up in my feed. I have been thinking about doing this very same thing, for the very same reason, for a very long time now lol. I just spent a bunch on some cables the other day and the thought had popped in my head again. I dont know why I can't get a nice, thick 20-18 AWG, silicone, braided type C. I realize the conductors dont need to be so large, but its so much better for durability. Especially if you could just buy a connector with terminals on it. One cable that could last for years.
Maybe not profitable for 99% of companies. But NO ONE has come along to sell any truly durable cable And I do mean that. I have tried so many and I personally havent found one that was durable and still remotely flexible.
I just buy 240w Thunderbolt cables and they last for maybe 3 months of hard use before I replace them. Super stiff, but it works. I'm sure with silicone wires and a nylon braided sheathing, you coukd get a pretty flexible cable that is still very tough.
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I cant believe this popped up in my feed. I have been thinking about doing this very same thing, for the very same reason, for a very long time now lol. I just spent a bunch on some cables the other day and the thought had popped in my head again. I dont know why I can't get a nice, thick 20-18 AWG, silicone, braided type C. I realize the conductors dont need to be so large, but its so much better for durability. Especially if you could just buy a connector with terminals on it. One cable that could last for years.
Maybe not profitable for 99% of companies. But NO ONE has come along to sell any truly durable cable And I do mean that. I have tried so many and I personally havent found one that was durable and still remotely flexible.
I just buy 240w Thunderbolt cables and they last for maybe 3 months of hard use before I replace them. Super stiff, but it works. I'm sure with silicone wires and a nylon braided sheathing, you coukd get a pretty flexible cable that is still very tough.
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avocadoarms358
Wyn it’s not labeled it’s in the Fkn box what protocol the cable supports look for high pd delivery, works for data also
I have a 100w and a 240w pd type c cables and they’re the best investments iv ever made.
But making one, if it’s cheaper, could be worth, just from the thumbnail doesn’t look very well packaged, plus normal c cables the negative is an outer sheeth that surrounds the other wires with an insulator helping prevent unwanted noise affecting the cable
65w pd usb c is pretty standard across the board now as most laptops charge via a 65w charger (some smaller laptops may only need 30w) but most now use high watt c charging cause it’s smaller and easier to lug around that a long ass wall plug with an inverter
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Wyn it’s not labeled it’s in the Fkn box what protocol the cable supports look for high pd delivery, works for data also
I have a 100w and a 240w pd type c cables and they’re the best investments iv ever made.
But making one, if it’s cheaper, could be worth, just from the thumbnail doesn’t look very well packaged, plus normal c cables the negative is an outer sheeth that surrounds the other wires with an insulator helping prevent unwanted noise affecting the cable
65w pd usb c is pretty standard across the board now as most laptops charge via a 65w charger (some smaller laptops may only need 30w) but most now use high watt c charging cause it’s smaller and easier to lug around that a long ass wall plug with an inverter
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Djoki1
I live in the balkans and. We dont have the best electronics market.
It is quite literally impossible to find a cable that can do both usb 3 speeds AND charging at 5 amps.
Every single god damn cable is limited to the ancient usb 2 speed of 480mbps.
Anker has recently arrived here but i havent seen them offering a cable with specs mentioned above.
The reason why im even mentioning data transfer is because i actually wanna use a SINGLE cable for EVERYTHING.
I do not use cloud services because that is a waste of money in my opinion.
I have found a way to transfer files over the local network but the speeds are, at best, half that of USB2.
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I live in the balkans and. We dont have the best electronics market.
It is quite literally impossible to find a cable that can do both usb 3 speeds AND charging at 5 amps.
Every single god damn cable is limited to the ancient usb 2 speed of 480mbps.
Anker has recently arrived here but i havent seen them offering a cable with specs mentioned above.
The reason why im even mentioning data transfer is because i actually wanna use a SINGLE cable for EVERYTHING.
I do not use cloud services because that is a waste of money in my opinion.
I have found a way to transfer files over the local network but the speeds are, at best, half that of USB2.
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ShenzhenApphone
Thanks to the UP master for sharing! One more detail: 90% of the 'USB4 cables' on the market cannot actually reach 40Gbps, because the purity of the copper core (at least 6N oxygen-free copper) and the shielding layer (aluminum foil braided mesh ground wire) are the key. Our laboratory has tested a certain brand of cable (not an advertisement. With the same length of 5 meters, the packet loss rate of the 6N copper core is 82% lower than that of the ordinary copper core (with a chart on the homepage. Interested friends can discuss the impact of the shielding layer process on the signal
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Thanks to the UP master for sharing! One more detail: 90% of the 'USB4 cables' on the market cannot actually reach 40Gbps, because the purity of the copper core (at least 6N oxygen-free copper) and the shielding layer (aluminum foil braided mesh ground wire) are the key. Our laboratory has tested a certain brand of cable (not an advertisement. With the same length of 5 meters, the packet loss rate of the 6N copper core is 82% lower than that of the ordinary copper core (with a chart on the homepage. Interested friends can discuss the impact of the shielding layer process on the signal
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Klokopf52
I have been making my own Audio cables for years and can highly recommend it. There is so much snake oil in the proper price range that going the DIY route just gives you better Quality for a lower price you actually know what you are getting.
USB can be the same. I just bought some fully USB4 compliant 240 Watt cables. 50 Euro for 1 meter. They can't handle Display signals, they are only 5 GBit and they sure as hell can't handle PCIe. I am almost certain i could make a better cable for less money.
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I have been making my own Audio cables for years and can highly recommend it. There is so much snake oil in the proper price range that going the DIY route just gives you better Quality for a lower price you actually know what you are getting.
USB can be the same. I just bought some fully USB4 compliant 240 Watt cables. 50 Euro for 1 meter. They can't handle Display signals, they are only 5 GBit and they sure as hell can't handle PCIe. I am almost certain i could make a better cable for less money.
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domdom1941
Great Video!
Did I get that right that at the end your cable has this specs:
- Supports USB Power Delivery Up to 240W (minimal resistance)
- USB 2. 0 Data Transfer speed
Do you think it is possible to do a DIY GOD-Cable with this specs:
- Supports USB Power Delivery Up to 240W (minimal resistance)
- USB 3. 1 Data Transfer speed
- Support of Display Port and all the other stuff
ore is this maybe a level to high for DIY because you need expensive manufactoring machines
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Great Video!
Did I get that right that at the end your cable has this specs:
- Supports USB Power Delivery Up to 240W (minimal resistance)
- USB 2. 0 Data Transfer speed
Do you think it is possible to do a DIY GOD-Cable with this specs:
- Supports USB Power Delivery Up to 240W (minimal resistance)
- USB 3. 1 Data Transfer speed
- Support of Display Port and all the other stuff
ore is this maybe a level to high for DIY because you need expensive manufactoring machines
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Curt_Sampson
I think you need to use cryogenically treated oxygen-free cables with continuous crystal conductors encased in ultra-low-density dielectric. It will maximize the phase coherence of your signals or something like that, and the MP3s that you transfer to your phone will sound better. And you can get this cable for only 75/cm from any good audiophile dealer!
Mea culpa: yes, I stole this phrase from the website of an audiophile cable manufacturer that sells $250 USB cables.
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I think you need to use cryogenically treated oxygen-free cables with continuous crystal conductors encased in ultra-low-density dielectric. It will maximize the phase coherence of your signals or something like that, and the MP3s that you transfer to your phone will sound better. And you can get this cable for only 75/cm from any good audiophile dealer!
Mea culpa: yes, I stole this phrase from the website of an audiophile cable manufacturer that sells $250 USB cables.
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IamTristanC
I use a powerbank to keep my laptop through my classes and normally end with the powerbank having 10-20% power remaining. (with a backup power bank and the laptop at high/full battery)
I never though to test the cables as a potential power loss however I did think about cable length.
maybe its time I made my own USB-C 100W cable that is shorter as my powerbank sits about 10CM from my laptop in class and my current cable is normally looped due to its excessive length.
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I use a powerbank to keep my laptop through my classes and normally end with the powerbank having 10-20% power remaining. (with a backup power bank and the laptop at high/full battery)
I never though to test the cables as a potential power loss however I did think about cable length.
maybe its time I made my own USB-C 100W cable that is shorter as my powerbank sits about 10CM from my laptop in class and my current cable is normally looped due to its excessive length.
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KrK-EST
Yep, it is impoaaible to find a desent 2m long charging cable!
Tried to find it foe years, i have dozens of cables, the best i get is 4h charge time most have 6 and longer, normal cable should have 1. 5h or less with my old 2. 1amp charger.
Now looking for a GaN charger with type A and 3 ports(even if 1 is A and other is C is fine) and minimum of 3A even tis is hard to find.
Yes there is no specifications of the cables 90% of the time.
What is going on!
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Yep, it is impoaaible to find a desent 2m long charging cable!
Tried to find it foe years, i have dozens of cables, the best i get is 4h charge time most have 6 and longer, normal cable should have 1. 5h or less with my old 2. 1amp charger.
Now looking for a GaN charger with type A and 3 ports(even if 1 is A and other is C is fine) and minimum of 3A even tis is hard to find.
Yes there is no specifications of the cables 90% of the time.
What is going on!
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KimMoth
Those beefy-arsed wires hanging off those little pads could probably use more strain relief than the nice little plug covers afford. And nailpolish seems a bit wrong - main benefit would seem to be some degree of water resistance I'd use hotglue - similar degree of water ingress protection and can possibly afford strain relief (although you'd probably need more than would fit in the nice plug covers, and, if you want you can peel it off and dig it out.
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Those beefy-arsed wires hanging off those little pads could probably use more strain relief than the nice little plug covers afford. And nailpolish seems a bit wrong - main benefit would seem to be some degree of water resistance I'd use hotglue - similar degree of water ingress protection and can possibly afford strain relief (although you'd probably need more than would fit in the nice plug covers, and, if you want you can peel it off and dig it out.
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haczyk84
Same problem with micro USB charger cables, to much voltage drop and phone is charging very slow. In most cases there are linear chip, that need to output 4, 2V for battery. If you lose 0, 5V you get 4, 5V at input and it doesn't work. Cheap USB amp / voltage meter can be your friend, when you use older devices.
ps. 20 years ago there was same situation with audio video cables. Most of the time it was better buy connectors, cables and DIY it.
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Same problem with micro USB charger cables, to much voltage drop and phone is charging very slow. In most cases there are linear chip, that need to output 4, 2V for battery. If you lose 0, 5V you get 4, 5V at input and it doesn't work. Cheap USB amp / voltage meter can be your friend, when you use older devices.
ps. 20 years ago there was same situation with audio video cables. Most of the time it was better buy connectors, cables and DIY it.
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janschanilec2339
greatscottlab
Why did you settle for an imperfect version When I saw the title of the video, I was hoping that you would make the ultimate solution with high charging and data transfer speeds and ideally compare 1 meter and 2 meters in length. Because that's what I really need and want to have at home: -)
Otherwise, of course, thumbs up and I believe that the final version of the perfect cable will follow soon.
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greatscottlab
Why did you settle for an imperfect version When I saw the title of the video, I was hoping that you would make the ultimate solution with high charging and data transfer speeds and ideally compare 1 meter and 2 meters in length. Because that's what I really need and want to have at home: -)
Otherwise, of course, thumbs up and I believe that the final version of the perfect cable will follow soon.
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ReinhardSchuster
The main reason I built my own cables is mainly quality issues of production ones and specific lengths I need if I don't need 18 cm of cable I built my own one and safe resistance and interference on 18 cm.
Same thing with POE cables.
With the current prices it adds up pretty quickly if you save a view watts everyday. And on the long run my own cables might have a much longer lifetime.
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The main reason I built my own cables is mainly quality issues of production ones and specific lengths I need if I don't need 18 cm of cable I built my own one and safe resistance and interference on 18 cm.
Same thing with POE cables.
With the current prices it adds up pretty quickly if you save a view watts everyday. And on the long run my own cables might have a much longer lifetime.
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greatscott
What about data transfer It's as niche as power losses in average users but is more complicated isn't it
Also, how would you rate the overall feeling of using your diy cable I got one from temu which transfers power and data (at supposedly 10gbps) that works just fine for me but is heavy and super rigid, so that's something I'd consider next time I buy/diy a cable
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What about data transfer It's as niche as power losses in average users but is more complicated isn't it
Also, how would you rate the overall feeling of using your diy cable I got one from temu which transfers power and data (at supposedly 10gbps) that works just fine for me but is heavy and super rigid, so that's something I'd consider next time I buy/diy a cable
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IcecalGamer
n-USB = NOT (in the slightest) Universal Serial Bus
You cannot charge at 240w on a 30w cable.
You cannot transfer data on a charging cable.
You cannot charge past 10w on a data cable.
You cannot transfer 5Gbps on a 480Mbps.
-. -
You cannot transfer 40Gbps on a 20Gbps.
HOW Is this Universal serial bus not false advertising, I do not know.
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n-USB = NOT (in the slightest) Universal Serial Bus
You cannot charge at 240w on a 30w cable.
You cannot transfer data on a charging cable.
You cannot charge past 10w on a data cable.
You cannot transfer 5Gbps on a 480Mbps.
-. -
You cannot transfer 40Gbps on a 20Gbps.
HOW Is this Universal serial bus not false advertising, I do not know.
reply
nosafetyswitch9378
In my experience this is a non-issue. Cables rated for PD have always mentioned the power they can deliver, 60 or 100W. If a cable comes with a branded charger, it will always carry at least the rated current of the charger. Any cables that are slim and soft I always assume they re rated 2A max. The above are enough for me to never have any issue at all.
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In my experience this is a non-issue. Cables rated for PD have always mentioned the power they can deliver, 60 or 100W. If a cable comes with a branded charger, it will always carry at least the rated current of the charger. Any cables that are slim and soft I always assume they re rated 2A max. The above are enough for me to never have any issue at all.
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SeanQuinn4
9: 42 the short length definitely isn't helping you, but perhaps strip some extra length, splay and twist the wires together, then flux tin the twisted wires together, and trim to length.
Then you can have an easier time wrestling the pair onto the pad. You can also use liquid masking to cover up some extra wire length if you need it to reach the pads.
reply
9: 42 the short length definitely isn't helping you, but perhaps strip some extra length, splay and twist the wires together, then flux tin the twisted wires together, and trim to length.
Then you can have an easier time wrestling the pair onto the pad. You can also use liquid masking to cover up some extra wire length if you need it to reach the pads.
reply
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