Universal applies to the serial bus, I.e the way the data is handled. Sure connectors are complicated but it’s extremely rare to not be able to communicate between 2 devices using USB. It very likely works, so in that sense it’s universal.
Absolutely. USB used to mean 5v. I did wonder how you could then then 60, 95 and other wattages. 95 (or 100) watts at 5v over this flimsy cable. Ah… 20v … right. And now I see 36, 48, 9 and everything under the sun. The lesson is that USB-C is a universal _connector_ but power is not universal and the same socket might be Thunderbolt or other protocol, so how data goes over it is not universal
Forgot to mention: Slow-charging your devices will help the batteries last longer. It's nice to recharge your phone quickly at the airport between flights, BUT, if you've got time, slow charging is definitely the way to go. Slow charging also tends to be more energy-efficient as well.
@@hphp31416 well my pixel does slowly charge until my alarm clock rings. Tbh it doesn't matter which charger I'm using in that case. General it's better to not fast charge if you can avoid it
@@hphp31416 that’s not how that works. You need to know how the battery works first. I’m not gonna explain it all but between the two chambers in a lithium battery there’s a layer the weaker, thinner, etc the layer, the worse it holds charge. This layer gets worse the faster and more often you charge. So for battery health slow charging is actually better. Also never letting it hit 100% or 0% helps but.. lets be real nobody gonna keep track of that at night.
I can confirm that hitting 0% or 100% is bad for battery health, as well as fast charging. Actually, some manufacturers have settings to help with that. They might have a setting to cap the charge at 85% (for people who gave good battery autonomy and charge their phone every night for example), or have adaptive charging that slow charges your phone overnight so that it charges at the slowest rate possible but it's still fully charged when your alarm rings. For people who want their battery to last longer, it's definitely worth having a look at the Battery section of your settings to check for similar settings!
The simplified version is that for anything short of a laptop, any properly compliant C to C cable hooked up to a USB PD supply that meets/exceeds the device's ratings will get you all the power you need, and it's worth using C to C instead of A to C cables for any device that can charge at about 15W or better. It's also generally safe (with very few exceptions) to plug anything USB into anything else USB without risking damage, it just might not work or might charge slower than it could. For all the faults of the USB-IF, they at least got that part largely right. All the new high wattage modes will be more interesting/important over the next few years as companies develop and release higher power devices that could never previously be powered by USB (where's my USB C powered bar fridge or room lighting?), but it will take some time before cables and power supplies capable of feeding those devices are readily available.
Cool, i think we will soon see things like e-bike battery pack which is also a power bank which is also a car battery jump starter, which is also an inverter, etc. We now have the possibilities of having more n-in-1 where n is going to skyrocket.
A lot of people discount how amazing it is that one standard, which can go from 5 to 48 Volts, can be essentially safe to use no matter how incorrectly you plug things into each other. Yeah the cable grades are annoying, but it massively beats having a dozen different cables and/or having to keep the original chargers like they are The One Ring because everything else will ignite your device (and having to buy replacements for 50 bucks a piece). The only truly bad faux pas of the USB-IF, in my view, was having the analog Audio Adapter Accessory Mode at all for USB-C, as it caused a massive confusion between DAC and non-DAC earphones that almost killed USB-C audio - until the EU resurrected it second-hand by mandating Type-C on everything, which created a new use case for it.
For a few dollars, you can also buy an OTG power measuring device that connects between the device and the cable. I have them for basic USB and for USB-C. But in reality, unless you have a very power-hungry laptop that needs to charge while you are working on it you don't really need that super high-power charger.
the more power you charge your battery with, the more ware and tare the battery get over time. The amazing huawei charger with 5 million watts or something will kill your battery within a year due to the power amount.. If you want a battery that last long time you need to slow charge it.. it add the smallest amount of ware and tare on the battery.. My phone is 4+ years old so it wont matter if i connect 10 billion watts and 5000 Amps to it.. it wont charge faster..
@@lokelaufeyson9931 If your laptop is power hungry, it might actually suck power from the battery although you have it on wall power. It's also "wear and tear".
@@graealex A battery will wear and tear from simply being used, its the lovely chemical mix in the battery that eat it from the inside. You can "overcharge" a laptop if it have a internal charge control (use a charger with more amps) .. It will give the laptop more charge since the charger can handle more power at the same time. It wont charge too much volt but the amp is higher so it can handle more load and still charge good. it can help if it cant charge properly when used. Watch out so you dont go overboard and use a charger that give 10x the volt.. I used to charge a emergency battery with a laptop charger, i think the charger was able to handle 2 amps i think.. maybe 2.5.. compared to 1.3 amps on a phone charger. It dropped the charge time down to half, no heat or other dangers.. Some laptops come with a charger that is almost exactly what the computer need but on the cheap side.. (have built custom chargers/power adapters out of old laptop chargers for some time now, saved me 35$ last time since i didnt need to buy a special power plug for a thingy i bought).
@@lokelaufeyson9931 Half of what you wrote is technically bullshit. Especially your understanding about "volts and amps". These do not work as independently as you think.
@@graealex Why so SERIOUS!?!?!?! not to be that guy but discuss technical details on youtube is a technical "why bro?" If you want details or deeper information i would recommend you to read a wikipedia. Im sure that you have a nuclear power plant of energy but there is something called time zones..
Actually there are USB-A to C cables capable of power delivery, although they might not be officially supported, I know Xiaomi uses them for their phones even up to 120W, and I'm charging my laptop with one right now so it is actual USB power delivery and not Qualcom QC apparently they are using pin 7 from the USB 3.0 spec (originally meant as a ground) to run the power-delivery signal on the USB-A side, and that works I guess
I can confirm, my Poco (a brand owned by Xiaomi, my power brick also says Xiaomi) charger says it can deliver 67W on the fast charging. It is an A to C cable. It can do up to 20V and 6.2A I think.
Thanks for consolidating all of this information into one video. Had no idea there were so many differences, guess that's why I'm not an electronics geek. My wife and I have an assortment of older cables with a few that absolutely refuse to cooperate at times, those then get tossed so there is attrition of the old ones eventually... Decided to subscribe and see if I can learn a bit more.
Those older cables are worth keeping, though. The copper's better to work on in them, and you can _at the very least_ chop the client end off to wire in and pair low-draw devices with the power leads alone. Don't need to be a geek to understand that much.
On Samsung with ADB you can view a ton of battery info like cycles, voltage, current, etc. by reading the sysfs entries under "/sys/class/power_supply/battery/" Alternatively you could also check the logcat during charging for anything battery related with something like "logcat | grep battery"
The 15W A to C limit is not always true. My old OnePlus 3 charges with 20W and the charger is with a type A. And ofc it does not use any power standard, so thats that I guess. BUT.. i guess the cable supports the power.
Yeah those are quick charge which requires the phone to be QC compatible which he didn't get into. It was Qualcomm proprietary (the other manufacturers came out with their own specs) and was the main spec used to deliver fast charging speed before PD became mainstream.
This is what i was thinking, i have a realme phone that supports 60w. The charger is 60w usb A to C and it charges more or less around 60w. Bit confusing 🤔
had to stop watching for few mins to let u kno how much i appreciate the informative & educational content! I'm actually binge- watching all your videos! I have better understanding now than i ever had! I spent >1 yr watching other channels & searching on google for information that you shared & explained in exactly the way i needed to hear it! So thankful to you because i feel i've learned more from you in the past 2 days than an entire year from all the others! Plz kno how appreciative I am! A SUPER THANK YOU!
The really need to require manufacturers label their products and go after people who dont. It's so anticonsumer to not have some kind of indication. SD card specs might be a mess, but you can at least figure out what the rating is without buying a tester.
Impossible to find an effective rating of 40Gb/s with 240W in one unique USB-C to USB-C cable for now. According to both Apple & Belkin & Ugreen offers, these are the top USB-C to USB-C cables currently available: - Max speed: 40Gb/s with max 100W [specs of Thunderbolt 4 are max 100W, and they plan 240W for Thunderbolt 5] - Max power: 480Mb/s with max 240W [USB2 speed]
I bought one rated for 40Gbps and 240W recently it advertised as usb3.2 gen2x2 though I don't have any device that can handle more than 60W or transfer more than 10Gbps it can at least charge all my devices at full speed and connect an external drive at full speed.
The second type of that high power cable is now currently used in phones with 120+W super quick charge capability. It offers super high power delivery but the data transfer speed is not great
It's not impossible, just difficult because you're asking for the max spec in both categories. A little over a year ago I bought Club 3D CAC-1576 cables, which are rated USB4 40Gbps AND 240W, but they're only 1m/3.28ft long and quite expensive. Recently I've noticed that Club 3D now have CAC-1578 cables that are the same but 2m/6.56ft long.
@ThioJoe at 6:20 it's impossible that the 100W rating has been deprecated because this cable is currently the fastest USB-C to USB-C [Thunderbolt 4Gbps] cable for sale from both Belkin and Apple manufacturers.
I love your vids. Easy to follow and all substance, no filler. That being said...: 1. For us pack rats who still have a plethora of USB-A to USB-mini (and worse, proprietary) as well as micro-USB to USB-C adapters, the danger seems a little more prevalent. 2. I'm fairly certain you were using a magnetic charger with the adapter in your UGreen portion. I assume the identifying chips report via the data lines which are not present in magnetic chargers. 3. Speaking of 3, weird way to hold up 3 fingers. Maybe try the European way. 4. I had to learn to ride a bike several times because I kept forgetting. I'm not an elephant despite the nickname. (not for the length of my trunk but the color and proximity to peanuts)
I knew it was a mess but now I know how to figure some of the mess out. I did forget about those early USB A to C cables that could fry the USB A port, lol. I would also recommend you don't have one way arrow when showing various USB C to A/B/C cables since they aren't necessarily one directional.
Only charging cable I ever bring out of the house is really cheap no data transfer cables. Rather have slow charge and be a bit more secure, and not having to worry about accidentally infect my workplace/friends with something. Power and ground and I'm good. Idealy we wouldn't have to buy data block adapters or low pinned cables from 3'd parties.
The charging speed is fundamentally determined by the power management chip(PMIC) on the charged device, not the charger nor the charging cable. Unfortunately due to (probably liability) reasons manufacturers won't normally let you configure it unless you hacked the operating system/firmware. The most practical thing you can do, however, is to deliberately choose a charger/cable combination so that the PMIC will automatically use a lower speed to draw current from the charger, or buy a charger/charging accessory product(like Chargie) that connects the charged device via Bluetooth and had a dedicated application running on the charged device that automatically shuts down the power supply over a predetermined criteria(e.g. battery capacity/time on charge).
Having 2 chargers: basic 5-10W one and fast 60-100W charger (and 2 cables for convinionce reasons) does the trick. Now task changes to finding a permanent place to have a slow charger (with a cable) near you'r bed. P. S. I dont particulary like 5W chargers, some phones will attempt to load those with 7.5W resulting in charger failing very fast, 10W ones dont have such a problem.
It's up to the device to manage that. I know newer androids automatically limit the charge rate to be charged up by when you wake up (e.g. if you have an alarm set up)
@@volodumurkalunyak4651 That's because the 7.5W power rate(5V, 1.5A) is within the USB BC charging specification, while 5W isn't, thus the charged devices may be confused and incorrectly draw too much of current from the charger. You should definitely avoid such chargers unless you can be certain the charger-charging cable-charged device combination won't draw current over the charger spec., which, may cause fire hazard.
I would recommend to get hold of a usbc to usbc power analyser (mine is TC66), it basically will go in-between and tell you how much juice is flowing and whether it's what you're expecting.
Get the highest most expensive cable for future proofing charging speeds (highest power draw and good enough build quality) as well as transfer speeds (usb 4 or thunderbolt 4 or whatever) Use this one cable for universal product range Simple
i recently bought a magentic usb cable (i had some but lost them, so i bought new ones) hoping they would work on my very nice and expensive mech keyboards. well they didn't and i sort of forgot about the matter but i found some reddit threads saying that we shouldn't use these things because they're not standardized. which means they could short circuit your mech keyboard and some of the keyboards go for 150-200+ USD so it isn't a small deal.
Also, he doesn't use any music while he's talking. I don't understand why YT hosts who are telling us stuff (like why this plane crashed or how the I-10 [it's in California, for those not familiar with the USA Interstate system] is going to be repaired or how to do some DIY project) feel the need to add music (allegedly 'background') while they speak. It is useless at best and distracting/annoying at worst. Unless it's a dance video or an actual music video, we really don't need to have any music while the hosts are talking. And some folks tell me to turn on the closed captions. Now, another good thing here is that his closed captions are real, not auto-generated. Just before this, I was watching an aviation video and yes, they had music, so I enabled the c/c and the word 'seat' was written as 'seed.' As I knew what he was talking about, there wasn't any serious confusion, but still, he didn't need any music. Why waste the time to add it?
Maybe you should do a followup video about the other more popular charging standards that are set by different chipset manufacturer and phone manufacturers.
the high voltage in the high power lines, is to reduce the power loss in the line. the formula is P (loss) = I² R, so the idea is to maintain the current below 1 amp.
13:00 Mhh no as an electrical guy no high voltage line are high voltage to reduce power lost due to the cable resistance because the formula say: power lost equal = resistance × amp² so if you lower your amperage you win
@4:42 I bought Asus Zendrive (External DVD Drive), specifically because it uses USB C to Micro B. So i don't need to waste 2 x USB A ports on my Laptop when I need to use DVD Drive.
Love the video. Wish you would have talked more about data transfer speeds. 240 c to c cables are cheap and are great for charging basically anything, but many only have usb2 data transfer speeds. Good for most things but typically not for displays or large data transfers.
The video covers the charging rates, which is complex enough for such videos aimed at laymen for accessibility of information. Transfer rates can be covered in a different video (he probably already has).
Usb 5 needs to have a chip in it that reports to the device its pluged into exactly what it is. I mean all the info. And windows, mac, android, ect then can display this info. Further all usb 5 devices should send thier info. This way you know or can more easily figure out where the problem is. This would also give the ability for the 2 unused wires in usb 4 to be used. Once both ends report being usb 5 it can alow use of them. The only reason they are not used is so that its fully backwards compatible with usb 1.0 and 2.0.
I prefer to charge my battery powered electronics slowly. It is common knowledge that discharging to no lower than ~10% and charging to no more than ~90% coupled with charging slowly significantly extends the life of lithium batteries.
I charge my phone with intentionally low current. Because the slower you charge it, the slower accumulator wearing will be. It reached 5 years old now and still does not have significant capacity loss. 0.5C (where C is a total capacity of the battery in AH) charge/discharge rate considered optimal for Li-Ion/Li-Pol accumulators.
I bought a Ugreen Nexode 200W USB C GaN Charger-6 Ports Desktop Charger with 2 USB C to USB C Charger Cable 100W 65W Power Delivery during the Black Friday, My laptop and two phones have never been happier.
4:41 I have a USB mini Y cable that was used for an external drive. Wanted to use it to charge a USB-C device. First of all, if there's a Mini_female-to-C_male adapter to plug the cable into I can't find it. But after seeing this 4:41 I'm glad I stopped looking. FWIW, for anyone who hasn't seen one, this cable has two A connections, one on a red cable that's supposed to be hot, and a black cable that's data and hot, and they merge into a USB-mini male plug. It did work for the drive it came with.
I prefer slow charghing, this is how my old Note 9 still lives for over a day on a charge till now. For when i am not home and i need fast charging i'll do it on faster.
I've been using my current phone for 3 years now and it survived countless falls unscathed, even from the top of my truck going 50mph (it's got a good case). It fully charges in less than half an hour regardless of which cord I use (has to be the original charger that came with the phone) and has no difficulty going for the whole day. The cord, on the other hand, breaks one after another. It just seems more logical to invest in quantity over quality at this point. I have huge respect for people who can have so many old cords lying around. Mine almost never survive to old age. 😂
Thank you for demystifying these ever-growing complexity of standardized USB-C interface and cables. Now I know if I want a USB-C socket on my charger or not.
There could be a similar vid on data transfer. I changed the data cable from the one that came with my new iPhone to a highly rated one and got roughly 10x increase in data transfer speed, more useful to me than charging speed increase.
I recently bought a number of USB-C cables that were priced at under 3 euro (equiv 3.27 USD atm). Afaik most decent cables cost 20+ euro, but these cheapies don't break a sweat at 36W (3A, 12V).
I bought a new barcode scanner about a year ago that had numerous warnings to only use the enclosed USB cable for charging, that any other one would kill the scanner.
I use a fat braided AOHi cable setup (quite expensive) rated at 240W PD with interchangeable Lightning and USB-C tail cables. Both tail cables have a tri-colour LED to indicated charging speed. This is far more than I need but I could afford it.
4:57 My Xiaomi phone came with a 67 watt charger which has a USB-A port. Still it can charge at full power with the original A to C cable, and can even charge a 13" MacBook Pro and my HP ProBook 450 G5 just as fast as the original chargers do. It's confusing alright!
I literally just bought a Ugreen powerbank yesterday and I was wondering why it's charging very slowly. Guess I'll have to get a USB-C cable. You saved me once again, ThioJoe. 🐐
I can explain that here. All usb c cables contain the usb 2.0 wires, power wires and the sbus cables. Additionally the cable can contain upto 4 high speed twisted pairs for usb 3 and 4. Cables that don't have these wires don't need to have the corresponding pins on the connector present. Similarly devices that don't use these contacts don't need pins in the device connector.
Remember how a group of people made usb-C as the standard for all the smartphones. Just look at how many different type of USB-C cables at your home/office now.
Your videos are simple, quite straightforward, easy to understand. But can I have more sources from USB-IF about 60W requirements on USB C-C cables? I'd love to thanks anyone who can provide me the further reading.
well my phone has VOOC charging which takes A to C cables rated for 5A and i am using the included cable on that charger so yeah, its the right type of cable. as for the spare charger i use with my tablet(ns surface go) that can be charged via USB C PD, a normal C to C cable is enough since the original charger is 25W. but as far as charging random devices and my phone overnight, i tend to use cheap cables that have usb C, micro usb and lightning connector at the end.
I own a Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite which has a 4,500mA battery and supports “45w - Super Fast Charging”. However finding a 45W cable/charger combo that the phone will accept and charge at 45w seems difficult to find, with the exception of an expensive Samsung charger …. Does Samsung use its own charging protocols? The system description says that the phone supports Power Delivery 3.0 provided the charger supports the PPS standard. The same goes for the 25W charging. What is PPS and have you heard of any non standard Samsung charger communication protocols?
if you have the time, charge your devices slowly, the battery will generally last longer. Fast charge is convenient but (at least with today's tech) it kills battery life.
A couple of small corrections. USB is not 5 +- 0.25. It used to be. This was changed about a decade ago to support up to 5.5V. 5.25 is safer as electronics were designed for 5.25 but 5.5 is allowed. Also what you describe as a charger isn't a charger. The charging circuitry is built into your computer. That's a regulated AC to DC power supply. I have a computer that doesn't have a battery but runs off of USB-PD. This plug into the power supply -- not a charger. Thank you for explaining the complexity of USB-PD and USB-C cables. By packing features into USB-C we've lost the ability of knowing the cable will work if it fits. It depends on the two ends as well as the cable. Quite complex.
Xiaomi phone chargers use A to C cables for 120W charging and it also supports USB PD. Also if I use my other xiaomi 33W charging cable for my 120W charger and 120W phone, my phone shows 55W. I don't know why but somehow it understands how much current it can deliver and uses 55W(which is not even supported by the charger, it says 15W, 27W, 66W and 120W on the back of the charger) and it doesn't even get warm despite it rated only for 33W. Also despite the charger says 6A x 20V for 120W charging, my phone shows pulling 8A for some reason.
15w is not standard charging its fast charging. I have another older *actual* standard charger that only goes up to 5w. Every charger used to only charge like 5w until quick/fast charge came.
If you’re only dealing with USB-C ports, just buy Thunderbolt cables. No worries, no confusion, no risk of devices wanting to do something the cable doesn’t support. Thunderbolt 3 is basically “everything USB3 _might_ do, plus some more” and Thunderbolt 4 is basically “everything USB4 _might_ do, plus some more”. So a Thunderbolt 3/4 cable will be guaranteed to be the equivalent of the top-rated USB 3/4 cables, and also fully support any Thunderbolt devices you have or get in the future.
i only have ONE usb-c out of all the dozens in my house, including the permanently attached one for my lenovo laptop, that allows FULL THROTTLE charging on ANY device, i have seen the monitor gizmo reading almost 5 AMPS into my celly! most the others are lucky to push thru one amp, what crap!.. smFh
Huawei phone charger of my friend has 120W Power delivery and uses USB-A to USB-C. I tried it on my laptop and it charged the laptop fine. The laptop requires 45W PD and wont charge on a 30W charger that has USB-C to USB-C. This indicates to me that there are exceptions to the USB-A to USB-C thingy...
I had to laugh at my prior work place, the coworkers would argue on who had the best "Charger" that they plugged onto the computers usb port to charge their phones. Their "Chargers" were all just different lengths of dollar store or gas station "Fast charging" cables. I tried to explain the main differences on standard 5v USB A cable based off losses in the cable, so shorter heavier cables basically work best since you have less loss. What really blew their mind was my OnePlus phone using its warp charger and the correct cable charging my phone extremely fast. I didn't want to go down the rabbithole that some devices use like oneplus to offload the battery management and charging to the charger. The charger and its USB A to USB C is rated to 65W, but only with their protocol.
Some of the A-C cables can do the 2.1A, I believe, because a lot of tablets and phones these days will still charge fairly faster with them on a 2-2.1A-rated charger than on a 1A or one of those little half-amp ones.
Now I want to test my cables and the wall warts they plug into. Some generate extra heat. I don't like that. It's also good to buy an outlet tester and test any outlets you plug your devices into.
For the resistor in the USB-A portion.. I have a back massager (of all things) that essentially requires that pre-communication and I didn't know what was triggering it.. lol however it can detect it not having the proper cord and it won't let you charge and won't turn on the charging light.. some devices have at the very least protection enough to be a detector in that case.. I would never have needed to know this information if someone wasn't texting and driving.. My back wouldn't hurt lol....
8:04 But the old USB-A 2.0 cables and slots won't have the ability to communicate like that. Power comes from the USB-A end, and if it's coming from that end, it's usually just a standard 5V power output. (not sure of the amperage) But I fully don't believe USB-A has any sort of power delivery or power negotiation circuit as the USB-C's.
I just found your channel, great information here. I just got a Samsung Galaxy S23, my first experience with USB C. My car, like most, has regular USB ports. Should I use a USB to USB C adapter, or a Ugreen car lighter USB C charger. What's your recommendation?
Great video. But there is still one issue. My Sennheiser Momentum 3 headphone does not recognize my charger if I use USC C to USB C. Using an USB A to USB C Cable works fine. Maybe the pins are used different from supplier to supplier.
I don't give a hoot about charging capabilities as long as it charges eventually. What I care about is whether the cable can transfer files and some of them just won't and there is no reason on earth to make any USB cable that doesn't USfrigginB!
Higher voltage means more danger for the end consumer. With those high power devices we are more and more getting closer to a regular power adapter cable that is 120/230V. Some devices do need the power to operate, so you will need the better cable. As of example a dive might not work at 60W, but might with 65W and you might say "only 5W difference!". Well yes, only 5W, but that is it, only 0,25A (20V x 3,25A). So when you get a new device check for its specs as sometimes those 0,25A might be enough it to not work with a regular 60W cable.
Feedback from the device to the Buck power convertor to deliver the optimum charge rate is an interesting touch. I blew up a phone charge circuit when I created my own power supply that was good for supplying 5 volts at 10 amps. It worked great on my old flip phone until I answered the phone while it was charging and I heard a click. The call did not drop but after that it would not charge through the jack. I could take the battery out and charge them it was just a bit tedious. (12:00) electric flow is more like compressed air than water as air can be compressed. In a conductor carrying RF the voltage in a line is not constant although your voltmeter will display the average.
Well If you have higher watt charging you can basically forget charging at night as you can do it whenever you want and all it takes is 15 mins. I think you/your mom must be an apple user to think that way😂😂
@@sharzo7728 no one in our family can afford an iPhone. Or maybe my grandfather could... but he doesn't care enough for phones, he instead wants to improve his cottage and maintain his expensive car. (his phone is Galaxy M51 I think btw.)
I've bought several fast charging cables this year and they all have gone bad within months ( c to c) someone the charger has blown even. And this is all in the 40w range or under
I always figured that A to C was going to be slower than C to C since C was newer format than old USB A which seems to have been around forever. I usually use C to C to fast charge and use A to C to charge things overnight. Usually the A to C is just slow enough that when I wake up the next morning it's at 100% leaving it charging for about 5 hours while I sleep.
just FYI the reason the cables only says the max Amps rated, is because in DC circuitry, voltages ratings are not as important when it comes to wiring... because the main limiting factor in DC for cables wirings is the Amps it can handle... this is how cables are melted in the past... the problem is the fact that these cables all have chips to certify which voltages are allowed to run when communicating to the charger and the phone... its also why people with when they plug a cable with these 3rd party charger will see the phone charging and its watts will drop and change continuously till the charger and the phone does the complete handshake with the cable as well.... TBH nowadays with all these safety features in place, its only when you buy some random unknown brand stuff in any one of these 3 components that you can get electrical fires or melting cables or exploding phones....
"the problem is the fact that these cables all have chips to certify which voltages are allowed to run when communicating to the charger and the phone/device/load... "
again if you buy a good cable it already has a chip inside it to do the negotiation.... in fact as long as its a new cheap china cable most of them have similar protection feature unless its one of those even more cheapo stuff that is literally like a bunch for a couple of bucks or maybe a few tens of bucks for like 20pcs....
@@FreakyDudeEx this whole fyi reminded me of 'the differnce between an $120 cable and $12 cable' (i could have the numbers wrong) that Adam Savage posted a while back (yes this is the "Myth Buster" Adam Savage)
USB-C with PD is an under appreciated tech friend. With a single cable, you can have >=100w PD, data, video AND Ethernet. We use them every day with docking monitors for hot desking at our hybrid worksite. Cable length is an issue though. Do you have any suggestions for longer all-in-one cables? The market seems extremely limited for anything longer than 6’.
It is very impressive that this is possible. I have my doubts over if this is a overall a good thing but it is quite an technological marvel. PD, data and video can go over a USB-C cable, but not ethernet. Your ethernet adapter is located in your docking station. This is controlled via USB Data, and not Ethernet. Ethernet requires magnetics which aren't part of the USB port. Cable length is one tradeoff by this all-in-one cable design. You need thicker gauge wires for power and signal integrity goes down with distance. Even USB 2 didn't support very long cable lengths. USB was designed to plug in your mouse and keyboard, not as a general ethernet cable.
Very good info but also keep in mind, the higher the charging rate, the hotter the batteries get. Over time, this will cause more long-term battery degradation as opposed to using lower charging rates over time.
Wow, it's hard for me to imagine something like one of these semi-fragile devices like a cell phone and thin little cable being able to handle anywhere close to what a lot of those standard incandescent lightbulbs lights fairly brightly and gets very hot from!
I'm definitely using the wrong cable, but the cable I have is better than not charging at all.
so true
If this doesn't get hearted and pinned, i am gonna explode
Just buy Anker cables
Your insurance company called, your insurance was invalidated.
@@John-Smith02same ch I nese sh!t, different pale. Anker was in several overheating scandals
I like how the U in USB has been completely forgotten at this stage.
what does the U stand for
@@rqertip Universal Serial Bus, I believe
Universal applies to the serial bus, I.e the way the data is handled. Sure connectors are complicated but it’s extremely rare to not be able to communicate between 2 devices using USB. It very likely works, so in that sense it’s universal.
@@atavanHyes
Absolutely. USB used to mean 5v. I did wonder how you could then then 60, 95 and other wattages. 95 (or 100) watts at 5v over this flimsy cable. Ah… 20v … right. And now I see 36, 48, 9 and everything under the sun. The lesson is that USB-C is a universal _connector_ but power is not universal and the same socket might be Thunderbolt or other protocol, so how data goes over it is not universal
Forgot to mention: Slow-charging your devices will help the batteries last longer. It's nice to recharge your phone quickly at the airport between flights, BUT, if you've got time, slow charging is definitely the way to go. Slow charging also tends to be more energy-efficient as well.
this, i like to slow charge over night. when i need to quickly have fill up the battery i use my laptop charger.
fast charging is better than leaving charging over night
@@hphp31416 well my pixel does slowly charge until my alarm clock rings. Tbh it doesn't matter which charger I'm using in that case. General it's better to not fast charge if you can avoid it
@@hphp31416 that’s not how that works. You need to know how the battery works first. I’m not gonna explain it all but between the two chambers in a lithium battery there’s a layer the weaker, thinner, etc the layer, the worse it holds charge. This layer gets worse the faster and more often you charge. So for battery health slow charging is actually better. Also never letting it hit 100% or 0% helps but.. lets be real nobody gonna keep track of that at night.
I can confirm that hitting 0% or 100% is bad for battery health, as well as fast charging. Actually, some manufacturers have settings to help with that. They might have a setting to cap the charge at 85% (for people who gave good battery autonomy and charge their phone every night for example), or have adaptive charging that slow charges your phone overnight so that it charges at the slowest rate possible but it's still fully charged when your alarm rings. For people who want their battery to last longer, it's definitely worth having a look at the Battery section of your settings to check for similar settings!
The simplified version is that for anything short of a laptop, any properly compliant C to C cable hooked up to a USB PD supply that meets/exceeds the device's ratings will get you all the power you need, and it's worth using C to C instead of A to C cables for any device that can charge at about 15W or better. It's also generally safe (with very few exceptions) to plug anything USB into anything else USB without risking damage, it just might not work or might charge slower than it could. For all the faults of the USB-IF, they at least got that part largely right.
All the new high wattage modes will be more interesting/important over the next few years as companies develop and release higher power devices that could never previously be powered by USB (where's my USB C powered bar fridge or room lighting?), but it will take some time before cables and power supplies capable of feeding those devices are readily available.
Cool, i think we will soon see things like e-bike battery pack which is also a power bank which is also a car battery jump starter, which is also an inverter, etc. We now have the possibilities of having more n-in-1 where n is going to skyrocket.
I have 7 portable radios with USB-C charging ports, none of which can charge from these smart PD power supplies. The power supply ignores them.
A lot of people discount how amazing it is that one standard, which can go from 5 to 48 Volts, can be essentially safe to use no matter how incorrectly you plug things into each other. Yeah the cable grades are annoying, but it massively beats having a dozen different cables and/or having to keep the original chargers like they are The One Ring because everything else will ignite your device (and having to buy replacements for 50 bucks a piece).
The only truly bad faux pas of the USB-IF, in my view, was having the analog Audio Adapter Accessory Mode at all for USB-C, as it caused a massive confusion between DAC and non-DAC earphones that almost killed USB-C audio - until the EU resurrected it second-hand by mandating Type-C on everything, which created a new use case for it.
For a few dollars, you can also buy an OTG power measuring device that connects between the device and the cable.
I have them for basic USB and for USB-C.
But in reality, unless you have a very power-hungry laptop that needs to charge while you are working on it you don't really need that super high-power charger.
the more power you charge your battery with, the more ware and tare the battery get over time. The amazing huawei charger with 5 million watts or something will kill your battery within a year due to the power amount..
If you want a battery that last long time you need to slow charge it.. it add the smallest amount of ware and tare on the battery..
My phone is 4+ years old so it wont matter if i connect 10 billion watts and 5000 Amps to it.. it wont charge faster..
@@lokelaufeyson9931 If your laptop is power hungry, it might actually suck power from the battery although you have it on wall power. It's also "wear and tear".
@@graealex A battery will wear and tear from simply being used, its the lovely chemical mix in the battery that eat it from the inside.
You can "overcharge" a laptop if it have a internal charge control (use a charger with more amps) ..
It will give the laptop more charge since the charger can handle more power at the same time.
It wont charge too much volt but the amp is higher so it can handle more load and still charge good.
it can help if it cant charge properly when used. Watch out so you dont go overboard and use a charger that give 10x the volt..
I used to charge a emergency battery with a laptop charger, i think the charger was able to handle 2 amps i think.. maybe 2.5.. compared to 1.3 amps on a phone charger.
It dropped the charge time down to half, no heat or other dangers..
Some laptops come with a charger that is almost exactly what the computer need but on the cheap side..
(have built custom chargers/power adapters out of old laptop chargers for some time now, saved me 35$ last time since i didnt need to buy a special power plug for a thingy i bought).
@@lokelaufeyson9931 Half of what you wrote is technically bullshit. Especially your understanding about "volts and amps". These do not work as independently as you think.
@@graealex Why so SERIOUS!?!?!?!
not to be that guy but discuss technical details on youtube is a technical "why bro?"
If you want details or deeper information i would recommend you to read a wikipedia.
Im sure that you have a nuclear power plant of energy but there is something called time zones..
Actually there are USB-A to C cables capable of power delivery, although they might not be officially supported, I know Xiaomi uses them for their phones even up to 120W, and I'm charging my laptop with one right now so it is actual USB power delivery and not Qualcom QC
apparently they are using pin 7 from the USB 3.0 spec (originally meant as a ground) to run the power-delivery signal on the USB-A side, and that works I guess
can confirm, i have a 120W usb-a to usb-c charger for my phone
I confirm, my Xiaomi charges at 55W with an USB-A to C cable
I can confirm, my Poco (a brand owned by Xiaomi, my power brick also says Xiaomi) charger says it can deliver 67W on the fast charging. It is an A to C cable. It can do up to 20V and 6.2A I think.
interesting
Those are bad cables breaking specs and ceritifactions.
Thanks for consolidating all of this information into one video. Had no idea there were so many differences, guess that's why I'm not an electronics geek. My wife and I have an assortment of older cables with a few that absolutely refuse to cooperate at times, those then get tossed so there is attrition of the old ones eventually...
Decided to subscribe and see if I can learn a bit more.
Those older cables are worth keeping, though. The copper's better to work on in them, and you can _at the very least_ chop the client end off to wire in and pair low-draw devices with the power leads alone. Don't need to be a geek to understand that much.
I am glad somebody decided to cover this topic.
On Samsung with ADB you can view a ton of battery info like cycles, voltage, current, etc. by reading the sysfs entries under "/sys/class/power_supply/battery/" Alternatively you could also check the logcat during charging for anything battery related with something like "logcat | grep battery"
The app device hw info also has this info in a more accessible manner
The 15W A to C limit is not always true. My old OnePlus 3 charges with 20W and the charger is with a type A. And ofc it does not use any power standard, so thats that I guess. BUT.. i guess the cable supports the power.
Those use the older quick charge protocols. My Huawei supports 22.5 W (5 V 4.5 A)
Yeah those are quick charge which requires the phone to be QC compatible which he didn't get into. It was Qualcomm proprietary (the other manufacturers came out with their own specs) and was the main spec used to deliver fast charging speed before PD became mainstream.
This is what i was thinking, i have a realme phone that supports 60w. The charger is 60w usb A to C and it charges more or less around 60w.
Bit confusing 🤔
Mine does 60w
Yeah those use different quick charge specs, not using the regular USB-PD
had to stop watching for few mins to let u kno how much i appreciate the informative & educational content! I'm actually binge- watching all your videos! I have better understanding now than i ever had! I spent >1 yr watching other channels & searching on google for information that you shared & explained in exactly the way i needed to hear it! So thankful to you because i feel i've learned more from you in the past 2 days than an entire year from all the others! Plz kno how appreciative I am! A SUPER THANK YOU!
The really need to require manufacturers label their products and go after people who dont. It's so anticonsumer to not have some kind of indication. SD card specs might be a mess, but you can at least figure out what the rating is without buying a tester.
Impossible to find an effective rating of 40Gb/s with 240W in one unique USB-C to USB-C cable for now.
According to both Apple & Belkin & Ugreen offers, these are the top USB-C to USB-C cables currently available:
- Max speed: 40Gb/s with max 100W [specs of Thunderbolt 4 are max 100W, and they plan 240W for Thunderbolt 5]
- Max power: 480Mb/s with max 240W [USB2 speed]
I bought one rated for 40Gbps and 240W recently
it advertised as usb3.2 gen2x2
though I don't have any device that can handle more than 60W or transfer more than 10Gbps
it can at least charge all my devices at full speed and connect an external drive at full speed.
The second type of that high power cable is now currently used in phones with 120+W super quick charge capability. It offers super high power delivery but the data transfer speed is not great
It's not impossible, just difficult because you're asking for the max spec in both categories. A little over a year ago I bought Club 3D CAC-1576 cables, which are rated USB4 40Gbps AND 240W, but they're only 1m/3.28ft long and quite expensive. Recently I've noticed that Club 3D now have CAC-1578 cables that are the same but 2m/6.56ft long.
@@Tarkhein ok
@ThioJoe at 6:20 it's impossible that the 100W rating has been deprecated because this cable is currently the fastest USB-C to USB-C [Thunderbolt 4Gbps] cable for sale from both Belkin and Apple manufacturers.
I love your vids. Easy to follow and all substance, no filler. That being said...:
1. For us pack rats who still have a plethora of USB-A to USB-mini (and worse, proprietary) as well as micro-USB to USB-C adapters, the danger seems a little more prevalent.
2. I'm fairly certain you were using a magnetic charger with the adapter in your UGreen portion. I assume the identifying chips report via the data lines which are not present in magnetic chargers.
3. Speaking of 3, weird way to hold up 3 fingers. Maybe try the European way.
4. I had to learn to ride a bike several times because I kept forgetting. I'm not an elephant despite the nickname. (not for the length of my trunk but the color and proximity to peanuts)
I knew it was a mess but now I know how to figure some of the mess out.
I did forget about those early USB A to C cables that could fry the USB A port, lol.
I would also recommend you don't have one way arrow when showing various USB C to A/B/C cables since they aren't necessarily one directional.
Only charging cable I ever bring out of the house is really cheap no data transfer cables.
Rather have slow charge and be a bit more secure, and not having to worry about accidentally infect my workplace/friends with something.
Power and ground and I'm good.
Idealy we wouldn't have to buy data block adapters or low pinned cables from 3'd parties.
Honestly I wish there was a charger that allowed me to control how fast (or slow) the charge must be, specially great for charging while sleeping.
The charging speed is fundamentally determined by the power management chip(PMIC) on the charged device, not the charger nor the charging cable. Unfortunately due to (probably liability) reasons manufacturers won't normally let you configure it unless you hacked the operating system/firmware.
The most practical thing you can do, however, is to deliberately choose a charger/cable combination so that the PMIC will automatically use a lower speed to draw current from the charger, or buy a charger/charging accessory product(like Chargie) that connects the charged device via Bluetooth and had a dedicated application running on the charged device that automatically shuts down the power supply over a predetermined criteria(e.g. battery capacity/time on charge).
Having 2 chargers: basic 5-10W one and fast 60-100W charger (and 2 cables for convinionce reasons) does the trick. Now task changes to finding a permanent place to have a slow charger (with a cable) near you'r bed.
P. S. I dont particulary like 5W chargers, some phones will attempt to load those with 7.5W resulting in charger failing very fast, 10W ones dont have such a problem.
It's up to the device to manage that. I know newer androids automatically limit the charge rate to be charged up by when you wake up (e.g. if you have an alarm set up)
@@volodumurkalunyak4651 That's because the 7.5W power rate(5V, 1.5A) is within the USB BC charging specification, while 5W isn't, thus the charged devices may be confused and incorrectly draw too much of current from the charger.
You should definitely avoid such chargers unless you can be certain the charger-charging cable-charged device combination won't draw current over the charger spec., which, may cause fire hazard.
@@FAB1150 I believe such feature is Google Pixel brand specific(Adaptive Charging) and is not universally implemented in other Android brands.
I would recommend to get hold of a usbc to usbc power analyser (mine is TC66), it basically will go in-between and tell you how much juice is flowing and whether it's what you're expecting.
Yep, this is a confirmed EXTRA HELPFULL rated video.
Get the highest most expensive cable for future proofing charging speeds (highest power draw and good enough build quality) as well as transfer speeds (usb 4 or thunderbolt 4 or whatever)
Use this one cable for universal product range
Simple
i recently bought a magentic usb cable (i had some but lost them, so i bought new ones) hoping they would work on my very nice and expensive mech keyboards. well they didn't and i sort of forgot about the matter
but i found some reddit threads saying that we shouldn't use these things because they're not standardized. which means they could short circuit your mech keyboard and some of the keyboards go for 150-200+ USD so it isn't a small deal.
Ay yo, you are back again 👋
Btw, Thanks for always adding video chapters making the video easily navigable
Also, he doesn't use any music while he's talking. I don't understand why YT hosts who are telling us stuff (like why this plane crashed or how the I-10 [it's in California, for those not familiar with the USA Interstate system] is going to be repaired or how to do some DIY project) feel the need to add music (allegedly 'background') while they speak. It is useless at best and distracting/annoying at worst. Unless it's a dance video or an actual music video, we really don't need to have any music while the hosts are talking. And some folks tell me to turn on the closed captions. Now, another good thing here is that his closed captions are real, not auto-generated. Just before this, I was watching an aviation video and yes, they had music, so I enabled the c/c and the word 'seat' was written as 'seed.' As I knew what he was talking about, there wasn't any serious confusion, but still, he didn't need any music. Why waste the time to add it?
Maybe you should do a followup video about the other more popular charging standards that are set by different chipset manufacturer and phone manufacturers.
Just found your channel, amazing content! Honest, and straightforward.
the high voltage in the high power lines, is to reduce the power loss in the line. the formula is P (loss) = I² R, so the idea is to maintain the current below 1 amp.
Awesome stuff !! Now I am an expert for a day or two, until I forget it all.
Man! This video was a feast for a cable and battery junkie like me😂 wow I enjoyed all the information and it's much clearer now
13:00 Mhh no as an electrical guy no high voltage line are high voltage to reduce power lost due to the cable resistance because the formula say: power lost equal = resistance × amp² so if you lower your amperage you win
@4:42 I bought Asus Zendrive (External DVD Drive), specifically because it uses USB C to Micro B. So i don't need to waste 2 x USB A ports on my Laptop when I need to use DVD Drive.
Love the video. Wish you would have talked more about data transfer speeds. 240 c to c cables are cheap and are great for charging basically anything, but many only have usb2 data transfer speeds. Good for most things but typically not for displays or large data transfers.
The video covers the charging rates, which is complex enough for such videos aimed at laymen for accessibility of information. Transfer rates can be covered in a different video (he probably already has).
Usb 5 needs to have a chip in it that reports to the device its pluged into exactly what it is. I mean all the info.
And windows, mac, android, ect then can display this info. Further all usb 5 devices should send thier info. This way you know or can more easily figure out where the problem is.
This would also give the ability for the 2 unused wires in usb 4 to be used. Once both ends report being usb 5 it can alow use of them. The only reason they are not used is so that its fully backwards compatible with usb 1.0 and 2.0.
Thanks for this. Now we need one for data and capabilities like video resolution, Thunderbolt and usb4 standards.
Would definitely appreciate a pointer to the little measurement tool you showed but didn't identify.
best complete explanation, great job! keep up the work
You should become an ambassador for the USB consortium. Love all the USB explainer videos you do!
I was having trouble sleeping but this video fixed that immediately.
I prefer to charge my battery powered electronics slowly. It is common knowledge that discharging to no lower than ~10% and charging to no more than ~90% coupled with charging slowly significantly extends the life of lithium batteries.
I charge my phone with intentionally low current. Because the slower you charge it, the slower accumulator wearing will be. It reached 5 years old now and still does not have significant capacity loss.
0.5C (where C is a total capacity of the battery in AH) charge/discharge rate considered optimal for Li-Ion/Li-Pol accumulators.
For recharging, I simply choose to sleep indoors, where there's electricity. 8 hours of nightly recharging is plenty for most gadgets. ;-)
I bought a Ugreen Nexode 200W USB C GaN Charger-6 Ports Desktop Charger with 2 USB C to USB C Charger Cable 100W 65W Power Delivery during the Black Friday, My laptop and two phones have never been happier.
Happy Thanksgiving Joe, thanks for all the vids
4:41 I have a USB mini Y cable that was used for an external drive. Wanted to use it to charge a USB-C device. First of all, if there's a Mini_female-to-C_male adapter to plug the cable into I can't find it. But after seeing this 4:41 I'm glad I stopped looking. FWIW, for anyone who hasn't seen one, this cable has two A connections, one on a red cable that's supposed to be hot, and a black cable that's data and hot, and they merge into a USB-mini male plug. It did work for the drive it came with.
Interesting. Took the A+. Great context. Of course, I'm gonna be making videos after I finish school.
I prefer slow charghing, this is how my old Note 9 still lives for over a day on a charge till now. For when i am not home and i need fast charging i'll do it on faster.
I love the titles of the "stock videos" on these. "Confused Computer Man" lol.
Slower charging is better for battery health. Consider a type-A cable for plugging in overnight.
I've been using my current phone for 3 years now and it survived countless falls unscathed, even from the top of my truck going 50mph (it's got a good case). It fully charges in less than half an hour regardless of which cord I use (has to be the original charger that came with the phone) and has no difficulty going for the whole day. The cord, on the other hand, breaks one after another. It just seems more logical to invest in quantity over quality at this point. I have huge respect for people who can have so many old cords lying around. Mine almost never survive to old age. 😂
Thank you for demystifying these ever-growing complexity of standardized USB-C interface and cables. Now I know if I want a USB-C socket on my charger or not.
There could be a similar vid on data transfer. I changed the data cable from the one that came with my new iPhone to a highly rated one and got roughly 10x increase in data transfer speed, more useful to me than charging speed increase.
I am using the proprietary fast charge and cable that came with my phone, and the wattage corresponds with the max charging power this phone supports
I recently bought a number of USB-C cables that were priced at under 3 euro (equiv 3.27 USD atm).
Afaik most decent cables cost 20+ euro, but these cheapies don't break a sweat at 36W (3A, 12V).
I bought a new barcode scanner about a year ago that had numerous warnings to only use the enclosed USB cable for charging, that any other one would kill the scanner.
I use a fat braided AOHi cable setup (quite expensive) rated at 240W PD with interchangeable Lightning and USB-C tail cables. Both tail cables have a tri-colour LED to indicated charging speed. This is far more than I need but I could afford it.
Excellent explanation. Thanks 👍
4:57
My Xiaomi phone came with a 67 watt charger which has a USB-A port. Still it can charge at full power with the original A to C cable, and can even charge a 13" MacBook Pro and my HP ProBook 450 G5 just as fast as the original chargers do. It's confusing alright!
I'm old enough to have experienced the time where we just had "a usb cable" That was it: a usb cable.
The missing part from this video is how apple and other laptop chargers and cables are rated. They usually don’t even specify PD on their chargers…
I literally just bought a Ugreen powerbank yesterday and I was wondering why it's charging very slowly. Guess I'll have to get a USB-C cable. You saved me once again, ThioJoe. 🐐
great, now do a video explaining the pins inside C>C cables - why some USB C cables have more pins than others etc
I can explain that here. All usb c cables contain the usb 2.0 wires, power wires and the sbus cables. Additionally the cable can contain upto 4 high speed twisted pairs for usb 3 and 4. Cables that don't have these wires don't need to have the corresponding pins on the connector present. Similarly devices that don't use these contacts don't need pins in the device connector.
Remember how a group of people made usb-C as the standard for all the smartphones. Just look at how many different type of USB-C cables at your home/office now.
Your videos are simple, quite straightforward, easy to understand. But can I have more sources from USB-IF about 60W requirements on USB C-C cables?
I'd love to thanks anyone who can provide me the further reading.
well my phone has VOOC charging which takes A to C cables rated for 5A and i am using the included cable on that charger so yeah, its the right type of cable. as for the spare charger i use with my tablet(ns surface go) that can be charged via USB C PD, a normal C to C cable is enough since the original charger is 25W. but as far as charging random devices and my phone overnight, i tend to use cheap cables that have usb C, micro usb and lightning connector at the end.
I own a Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite which has a 4,500mA battery and supports “45w - Super Fast Charging”. However finding a 45W cable/charger combo that the phone will accept and charge at 45w seems difficult to find, with the exception of an expensive Samsung charger …. Does Samsung use its own charging protocols? The system description says that the phone supports Power Delivery 3.0 provided the charger supports the PPS standard. The same goes for the 25W charging. What is PPS and have you heard of any non standard Samsung charger communication protocols?
if you have the time, charge your devices slowly, the battery will generally last longer. Fast charge is convenient but (at least with today's tech) it kills battery life.
A couple of small corrections. USB is not 5 +- 0.25. It used to be. This was changed about a decade ago to support up to 5.5V. 5.25 is safer as electronics were designed for 5.25 but 5.5 is allowed. Also what you describe as a charger isn't a charger. The charging circuitry is built into your computer. That's a regulated AC to DC power supply. I have a computer that doesn't have a battery but runs off of USB-PD. This plug into the power supply -- not a charger.
Thank you for explaining the complexity of USB-PD and USB-C cables. By packing features into USB-C we've lost the ability of knowing the cable will work if it fits. It depends on the two ends as well as the cable. Quite complex.
Xiaomi phone chargers use A to C cables for 120W charging and it also supports USB PD.
Also if I use my other xiaomi 33W charging cable for my 120W charger and 120W phone, my phone shows 55W. I don't know why but somehow it understands how much current it can deliver and uses 55W(which is not even supported by the charger, it says 15W, 27W, 66W and 120W on the back of the charger) and it doesn't even get warm despite it rated only for 33W.
Also despite the charger says 6A x 20V for 120W charging, my phone shows pulling 8A for some reason.
That analogy was so clutch lol
15w is not standard charging its fast charging. I have another older *actual* standard charger that only goes up to 5w. Every charger used to only charge like 5w until quick/fast charge came.
If you’re only dealing with USB-C ports, just buy Thunderbolt cables. No worries, no confusion, no risk of devices wanting to do something the cable doesn’t support.
Thunderbolt 3 is basically “everything USB3 _might_ do, plus some more” and Thunderbolt 4 is basically “everything USB4 _might_ do, plus some more”. So a Thunderbolt 3/4 cable will be guaranteed to be the equivalent of the top-rated USB 3/4 cables, and also fully support any Thunderbolt devices you have or get in the future.
i only have ONE usb-c out of all the dozens in my house, including the permanently attached one for my lenovo laptop, that allows FULL THROTTLE charging on ANY device, i have seen the monitor gizmo reading almost 5 AMPS into my celly! most the others are lucky to push thru one amp, what crap!.. smFh
Huawei phone charger of my friend has 120W Power delivery and uses USB-A to USB-C.
I tried it on my laptop and it charged the laptop fine. The laptop requires 45W PD and wont charge on a 30W charger that has USB-C to USB-C.
This indicates to me that there are exceptions to the USB-A to USB-C thingy...
Bro really just explained voltage and current far better than my science teacher tried to
4:11 even if i don't buy Ugreen, the commercial was very informative.
At 0:42 I have exactly the same phone, same charger and same cable.
I had to laugh at my prior work place, the coworkers would argue on who had the best "Charger" that they plugged onto the computers usb port to charge their phones. Their "Chargers" were all just different lengths of dollar store or gas station "Fast charging" cables. I tried to explain the main differences on standard 5v USB A cable based off losses in the cable, so shorter heavier cables basically work best since you have less loss. What really blew their mind was my OnePlus phone using its warp charger and the correct cable charging my phone extremely fast. I didn't want to go down the rabbithole that some devices use like oneplus to offload the battery management and charging to the charger. The charger and its USB A to USB C is rated to 65W, but only with their protocol.
In which ways do those adapters affect this? The little tips that go from usb a to c in the span of an inch?
Would you post the info for that device you bought to check cables?
thanks for explaining that one RTGame Daniel drama with his twitch chat that one time when he was playing super mario sunshine
Some of the A-C cables can do the 2.1A, I believe, because a lot of tablets and phones these days will still charge fairly faster with them on a 2-2.1A-rated charger than on a 1A or one of those little half-amp ones.
Great video. Do you have one that addresses data transfer rates of different USB-C to ??? cables?
Now I want to test my cables and the wall warts they plug into. Some generate extra heat. I don't like that. It's also good to buy an outlet tester and test any outlets you plug your devices into.
For the resistor in the USB-A portion.. I have a back massager (of all things) that essentially requires that pre-communication and I didn't know what was triggering it.. lol however it can detect it not having the proper cord and it won't let you charge and won't turn on the charging light.. some devices have at the very least protection enough to be a detector in that case..
I would never have needed to know this information if someone wasn't texting and driving.. My back wouldn't hurt lol....
8:04 But the old USB-A 2.0 cables and slots won't have the ability to communicate like that. Power comes from the USB-A end, and if it's coming from that end, it's usually just a standard 5V power output. (not sure of the amperage) But I fully don't believe USB-A has any sort of power delivery or power negotiation circuit as the USB-C's.
I just found your channel, great information here. I just got a Samsung Galaxy S23, my first experience with USB C. My car, like most, has regular USB ports. Should I use a USB to USB C adapter, or a Ugreen car lighter USB C charger. What's your recommendation?
Great video. But there is still one issue. My Sennheiser Momentum 3 headphone does not recognize my charger if I use USC C to USB C. Using an USB A to USB C Cable works fine.
Maybe the pins are used different from supplier to supplier.
I don't give a hoot about charging capabilities as long as it charges eventually.
What I care about is whether the cable can transfer files and some of them just won't and there is no reason on earth to make any USB cable that doesn't USfrigginB!
Higher voltage means more danger for the end consumer. With those high power devices we are more and more getting closer to a regular power adapter cable that is 120/230V.
Some devices do need the power to operate, so you will need the better cable. As of example a dive might not work at 60W, but might with 65W and you might say "only 5W difference!". Well yes, only 5W, but that is it, only 0,25A (20V x 3,25A). So when you get a new device check for its specs as sometimes those 0,25A might be enough it to not work with a regular 60W cable.
I charge my devices at 2.5W when possible. Better on the battery, works with basically any USB cable.
Feedback from the device to the Buck power convertor to deliver the optimum charge rate is an interesting touch.
I blew up a phone charge circuit when I created my own power supply that was good for supplying 5 volts at 10 amps. It worked great on my old flip phone until I answered the phone while it was charging and I heard a click. The call did not drop but after that it would not charge through the jack. I could take the battery out and charge them it was just a bit tedious. (12:00) electric flow is more like compressed air than water as air can be compressed. In a conductor carrying RF the voltage in a line is not constant although your voltmeter will display the average.
I have been watching this channel since 2011. So underrated!
30 minutes or 12 hours? Doesn't matter.
If it charges, it charges. At least my mom thinks like that.
Well If you have higher watt charging you can basically forget charging at night as you can do it whenever you want and all it takes is 15 mins. I think you/your mom must be an apple user to think that way😂😂
@@sharzo7728 no one in our family can afford an iPhone. Or maybe my grandfather could... but he doesn't care enough for phones, he instead wants to improve his cottage and maintain his expensive car. (his phone is Galaxy M51 I think btw.)
I've bought several fast charging cables this year and they all have gone bad within months ( c to c) someone the charger has blown even. And this is all in the 40w range or under
I always figured that A to C was going to be slower than C to C since C was newer format than old USB A which seems to have been around forever. I usually use C to C to fast charge and use A to C to charge things overnight. Usually the A to C is just slow enough that when I wake up the next morning it's at 100% leaving it charging for about 5 hours while I sleep.
just FYI the reason the cables only says the max Amps rated, is because in DC circuitry, voltages ratings are not as important when it comes to wiring... because the main limiting factor in DC for cables wirings is the Amps it can handle... this is how cables are melted in the past... the problem is the fact that these cables all have chips to certify which voltages are allowed to run when communicating to the charger and the phone...
its also why people with when they plug a cable with these 3rd party charger will see the phone charging and its watts will drop and change continuously till the charger and the phone does the complete handshake with the cable as well.... TBH nowadays with all these safety features in place, its only when you buy some random unknown brand stuff in any one of these 3 components that you can get electrical fires or melting cables or exploding phones....
"its also why people with a power meter/clamp/reader when they plug a cable"
"the problem is the fact that these cables all have chips to certify which voltages are allowed to run when communicating to the charger and the phone/device/load... "
again if you buy a good cable it already has a chip inside it to do the negotiation.... in fact as long as its a new cheap china cable most of them have similar protection feature unless its one of those even more cheapo stuff that is literally like a bunch for a couple of bucks or maybe a few tens of bucks for like 20pcs....
@@FreakyDudeEx this whole fyi reminded me of 'the differnce between an $120 cable and $12 cable' (i could have the numbers wrong) that Adam Savage posted a while back (yes this is the "Myth Buster" Adam Savage)
Thanks for the explanation it tells a lot. What is the name or link to the tester you used in the video?
I have been disappointed by so many poor USB devices that after trying Ugreen, I only buy that now. Glad to see they are sponsors of this video.
The charger is in the phone, the thing plugged into the wall is a power supply....
USB-C with PD is an under appreciated tech friend. With a single cable, you can have >=100w PD, data, video AND Ethernet. We use them every day with docking monitors for hot desking at our hybrid worksite. Cable length is an issue though. Do you have any suggestions for longer all-in-one cables? The market seems extremely limited for anything longer than 6’.
It is very impressive that this is possible. I have my doubts over if this is a overall a good thing but it is quite an technological marvel. PD, data and video can go over a USB-C cable, but not ethernet. Your ethernet adapter is located in your docking station. This is controlled via USB Data, and not Ethernet. Ethernet requires magnetics which aren't part of the USB port.
Cable length is one tradeoff by this all-in-one cable design. You need thicker gauge wires for power and signal integrity goes down with distance. Even USB 2 didn't support very long cable lengths. USB was designed to plug in your mouse and keyboard, not as a general ethernet cable.
Very good info but also keep in mind, the higher the charging rate, the hotter the batteries get. Over time, this will cause more long-term battery degradation as opposed to using lower charging rates over time.
Wow, it's hard for me to imagine something like one of these semi-fragile devices like a cell phone and thin little cable being able to handle anywhere close to what a lot of those standard incandescent lightbulbs lights fairly brightly and gets very hot from!