Is a USB cable for data, or only power; how to tell without testing it?

[micky]

Short of testing a cable, is there a way to tell by looking if a USB
cable is data/power or power only?

Is there a logo or a mark on the plug or wire?

If not, why not? Do they want to drive us crazy?



Sort of separately, I found a cable on the street, white, good condition
everywhere, USB-A to USB-C, well-made, and on the USB-A end is written
PISIGMA.

But when I first looked at the writing, I could only read it, most of
it, upside down, and it started with VW. So I looked for VW ISI cable,
and I found:
https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen_2021_Atlas/Media-Cable---USB-C-to-USB-A-Adaptor/90354124/000051446BD.html
This 70 cm USB cable (USB-C® to USB-A Adapter) is designed to connect
a smartphone or other mobile device to your Volkswagens Infotainment
system. This premium cable features silver connectors with an
embossed Volkswagen logo. [It's silver on the outside. I don't think
the connection places are silver plated.]
Proper installation required. Professional installation may be
recommended. See owners literature and dealer for details.

and the same thing at
https://www.amazon.com/Volkswagen-000051446BD-Connection-Adapter-Premium/dp/B08K67W8G2/ref=sr_1_32
Volkswagen 000051446BD Connection Data C to USB-A Female Adapter Premium
Cable 70 cm, Silver
Original VW premium connection cable USB-C to USB-A socket with
Volkswagen logo.
100% Volkswagen original accessory.
Interface: USB-C to USB-A female angled
Colour: black, silver.
Length: 70 cm.

$50 and $46, plus delivery. How do they have nerve enough to charge 46
dollars for a 2-foot cable?


Ah, I found it,
https://pisigmainc.com/collections/charging-cables/products/type-c-charge-data-cable-1-ft
Despite url saying 1-ft, it's really 1.5 or 3meters and it sells for
$9.99. At that price, it must do data too, oh, and it says it does.

[nospam]

In article <bnqiqglpfrot9sjfo...@4ax.com>, micky

<NONONO...@fmguy.com> wrote:

> Short of testing a cable, is there a way to tell by looking if a USB
> cable is data/power or power only?
>
> Is there a logo or a mark on the plug or wire?

anything with an official usb logo has power and data, since that's
required by the spec.

there is no such thing as a usb power-only cable because it's in
violation of the spec. the amount of current must be negotiated over
the data lines, so a 'power-only' cable' that has no data lines will be
unable to negotiate and end up at the default 100ma.

counterfeit cables might use the logo without authorization, so a logo
is not a guarantee.

> If not, why not? Do they want to drive us crazy?

because some companies want to sell crap.

some devices are non-compliant and might work with non-compliant
cables, so they sorta work. sometimes.

> Sort of separately, I found a cable on the street, white, good condition
> everywhere, USB-A to USB-C, well-made, and on the USB-A end is written
> PISIGMA.

usb-c cables vary, making it difficult to impossible to tell by looking
at it what its specs are.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

> there is no such thing as a usb power-only cable because it's in
> violation of the spec. the amount of current must be negotiated over
> the data lines, so a 'power-only' cable' that has no data lines will be
> unable to negotiate and end up at the default 100ma.

They exist. I used to have a phone that wouldn't charge over a regular
cable, but required the power-only one. I no longer have this phone, and
don't remember the charge rate.

[snip]

> usb-c cables vary, making it difficult to impossible to tell by looking
> at it what its specs are.

The USB-C cable I have for laptop power does support data, but not
high-speed data.

--
22 days until the winter celebration (Saturday, December 25, 2021
12:00:00 AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he
believes and wishes he was certain of." [Mark Twain]

[sms]

On 12/2/2021 5:46 PM, micky wrote:
> Short of testing a cable, is there a way to tell by looking if a USB
> cable is data/power or power only?

No. Well you could peel off the outer insulation and see how many wires
are inside. 4 to 8 wires and it's not power-only. 1 red and 1 black and
it's power-only. I also think I remember a data-only cable, intended to
be used between two powered devices, where they didn't want to connect
the power rails of the two devices together
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WFF5FZS>.

> If not, why not? Do they want to drive us crazy?

Power-only cables aren't that common. You can buy them, but with
Quick-Charge chargers they won't be able to negotiated for higher charge
current so they're normally used with a dumb charger that puts out
500-2000mA. Power-only cables often come with devices that are powered
via a USB connector but don't use the data pins. I have some
rechargeable bicycle lights and flashlights like that.

Amusingly, some vendors try to charge extra for power-only USB cables,
marketing them as "Data Block" cables
<https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQ5AZ6Q/>.

[nospam]

In article <aWrqJ.52398$cW6....@fx08.iad>, Mark Lloyd

<not....@all.invalid> wrote:

> [snip]
>
> > there is no such thing as a usb power-only cable because it's in
> > violation of the spec. the amount of current must be negotiated over
> > the data lines, so a 'power-only' cable' that has no data lines will be
> > unable to negotiate and end up at the default 100ma.
>
> They exist.

what exists are not compliant with the usb spec which means they are
not usb cables.

such cables might work if the devices are also non-compliant, but there
could be all sorts of problems in using such a cable and/or the device.

compliant devices *require* data lines since that's how power is
negotiated. without data lines, 100ma is the maximum, which is not
enough to charge a modern device. if the charger is sourcing higher
currents without proper negotiation, then bad things can happen.

> I used to have a phone that wouldn't charge over a regular
> cable, but required the power-only one. I no longer have this phone, and
> don't remember the charge rate.

then at least one part was non-compliant.

it's possible you had three non-compliant components (phone, cable,
charger) and got lucky.

[philo]

Yep.

I went through all of my cables and tested them, I think only one was a
"power only" and it was thinner than the rest. I tossed it.

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on Fri, 3 Dec 2021 16:55:01 -0600, philo

<ph...@privacy.net> wrote:

>On 12/3/21 12:56 PM, sms wrote:
>> On 12/2/2021 5:46 PM, micky wrote:
>>> Short of testing a cable, is there a way to tell by looking if a USB
>>> cable is data/power or power only?
>>
>> No. Well you could peel off the outer insulation and see how many wires

That might ruin it. :-(

>> are inside. 4 to 8 wires and it's not power-only. 1 red and 1 black and
>> it's power-only. I also think I remember a data-only cable, intended to
>> be used between two powered devices, where they didn't want to connect
>> the power rails of the two devices together

That makes sense, but if they didn't tell me, I probably wouldn't think
of it in advance.

>> <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WFF5FZS>.
>>
>>> If not, why not?  Do they want to drive us crazy?
>>
>> Power-only cables aren't that common. You can buy them, but with
>> Quick-Charge chargers they won't be able to negotiated for higher charge
>> current so they're normally used with a dumb charger that puts out
>> 500-2000mA. Power-only cables often come with devices that are powered
>> via a USB connector but don't use the data pins. I have some
>> rechargeable bicycle lights and flashlights like that.
>>
>> Amusingly, some vendors try to charge extra for power-only USB cables,
>> marketing them as "Data Block" cables
>> <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQ5AZ6Q/>.

LOL. I looked at it. Amazing.

>
>
>Yep.
>
>I went through all of my cables and tested them, I think only one was a
>"power only" and it was thinner than the rest. I tossed it.

That was one reason I got suspicious yesterday. I'd been using this
cable for years, plugged into the PC, and I couldn't remember if I'd
ever used it for data or not, but it was suspicially thin, especially if
I had fat data.

I found another cable today and now the MP3 player says on the screen
when it's charging and said when it was fully charged. Yesterday I could
only tell by unplugging it once in a whle and seeing the image of the
battery was getting fuller and fuller.

I also wanted a data cable to load the SD card but once I could see it
in file manager, I saw that I loaded it a year ago!.

I have 685 songs that I recorded off of 181.1FM Good Times Oldies. I
used Radiomaximus to record continuously for more than 3 days. Then I
went through and deleted 1 or 2% that I don't like, as well as any files
I recognized as advertising. (I forget how I did that. Probably the file
name.). I usually keep File Manager sorted A-Z or most recent date
first. But the end of song indicator on this webradio station causes 3
or 4 seconds of the next song to be in the file for the current song.
So when I copied all the songs to a flashdrive they played oldest first,
that caused the first 3 seconds played for every song to actually be
the last 3 seconds of the next song, not the previous.

By sorting it oldest at the top of the column and copying again, it
played in the right order and I can't even tell where the file change
occurs 3 seconds into every song.


A few of you might remember my last trip 3 years ago where the car radio
sorted all the songs alphabetically by file name, which starts with the
artist name. It did this wihout my asking it too, and I find that
remarkable.

So it would play all the songs by Brenda Lee one after another, when the
radio station was wise enough to mix them with others. I noticed this
when it played the same song by Brenda Lee 3 times in a row. Finally I
realized it was separate instances of the same song.

For one reason I had to change cars and the next car didn't do this. (I
was supposed to keep track of which make did it and I've forgotten. I
should have written it down.) There are no English-language stations
where I vacation so I really need music)

So now I'm playing them on a Sandisk Clip Sport, maybe the smallest MP3
player Sandisk made, and its doing the same thing, sorting
alphabetically. I just played Romeo and Juliet for the 3rd time in a
row. I have another MP3 player, AGPTEK A20, and if I'm lucky it wont'
do this. I'm looking at its manual and of course it doesn't go into such
detail, neither manual does.

The other choice is shuffle, but it does not have as a choice, "as
stored on the SD card". Just like the original File Manager, on Win 3.1,
which had no option to display in the order it was loaded or stored or
say on the drive.

In the US, I don't have a USB jack in my car radio, only AUX.

[Frank Slootweg]

micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com> wrote:
[...]

> A few of you might remember my last trip 3 years ago where the car radio
> sorted all the songs alphabetically by file name, which starts with the
> artist name. It did this wihout my asking it too, and I find that
> remarkable.
>
> So it would play all the songs by Brenda Lee one after another, when the
> radio station was wise enough to mix them with others. I noticed this
> when it played the same song by Brenda Lee 3 times in a row. Finally I
> realized it was separate instances of the same song.
>
> For one reason I had to change cars and the next car didn't do this. (I
> was supposed to keep track of which make did it and I've forgotten. I
> should have written it down.) There are no English-language stations
> where I vacation so I really need music)
>
> So now I'm playing them on a Sandisk Clip Sport, maybe the smallest MP3
> player Sandisk made, and its doing the same thing, sorting
> alphabetically. I just played Romeo and Juliet for the 3rd time in a
> row. I have another MP3 player, AGPTEK A20, and if I'm lucky it wont'
> do this. I'm looking at its manual and of course it doesn't go into such
> detail, neither manual does.
>
> The other choice is shuffle, but it does not have as a choice, "as
> stored on the SD card". Just like the original File Manager, on Win 3.1,
> which had no option to display in the order it was loaded or stored or
> say on the drive.

Why don't you play the music on/from your phone (instead of from an
MP3 media player)?

Nearly every music app can sort music (most) any way you like.
Currently I use Samsung's 'Samsung Music', but on my previous
non-Samsung phone, I just used VLC, highly recommended.

> In the US, I don't have a USB jack in my car radio, only AUX.

What do you want a USB connection for? There are probably inexpensive
adapters for most anything you want to do.

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on 4 Dec 2021 11:13:57 GMT, Frank Slootweg

Sorry for the delay. My PC broke a couple hours after you posted here.
Didn't even have email for a wwek. Just catching up on this ng.

>
> Why don't you play the music on/from your phone (instead of from an
>MP3 media player)?

Loads of reasons. I don't carry the phone all the time; when I do, I
don't turn it on all the time; when I do, I don't plug it into the car
all the time; it uses more power than the mp3 player, esp with
bluetooth; I don't want to take up phone storage (over 1.5 gigs for 640
songs) storing songs I will in practice only play in my car or a rental
car. That means I can leave the player in the car while the phone goes
with me in my pocket, or isn't with me at all.

Actually when the songs played in alphabetical order, it wasn't from an
MP3 player but from a usb flash drive, that I played by plugging into a
jack right in the rental car dashboard, connected to the radio I guess.

But mostly I like undertanding all this, regardless of what I actually
end up doing.


It's amazing to me that something is sorting the songs into
alphatbetical order by file name instead of just playing them in the
order they are stored on the flash drive or mp3 player. The flash drive
was empty when I loaded the songs and the MP3 player only had what
Sandisk pre-installed, a few songs.

The flashdrive had over 600 songs. It didn't do the sorting so the car
radio must have done it. Why? And where is the logic to do the
sorting? And what other kinds of logic does the car radio have, that
we don't know about? And why does the Sandisk Clip, which is only as
big as 2 or 3 matchbooks stacked head to toe, have sorting logic? And
if they go to the trouble to write sorting into it, how come there is no
option to not sort, or to sort on creation date/time or some other
field. Why is file name so important?

IIRC, in windows 3.1, when File Manager had no option to display the
files in their physical order, neither did MSDos or PCDos, but Norton
DOS did. Reading its DIR options is what made me notice the issue.
Norton DOS is still avaiable, both free and pro, but the free version
does so much I've never fighured out what else the paid version might
do. I forget its current name right now.

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on Fri, 3 Dec 2021 10:56:55 -0800, sms

<scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:

>On 12/2/2021 5:46 PM, micky wrote:
>> Short of testing a cable, is there a way to tell by looking if a USB
>> cable is data/power or power only?
>
>No. Well you could peel off the outer insulation and see how many wires
>are inside.

That's a good idea.

So I cut off the plug

> 4 to 8 wires and it's not power-only. 1 red and 1 black and
>it's power-only.

Red, black, white and green. So it was a good one. It's a shame I cut
the end off. Well, actually, I tried to use it to charge the phone from
the PC and when I moved the phone, the PC would beep every time the
phone was connected or disconnected, and there was a little damage to
the end of the cable 3mm from the plug. I guess that's why it was lying
in the dirt and gravel next to the road.

Now that I've cut off the bad part, maybe I could connect a new end?
Before my computer broke, 8 hours after you posted, I found a connector
on Amazon but I think it was only for flat cables. Easy come, easy go.

> I also think I remember a data-only cable, intended to
>be used between two powered devices, where they didn't want to connect
>the power rails of the two devices together
><https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WFF5FZS>.

Uh huh. Good to know about this.

>
>> If not, why not? Do they want to drive us crazy?
>
>Power-only cables aren't that common. You can buy them,

The problem is that I had a couple with no indication on them that they
were power only. I'm lucky I didn't waste a lot of time because of
that, or worse yet, take one with me when I needed power/data. This was
years ago and maybe it's much less likely today.

>but with

I have a little USB 4-in-1 and I've never used more than 3 of the
outlets, but yesterday I tried to charge something from the one closest
to the input wire and it wouldn't charge anything. So it's no-power.
But that's probably a fluke.

>Quick-Charge chargers they won't be able to negotiated for higher charge
>current so they're normally used with a dumb charger that puts out
>500-2000mA. Power-only cables often come with devices that are powered
>via a USB connector but don't use the data pins. I have some
>rechargeable bicycle lights and flashlights like that.
>
>Amusingly, some vendors try to charge extra for power-only USB cables,
>marketing them as "Data Block" cables
><https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RQ5AZ6Q/>.

I saw this before my computer broke. Hilarious.

Another example was an radio or amplifier I ssw that advertised "direct
connection between stages for high frequency response."

[bad sector]

On 12/18/21 11:11 PM, micky wrote:

> The flashdrive had over 600 songs. It didn't do the sorting so the car
> radio must have done it. Why? And where is the logic to do the
> sorting? And what other kinds of logic does the car radio have, that
> we don't know about?

After listening to the car radio for about 15 minutes one
night on my way home from work I hit the brakes and pulled
off because I absolutely wanted to note the FM frequency
and the exact time so as to allow me to look up the program
later. Man, that DJ had my taste in everything! As I looked
closer I realized that it was one of my own tapes! ..true story,
probably not very original :-)

[micky]

In alt.comp.hardware, on Mon, 20 Dec 2021 18:04:37 -0500, bad sector

On at least 3 occasions I've googled technical problems and found a link
on just the right topic. Once it took me 10 lines to realize it was a
post I'd written 10 years earlier.

[The Real Bev]

I've done that, but it was rarely a solution to a problem, just the same
question I'm asking now. I'm also immodest enough to say that some of
them were REALLY well-written!

--
Cheers, Bev
I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock
every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there
picking the locks, they are always locking three.

[micky]

In alt.comp.hardware, on Sat, 25 Dec 2021 21:02:34 -0800, The Real Bev

<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 12/25/2021 05:22 PM, micky wrote:
>> In alt.comp.hardware, on Mon, 20 Dec 2021 18:04:37 -0500, bad sector
>> <forgetski@postit_INVALID_.gov> wrote:
>>
>>>On 12/18/21 11:11 PM, micky wrote:
>>>
>>>> The flashdrive had over 600 songs. It didn't do the sorting so the car
>>>> radio must have done it. Why? And where is the logic to do the
>>>> sorting? And what other kinds of logic does the car radio have, that
>>>> we don't know about?
>>>After listening to the car radio for about 15 minutes one
>>>night on my way home from work I hit the brakes and pulled
>>>off because I absolutely wanted to note the FM frequency
>>>and the exact time so as to allow me to look up the program
>>>later. Man, that DJ had my taste in everything! As I looked
>>>closer I realized that it was one of my own tapes! ..true story,
>>>probably not very original :-)
>>
>> On at least 3 occasions I've googled technical problems and found a link
>> on just the right topic. Once it took me 10 lines to realize it was a
>> post I'd written 10 years earlier.
>
>I've done that, but it was rarely a solution to a problem, just the same
>question I'm asking now.

Yes, exacttly. Me too.

Although soft of the opposite happened at home. My hearing is down
about 10 or 20% and I bought Hearphones**, an ampllfier that hangs
around one's neck with wires to earbuds, for in person meetings where I
couldn't hear well enough. Law & Order is 10 or 20% lower in volume
than all the other tv shows After a year of watching this tv show, the
idea finally occurred to me to use these Hearphones,

**By Bose. Not sold any more but there is a competitor still on the
market I think.

What a great idea I thought, and the next day when I tried it, I
remembered I did this 2 or 3 years ago too.

[AJL]

micky wrote:

> My hearing is down about 10 or 20%

My hearing is down for the high frequencies which makes understanding
speech somewhat difficult.

> and I bought Hearphones**, an ampllfier that hangs around one's
> neck with wires to earbuds, for in person meetings where I couldn't
> hear well enough.

I saw a similar gadget in Target. But the mic/amp was small enough to
fit in a shirt pocket. Was US$40 IIRC, Most folks probably thought it
was a radio the user was listening to.

> What a great idea [TV headphones] I thought,

When I use earbuds with my Android devices I use an equalizer app and
turn down the low and boost the high frequencies for better speech
ineligibility. For music I just adjust for what I think sounds best.

I've not found a good equalizer app that works with my Windows laptop. But a
substitute that I use that works almost as well is an ultra cheap pair
of earbuds. Practically no bass, mostly highs...

[sms]

On 12/25/2021 5:22 PM, micky wrote:

<snip>

> On at least 3 occasions I've googled technical problems and found a link
> on just the right topic. Once it took me 10 lines to realize it was a
> post I'd written 10 years earlier.

LOL, that happens to me often.

"Knowing everything about everything is an awesome burden but I humbly
accept it in service of my fellow man." Roger Lawndale II.

[bad sector]

been there a couple of times but it seldom helps; EXCEPT that
I also realised that the reason my posts were not getting many
resolving responses was that I was using oddball hardware.
I spend a lot more time now on avoiding unproven or windows-only
bundleware for example.

[micky]

In alt.comp.hardware, on Mon, 27 Dec 2021 09:44:07 -0500, bad sector

My hardware is pretty standard, but about half of my questions are
oddball. I can't help it.