Is there a way to test the data transfer speed of USB cables? - eviltoast

If you’re like me, you have dozens of USB-A and USB-C cables. There are all of various quality, but I have no idea the history of each one. A lot of them came with other products and are total unknown quantity anyway.

Is there a tool to quickly test how good each cable is? Either a software or a hardware tool. Ideally it’d be nice to see something that can measure the power as well. Some charging cables are capable of fast charging, and some are not.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    @gedaliyah@lemmy.world The cables do have an “emarker”, which does let them indicate identifying information, but it apparently at least as of eight months back, that information wasn’t exposed by the Linux kernel:

    https://old.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/qm34dj/how_to_check_usb_version_of_a_usbc_cable/

    Not yet. Some low-level changes need to be made to the Linux kernel and the underlying UCSI interface, so there’s not anything you can build at the moment to make it happen.

    If you happen to be a skilled linux kernel engineer with experience in USB specifications and more specifically the UCSI specification, and want to help, then contribute on this mailing list: linux-usb@vger.kernel.org

    Dunno about other OSes. There’s also dedicated diagnostic hardware, but unless you want that, the above approach I gave may be your best bet currently.