@@matthewmcewen1 It is when talking about phone/tablets. They keep increasing their current draw until the voltage starts to drop below USB specs (or even just 4.9v).
I remember getting a cable from Wish that had some super high resistance. I remember being shocked by how slow anything was to charge off it. I never did measure it, but perhaps I should sometime.
@@k1ngjulien_You are an order of magnitude off here + a bit. USB2 is 240MHz maximum "frequency", USB3 is 2.5GHz. try to look into what is takes to transport 10GHz signals. It's not trivial - we're talking microwaves here running over coax or in waveguides.
@@k1ngjulien_ theoretically, yes, but the thing that matters at high data rates is the line impedance (90 ohms differential impedance for USB in this case) and the effective resistance increase caused by skin effect is negligible compared to the inductance and capacitance components
You should connect a working cable to a 5.1 volt supply and load the cable with 2.5 amps on the other end and see what the voltage at the end is, and if it gets hot or warm or something more dramatic, then try higher current like 4 amps or so and see what happens then.
I don't think you can say they are all the same cable. Chinese manufacturers copy each other. I just bought two video door bells, they look identical, but totally different inside.
gabest4 I agree! For the sake of science, I’m upset he didn’t cut up one that was legitimately bought from amazon. I bet he’s correct but with such a thorough dissection, having his critique of amazon based on an assumption gives me anxiety
@@arthurmead5341 I think ring is American. Don't know where it's made (mist likely china) but the owner was American and sold it to amazon and it's headquarters is in the US.
Would Poly Monofilament Support Wire be a good wire to sleeve up if you want a sleeved wire to be able to bend and stay in place and then bend back to another position and have it stay in place? if not do you happen to know what wire cable is good for that? i don't want to make a usb or anything of that sort but i just want to make a custom cool looking sleeved wire to hold an item in place and to have the flexibility to be able to move it in a different position with out it breaking due to often bending it.
I just found your channel and it looks like an awesome video! Maybe you could test and cut open some other popular cables. I'm not sure how much you make from CZcams so this might not be in the budget.
700th thumbs up! I just subbed. Really dig your magic eye vid. Have you been doing anything with it lately? Hope everything is going well and looking forward to your next vid. Thanks!
This wouldn't be a bad series if you say, buy a cheap cable off of Amazon and tear it apart to see the quality. It's hard for me to find a third party assessment of a specific cable on Amazon; I tried when I took a leap on some third party cables for dash charging my OnePlus 6T and they work, but I still worry about the possible long term damage. Could subsidize it by showing the listing and sticking an affiliate link in the description I'm sure.
The difference I've noticed is good cables have a wire mesh shield connected to the plug shell ends, just continuity test them. If something goes to sleep on your pc and doesn't wake, maybe a bad cable.
The two metal fins on the back side of the micro USB connector always break off on my wires from putting it in and pulling it out. It still works but it won't stay inside the phone's connector anymore.
Aluminium in more fragile than copper, more likely to break when bent regularly. Copper is also less springy, so one sign a cable could be aluminium is when you bend it and it springs back.
? Didn't you say this wasn't an Amazon cable? Why would you expect the Amazon listing to describe it? Even if they're made in the same factory on the same line it's quite possible to make a batch with coper for one customer (Amazon) and a batch with cheaper wire for another (the one you tested).
Wires are not aluminium, they're copper and the ends are tinned. This is easy to check, strip a bit of insulation and you will see copper. The resistance you measured is not the resistance of the cable, most multimeters will not display zero when shorting both probes together in ohmmeter mode. A multimeter can't accurately measure low resistance values below one ohm, also the resistance at the contact point between your probes and your cable matters.
Hey Mark, nice to meet you, my names Philip. I'm a dumbass consumer that finds this video fascinating and I thank you for making it. I'll sub and watch your back catalog until you make more videos.
Kabeldirekt or the *higher-end* Belkin cables seem to the most durable out there. I would really like to see someone do a comprehensive teardown of usb-c, lightning, micro-usb and even rca cables, etc because the quality is always so hard to judge until you own them for a while (or tear them apart). Monoprice also has some good stuff, but it's hit or miss. Cable Matters and most of the random Chinese stuff always break really soon, sadly.
I had a pile of salvaged and used USB data/charge cables. 80% of them had so much voltage drop, the phone would complain about not being able to do a fast charge vs using the real OEM 3 foot cable. Those Chinese generic brands must use one 30ga wire strand for the power! LOL.
interesting insights, i think we all have some of these types of cables, we know they wont be great but i love that you refer to “apple level” bend radius stress relief. Quite right, their cables are trash
In fairness, I think you should consider disassembling one of the cables from Amazon to verify that the power wires are indeed made from aluminum. I am not sure it is correct to assume that the cable your girlfriend sourced locally is the same as the cable from Amazon even though the jackets are very similar. Otherwise, I enjoyed your video, liked.
Other than official large manufacturers cables (Apple, Samsung, LG, etc. and even then, most of the manufacturer branded stuff on Amazon are counterfeits), most USB cables are built with the absolute cheapest shitty materials available. The only exception is higher priced third party rebadge-brands like Anker that actually test before they put their name on it. For every Anker there are 20 ripoffs using names like Aukey to sell trash cables at slightly below Anker prices.
Junk cable. High-speed and up should have a shield that extends from one plug shell to the other with a resistance of 0.6 ohm or less. See Chapter 6 of the USB 2.0 spec. from USB-IF on cable assembly. Section 6.6.3 gives resistances.
Micro-USB is complete garbage. Far too fragile for anything other than something that sits still and is never moved. USB-C has improved things luckily.
At a recent reunion of a 30 year old PCUG, one of our members brought in a similar cable that they found a chip embedded in the USB-A end that was pulling data from Android phones and then using the tether to send it to an IP in Guangzhou. After reporting it to the FBI, Amazon has quit selling them, the FBI has documented, tested and returned the cable. Now when they run traps on the device it still searches for that IP but no one is home... They found the data connection was tied to the chip and there was no pass-thru capability. Only the charge wires actually worked but as you said, most only use them for charging.
@@magnets1000 Packet sniffing for some odd listings in his router logs. It would show when one of the grandkid's phone was plugged in, stop when it was unplugged. He originally thought it was in the charger head (there have been many reports on these being compromised) but was surprised to find it occurring only when this cable was used. Very similar to a usbharpoon in function. Once he traced it, he found it was being trapped by a Snort rule. But being an old school cyberpunk, he (and some friends) just had to chase it down the rabbit hole.
773rd! The dislikes will come from Apple fanboys thank you for going over this for us I found out the hard way that the generic USB cables are no good now I only buy the Anker brand ones and they work way better they are more expensive but" buy once cry once"
It can. You use an aggressive flux and appropriate tin alloy. OR, you can use ultrasonic energy through the solder puddle and it will do the cleaning/wetting also. But of course few people have that kind of tooling at home...
Sorry, but you don't seem to understand electronics at all. First off, in a consumer product NOBODY 'solders' aluminium, it's way to expensive. To suggest so indicates a complete lack of understanding. 'Skin effect'? Might want to research that, it ONLY has relevance with AC current, DC current (which is what USB cables deliver) does not suffer the skin effect.
AAAArrrgh - yankies!!!! its AL_YOU _MINI_UM AND THERE'S AN "L" IN SOLDER!!!! you dont sing "onward Christian Sojjers do you ? so why pronounce soLder as "sod her"?
I'm not used to people doing such thorough reviews on a micro USB cable... but you made it fun!
0.6 - 0.8 ohm is awful, you'd struggle to charge a phone a 1A because your phone would see 4.4v and likely back off the current
Thats not exactly how current works. Excuse the whooosh if its here
@@matthewmcewen1 It is when talking about phone/tablets. They keep increasing their current draw until the voltage starts to drop below USB specs (or even just 4.9v).
I remember getting a cable from Wish that had some super high resistance. I remember being shocked by how slow anything was to charge off it. I never did measure it, but perhaps I should sometime.
We'll, at least by limiting the current there's less chance of it erupting into flames whilst you sleep!
I have a Type C cable with the same braiding on the outside, but different ends and even the 10 foot cable still supports Fast Charging.
Welcome back
That's hand-soldered? I'm impressed. With MY soldering skills all 4 of those wires would be connected by one big blob.
Unless it's charging with HF, Skin effect is not relevant :D
Wouldn't it make more sense on the data lines? USB can handle 10Gbps these aka at least 10GHz these days (theoretically)
@@k1ngjulien_You are an order of magnitude off here + a bit. USB2 is 240MHz maximum "frequency", USB3 is 2.5GHz. try to look into what is takes to transport 10GHz signals. It's not trivial - we're talking microwaves here running over coax or in waveguides.
Sorry my bad, but thats still very much in the HF range meaning the skin effect should be hard at work
@@k1ngjulien_ theoretically, yes, but the thing that matters at high data rates is the line impedance (90 ohms differential impedance for USB in this case) and the effective resistance increase caused by skin effect is negligible compared to the inductance and capacitance components
He is alive!
You should connect a working cable to a 5.1 volt supply and load the cable with 2.5 amps on the other end and see what the voltage at the end is, and if it gets hot or warm or something more dramatic, then try higher current like 4 amps or so and see what happens then.
i like the amazon reviews with the teardowns, seen em on anker products alot
I'm sure skin effect is ac?
I think you are right, it is AC and the effect is proportional to the frequency
Yep and usb is dc, so it uses the middle
Yeah "skin effect " if I recall really kicks in from RF to Microwave region.
@@alloy2754 it happens way before that. On 50Hz the skin effect is 9.2mm
This guy gets so much shit wrong tbh, he needs to stick to software
I don't think you can say they are all the same cable. Chinese manufacturers copy each other. I just bought two video door bells, they look identical, but totally different inside.
@John Doe They should spend more on ads, never seen any other make.
gabest4 I agree! For the sake of science, I’m upset he didn’t cut up one that was legitimately bought from amazon. I bet he’s correct but with such a thorough dissection, having his critique of amazon based on an assumption gives me anxiety
@John Doe I challenge you to find a non Chinese doorbell camera
@@gabest4 so you only buy things advertised to you? You never research stuff that might be better?
@@arthurmead5341 I think ring is American. Don't know where it's made (mist likely china) but the owner was American and sold it to amazon and it's headquarters is in the US.
Would Poly Monofilament Support Wire be a good wire to sleeve up if you want a sleeved wire to be able to bend and stay in place and then bend back to another position and have it stay in place? if not do you happen to know what wire cable is good for that? i don't want to make a usb or anything of that sort but i just want to make a custom cool looking sleeved wire to hold an item in place and to have the flexibility to be able to move it in a different position with out it breaking due to often bending it.
How well does this cable comply with the USB-specification?
Welcome back!
hei guys where can i buy cheap power bank replacement cable?i mean length 0,15cm to 0,30cm.
Glad to see you back Mark
do a teardown with good quality cable. like one from wolfbits and anker
Hi Mark ‘, fantastic to see you back on CZcams. You have been greatly missed.
He lives! Glad to hear from you.. keep it up!
I just found your channel and it looks like an awesome video! Maybe you could test and cut open some other popular cables. I'm not sure how much you make from CZcams so this might not be in the budget.
That's the reason my 3rd party manufacturer products (cables, powerbanks, chargers) are only from Anker
Are you sure they are aluminum? most wires have tin plating so they look shiny like that it also helps to solder on them
Pretty sure he cut it and looked at the cross-section under a microscope.
Indeed you can't solder to aluminium at all
@@TheChipmunk2008 yes you can, with the right solder.
@@haroldsmith45302 2:53
madmax3078
Yes, thanks.
Great vid. One is A-USB connector what is the other one?
Skin effect in electricity only applies to AC, with higher frequencies resulting in a bigger skin effect.
700th thumbs up! I just subbed. Really dig your magic eye vid. Have you been doing anything with it lately? Hope everything is going well and looking forward to your next vid. Thanks!
This wouldn't be a bad series if you say, buy a cheap cable off of Amazon and tear it apart to see the quality. It's hard for me to find a third party assessment of a specific cable on Amazon; I tried when I took a leap on some third party cables for dash charging my OnePlus 6T and they work, but I still worry about the possible long term damage.
Could subsidize it by showing the listing and sticking an affiliate link in the description I'm sure.
Great video Mark.
I searched "what is inside a micro usb" and I wasn't disappointed! Nice video!
No shielding?
Also, the A ends look slightly different between the two (the "strain relief" narrows a bit more on the broken lead).
No shielding whatsoever. Unsuitable for anything but 1.5 Mbit/s operation.
where would one find usb c cable that is a copper wire on the inside
The difference I've noticed is good cables have a wire mesh shield connected to the plug shell ends, just continuity test them. If something goes to sleep on your pc and doesn't wake, maybe a bad cable.
The two metal fins on the back side of the micro USB connector always break off on my wires from putting it in and pulling it out. It still works but it won't stay inside the phone's connector anymore.
You have squashed them into their holes. If you want them out again, use a needle to lever them out. The cord will be held in your port again
@@matthewmcewen1 Thanks, you helped me fix my wire!
Aluminium in more fragile than copper, more likely to break when bent regularly.
Copper is also less springy, so one sign a cable could be aluminium is when you bend it and it springs back.
Were where you?
Just hearing the intro, I know it's made with IL Toxic Biohazard xD
Interesting Max Lee-like intro
Ugreen/orico/zerolemon cables have never failed me, feel slightly higher quality but I've never cut one open before.
? Didn't you say this wasn't an Amazon cable? Why would you expect the Amazon listing to describe it? Even if they're made in the same factory on the same line it's quite possible to make a batch with coper for one customer (Amazon) and a batch with cheaper wire for another (the one you tested).
you should compare this to an expensive cable like anker or something idk but it'd be really interesting
power wires look fairly thick compared to what i've seen before.
The bros smoke up and get our geek on for Mark's latest video.
I like anker, they typically last me 1-2 years, really rough on them and they take the abuse.
Wires are not aluminium, they're copper and the ends are tinned. This is easy to check, strip a bit of insulation and you will see copper. The resistance you measured is not the resistance of the cable, most multimeters will not display zero when shorting both probes together in ohmmeter mode. A multimeter can't accurately measure low resistance values below one ohm, also the resistance at the contact point between your probes and your cable matters.
Hey Mark, nice to meet you, my names Philip. I'm a dumbass consumer that finds this video fascinating and I thank you for making it. I'll sub and watch your back catalog until you make more videos.
You should do the AmazonBasics cable.
Kabeldirekt or the *higher-end* Belkin cables seem to the most durable out there. I would really like to see someone do a comprehensive teardown of usb-c, lightning, micro-usb and even rca cables, etc because the quality is always so hard to judge until you own them for a while (or tear them apart). Monoprice also has some good stuff, but it's hit or miss. Cable Matters and most of the random Chinese stuff always break really soon, sadly.
This cable melt into my phone port now it's full of plastic I can't charge it anymore I use a wireless charger
I had a pile of salvaged and used USB data/charge cables. 80% of them had so much voltage drop, the phone would complain about not being able to do a fast charge vs using the real OEM 3 foot cable. Those Chinese generic brands must use one 30ga wire strand for the power! LOL.
I don't remember subscribing to you... but I'll stay
interesting insights, i think we all have some of these types of cables, we know they wont be great but i love that you refer to “apple level” bend radius stress relief. Quite right, their cables are trash
this is why i tend to buy eiher OEM cables or Anker or a very good quality reputable brand.
Soldering aluminum is impossible with a soldering iron so i dont think it is.
A video....
Comparing this cable to a quality cable would help.
Long time no see!
In fairness, I think you should consider disassembling one of the cables from Amazon to verify that the power wires are indeed made from aluminum. I am not sure it is correct to assume that the cable your girlfriend sourced locally is the same as the cable from Amazon even though the jackets are very similar. Otherwise, I enjoyed your video, liked.
I see exactly this type of strain relief on Baseus brand cables on AliExpress. Really disappointing.
Wow, I love this channel. I'm getting into being a maker. This is exciting
You can't solder aluminum so it's tin plated copper.
Aluminum 😂😂
Other than official large manufacturers cables (Apple, Samsung, LG, etc. and even then, most of the manufacturer branded stuff on Amazon are counterfeits), most USB cables are built with the absolute cheapest shitty materials available. The only exception is higher priced third party rebadge-brands like Anker that actually test before they put their name on it. For every Anker there are 20 ripoffs using names like Aukey to sell trash cables at slightly below Anker prices.
Ankers quality history isnt exactly pristine either, what "brand" to buy from.....
Apple, samsung, lg, etc. cables is from same cheapest materials... just with brand name on it.
Junk cable. High-speed and up should have a shield that extends from one plug shell to the other with a resistance of 0.6 ohm or less. See Chapter 6 of the USB 2.0 spec. from USB-IF on cable assembly. Section 6.6.3 gives resistances.
Skin effect works on MHz not on DC
ugreen cables not total junk. Probably best cables brand on aliexpress. In amazon them prices three times higher
So a cheap USB cable is cheaply made. Got it.
I guess I have to throw away all my USB cables because none of them are NASA quality.
Cool
Micro-USB is complete garbage. Far too fragile for anything other than something that sits still and is never moved. USB-C has improved things luckily.
At a recent reunion of a 30 year old PCUG, one of our members brought in a similar cable that they found a chip embedded in the USB-A end that was pulling data from Android phones and then using the tether to send it to an IP in Guangzhou. After reporting it to the FBI, Amazon has quit selling them, the FBI has documented, tested and returned the cable. Now when they run traps on the device it still searches for that IP but no one is home... They found the data connection was tied to the chip and there was no pass-thru capability. Only the charge wires actually worked but as you said, most only use them for charging.
How did they discover the chip in the cable?
@@magnets1000 Packet sniffing for some odd listings in his router logs. It would show when one of the grandkid's phone was plugged in, stop when it was unplugged. He originally thought it was in the charger head (there have been many reports on these being compromised) but was surprised to find it occurring only when this cable was used. Very similar to a usbharpoon in function. Once he traced it, he found it was being trapped by a Snort rule. But being an old school cyberpunk, he (and some friends) just had to chase it down the rabbit hole.
It's copper clad aluminum: CCA.
when your girlfriend is a complete idiot...... /faceplam
773rd! The dislikes will come from Apple fanboys thank you for going over this for us I found out the hard way that the generic USB cables are no good now I only buy the Anker brand ones and they work way better they are more expensive but" buy once cry once"
Whoa, whoa, whoa... you're claiming skin effect? Data wires, yes; power wires no. The power wire are passing DC on which skin effect does not apply.
Mark Furneaux, wish your girlfriend Happy birthday from my side. Love from Lahore
اكو عرب بالفيديو
50% welcome back
50% about the cable
Aluminium cannot be soldered I think you are wrong!
Yep he is. It's tinned copper
At 24AWG, copper would be about 0.25 ohms per 10ft. Aluminum would be about 0.4. The wires could be smaller, though.
I've soldered to aluminium. It's tricky, but there are techniques to get it done.
It can. You use an aggressive flux and appropriate tin alloy. OR, you can use ultrasonic energy through the solder puddle and it will do the cleaning/wetting also. But of course few people have that kind of tooling at home...
skin effect is irrelevant for dc
wtf talk much?
Bullshit. Skin effect happens only with ac...
Sorry, but you don't seem to understand electronics at all. First off, in a consumer product NOBODY 'solders' aluminium, it's way to expensive. To suggest so indicates a complete lack of understanding. 'Skin effect'? Might want to research that, it ONLY has relevance with AC current, DC current (which is what USB cables deliver) does not suffer the skin effect.
AAAArrrgh - yankies!!!! its AL_YOU _MINI_UM AND THERE'S AN "L" IN SOLDER!!!! you dont sing "onward Christian Sojjers do you ? so why pronounce soLder as "sod her"?
The same reason British people say idear instead of idea.
Also Aluminum the American spelling and Aluminium is the British spelling.
No shielding. This cable really is cheap.
Cool