Hi everyone!

Over the years, I’ve started having big collection of cables or dongles.

Mostly USB-C, USB-A to Micro USB, USB A to C, USB C to A, HDMI…

I was wondering how I could know their specifications as nothing is written on them. Maybe through a Linux program telling me how fast they can transfer data.

I was wondering also if there was a way to know how much power was sent to a device when these cables are used to power one. For instance, I’ve noticed that my Steam Deck battery was draining when playing games with 15TDP and being charged with an iPhone charger.

I don’t know if it’s useful, but here are my computers: Steam Deck running Steam OS, Surface Go 1 running Fedora Silverblue, MacBook Pro 2012 running PopOs.

I don’t want to buy anything to be able to measure how much data or power these cables can send😇

Thanks in advance for your help.

  • TrollAccount69@lemmy.ml
    1·
    6 hours ago

    Unfortunately there’s no way to actually know what’s going on with a cable without testing it and as of eight or so years ago you can’t trust cables to conform to the spec.

    You should either buy a cable tester, not use high powered supplies or throw away what you have and buy cables you know are what they say they are.

    Especially for power delivery, buy a tester. It’s cheaper than a house fire.