Poorly made USB Type-C cables can damage your devices

Google engineer Benson Leung is warning people about the dangers of cheap USB Type-C cables because it seems that many of the cheaper versions of these cables do not meet the official 1.1 specifications.

USB Type-C is poised to become the standard over the coming years, this new type of connector has a reversible design, is just a bit bigger than the current micro-USB connector and is capable of handling current, data and display information.

Unfortunately, not all USB Type-C cables are created equally so Leung went on a quest to investigate the USB Type-C ecosystem and started reviewing cables on Amazon. He discovered a lot of the cheaper cables are poorly designed and blatantly flaunt the specification, this can result in weird behaviour from your devices or be downright dangerous.

For example, if the wrong resistor is used, or omitted entirely from the cable design, there's a chance your device won't charge, or in the worst case scenario, it can fry, explode or melt.

"I have started reviewing USB cables on Amazon because I have got fed up with the early cables from third-party vendors that so blatantly flaunt the specification and I want to hold them to task.

"You may not just get weird behaviour from your devices with these bad cables. What some these vendors are doing is downright dangerous."

The problem stems from the use of USB Type-C as a power source. The standard requires that a 3A supply be available through the cable. In order to do this, the correct resistor has to be present in the cable to control the amps being inputted. It's in the specification. It's not supposed to be optional.

Via: The Inquirer