Good Morning All! Uh USB cables USB Type C cables. specifically the ones that have a type C connector at both ends. I've got quite a few of these I Bought this set of Nimaso cables I think these are 60 watt rated cables three different lengths that's the second one and this one is over a meter long I can't remember how one and a half meters Maybe A couple here which I got from Little These are nice silicone coated so they're very flexible and they've got a very nice connector with the sort of really solid looking metal shoulder on there. and then of course you've got the USB type A to USB type C cables.

This one is X Tar. Oh yes, I think that one came with that battery charger and we're building up bigger and bigger collections of these cables because of course more and more devices use. USBC I Recently bought this actually was a while ago this RAV power power bank which has a USBC both for in and out and my phone is of course USBC and also so is the phone that I'm shooting this on. That's my new Motorola G31 and you may have noticed in this shot that the sound has changed and that's because I've connected my microphone headset thing into the 3.5 mil Jack which is on that side.

Um, but it sounds better if I connect the headset into this 3.5 mil Jack which goes to USBC and you plug this into the USBC connector on this side and for some reason it's just a bit louder and doesn't quite sound quite so telephonic. So moving on to the subject of today's video. It's actually this thing and it is just another USBC to USBC cable. This is a two key one which I got on AliExpress Um, okay, let's get it out of its bag and there it is.

USB Type C to USB Type C in a nice braided uh with a nice braided cover on it. But this one's got a little extra feature and it's under this bit of wrapping. uh, wrapping that I'm actually struggling to remove. So I don't want to damage this thing before I've even started.

Oh, I think I'm peeling off the 100 watt? No, No. I don't think I am. There's a little serrated line there, but um, yeah, that's actually quite difficult to remove. So let's take this bit of velcro thing off.

Oh, that's permanently fixed on the cable? I could cut that off. But uh, yeah. So what is this thing here? Well, it's a tiny display because inside this plug is a watt meter that tells you how many watts are floating flowing through this cable. So let's plug this in to the power bank.

Okay, plug that in there now. Interestingly, nothing happens until you put a suitable load on the other end. So let's do that. I'll connect my phone onto here.

It needs a charge, it's at 36 percent, so let's plug that in. And suddenly this thing lights up with a nice little seven segment display showing how many watts in power is flowing through that cable. So something around 12 or 13. Watts So with a bit of macro on the camera um, you can see there's a little PD indicator there and there's also a Watts symbol and they're these rather open format seven segment numbers.

So currently 11 Watts right? Have we got it? Have I got anything which will pull a little bit more power? How about this? Rock Trail Hand warmer which I got from Lidl I will take this apart at some point, but actually it's quite useful at the moment. Now of course this is a power bank. So which power bank? Oh yes, this is supplying power Now to the Rav power, which is interesting because that shows zero Watts It does light up, but it shows zero Watts because the power's going back the other way I might if I press and hold this for 10 seconds be able to reverse the power of the Rav power. I have managed to get it to do it in the past, but no, it doesn't seem to want to go that way.

That's interesting. I can't charge this from that USBC is quite strange at times, right? Let's try this: Chromebook which I've switched on because it's actually got 100 battery because it's been on charge. but let's just see if that uh, pulls anything significant. Uh, no, it really isn't because the battery is at quite a high state of charge.

I Know what will pull a lot of power? this thing. It's one of the big Lithium Power Banks this is the All Powers one and it's got a USBC socket there, but it works as an input as well as an output. and I've got a feeling it pulls about 60 watts. If I can hold that there, we can plug that in if we can get that thing to work in the right direction.

Oh well, that's nowhere near as much as I thought it was going to provide. Okay, I think I need a bigger power bank on the other end as well. Okay, blueetty EB 55 Power Bank: Switch that on and the All Powers power bank is at the other end of this cable and it's showing 67 Watts Now you probably noticed the little 100 watt label on the plug there I'll just illuminate that. so there 100 Watts not in Focus or might be able to focus on that actually.

Yeah, 100 Watts Um, so the cable is supposedly rated at 100 watts and it's currently carrying 67 Watts now. I Was just wondering at this power level, presumably in here. Well, there has to be a voltage measuring Uh circuit. There has to be a current measuring circuit.

The current measuring circuit presumably will have a low value resistor that should dissipate a bit of heat and I was just wondering if this got warm. And yes, that is just a little bit warm at 68 Watts Okay, back to lower levels of power. Um, even if I switch on this RAV power Power bank. this thing doesn't light up but I don't think it's any intelligence in the cable I Just think this power bank doesn't actually put an output out because if I plug this into here, even if it's um, ostensibly off, it's showing their zero.

Watts So I'll plug the other end into my phone and what I really want to know now is how accurate it is. So I'm going to compare it against this oh Yzx type C um USB voltage and current and of course, power measuring device, right? let's plug my phone in, give it a bit of a charge. Um, so that's saying. Oh, only six Watts this time.

so possibly we're at a lower voltage. That'd be worth comparing. So let's get this thing. uh, plugged in and see what voltage and current um, are being transferred.

Oh, it's a rui dang Okay, Ah, so that's only five volts at about one amp. Hence five. Watts if I take it out of the hand warmer power bank and put it into the Rav Power power bank. I'm hoping we'll have a higher power level.

Yes, so we've got 11 Watts there that's gone for 9 volts at 1.2 amps in order to get that 11. Watts Now I don't know what voltage range this phone will accept. Um, probably not the higher voltages like 15 and 20 volts. What I'm more interested in and I missed it is the accuracy.

Well, this is saying 10.9 going up to 11. Low 11s and we've got 11 Watts on the display there. Let's put it back on the hand warmer power bank and that's showing 5 watts and this is showing 4.8 So although you don't have any decimal places here, it does look like it's reasonably accurate now as I say um I got this on AliExpress and it was surprisingly cheap for what you get in here. So let's go to the computer and take a look at how much I paid.

So here it is on: AliExpress that was my headphones falling on the floor. Um now there are various choices. Uh, black USB Type C to type C there's blue, there's Brown and they also do 66 watt USB Type-c to type A So this is the one I almost certainly bought. Um, the current price is 4.27 I think on the previous page in in my account, it showed that I'd paid six no 6.16 and that's because of course when you check out, it adds vat.

So really, quite surprisingly cheap. Um, and on that basis I think I'm gonna take the thing apart and see what's inside. Um I Really like this item actually, so it's going to feel a bit, um, difficult taking it apart because this is going to be a one-way uh, tear down. This is not going to go back together.

but I think at that price, there's enough money that will come from this video that I should still make a profit even if I end up buying another one of these because this one ends up being destroyed now. I can't see a seam on this. Uh, what looks like a separate outer piece of plastic? There's a seam there. but I can't see a seam on this outer section.

So I'm thinking I mean I could just try and lever that display cover off. but I'm also thinking of just putting a cut down there with my knife and seeing if I can open this outer plastic piece. If indeed, it is a separate plastic piece, it doesn't look like it is. it's a a different level of shininess.

I'll have a go at that. Oh, this appears to be aluminum. I've been running the knife in there gouging it and I'm actually getting metallic shards off there. So is that an aluminum sleeve on top of a plastic inner? If it is, that's that's very well constructed.

I'm quite impressed I think now I might try to lever the display off actually and just see what's under there. Oh well, that came out really quite easily. I think that might just be glued in, but um, yeah, there is a well. It looks like a custom display.

seven segment style. Um, it's got a one on the end there. So why am I using that as a pointer so it can potentially display one zero, zero, a hundred Watts That's actually quite impressive. Okay, let's see how much further I can dig into this.

Actually, they didn't pull the peel cover off of this. It's a very thick peel cover I think it would probably look a lot better with that off. I'll just put this back on a moment which way around to go I Think it goes that way. Yeah, that just pushes in that's really nicely constructed.

There is potential hope for getting this back together. but I have cut it now so let's see what it looks like. Um, with that peel sheet removed, plug it into the hand warmer. Oh well, not so different.

It possibly is a little bit brighter. Let's look at that with that cover off. Oh, that's a very nice display isn't it? Um, it's a sort of light Bluey green LED but that's very nice. I'm putting off the inevitable here of destroying this.

more cutting required. Well, I've tried sliding this what looks like an aluminum sleeve off and I can't slide it. Either way, it's just not moving. so I think unfortunately I'm gonna have to cut it.

Well, the weakest Point appears to be there. so if I cut across there with these Cutters which are I think pretty much finished anyway, they're probably going to be definitely finished after that. Yes, that's most definitely metal. so I'm going to peel that back Tin Can Style This is just too brutal.

Really, it's not feeling very good at all, but that is coming off now. so let's get that metal off. Okay, it looks like that might have been glued on. Uh, can I zoom this and then focus it? Yeah, there is some evidence of oh, doesn't want to focus at that distance does it? There is some evidence of glue under that sleeve.

so I think that's what they did. They slid it on with some glue. um I can see a little red wire there. but other than that I think it's just going to be more cutting to try and get down to the circuit board.

or is this display part of just a module where everything's built into the module? I don't know. well I just started Levering This display out and one end of it has come out. so is it plugged into a socket or am I doing immense damage I'm quite close to the camera now I do think that could come out I'll continue to lever it out right? That just kind of came away. so oh, that's just a mask.

a plastic light guiding effect sitting over a whole mass of LEDs Let's get in a bit closer. Yeah, there are the LEDs Let's plug it into this power bank and um, so the two. LEDs at the far right there. This is upside down as the one and then you've got a zero there and a zero there or could be an eight if the middle.

LED comes on and these two lights are for the two indicators for watts and PD. So if it's doing if it's in power delivery mode, oh, that's interesting I think from the RAV power, it was power delivery and from this, maybe it isn't I'll plug the other end into my phone. Okay, I think what this is is that's six Watts that's the Watts light litter and I think this light comes on if it's anything other than 5 volts. So on this power bank it's putting out 5 volts 6.

Watts Let's unplug that. get the other power bank, the Rav power which can do the higher voltages and you can see now that that's 11 watts and the PD light is on, that's 12 Watts 11. That's the Watts light and that's the PD light. So yeah, the upper LED comes on I would imagine if the voltage is anything other than 5 volts.

Okay, let's keep digging. Yeah, digging in there and ended up double stabbing myself with the wire cutters. so I'll just deal with that. Well, this is exquisitely tiny stuff.

Um, I'll try and focus in on that. So I've just been peeling the plastic away and you can see that there's this, um, presumably it's a custom USB C connector I suppose it might be generally available I have bent that ever so slightly whether it'll still fit in my power bank I Don't know LEDs Tiny surface mount LEDs on this side and on the other side I Can just see the beginnings of a chip there. So I'll continue to start cutting this plastic away from the rear of this very tiny PCB And hopefully we can see what makes this thing tick. This is quite tricky because the way this is constructed is that the socket is attached to the PCB and then it's put in a machine and the an injection molded with this plastic cover.

and then finally this aluminum metal sleeve is put on. It's really well made. I'm very impressed that they could get this down to the price. they've got it.

so I'll just continue to cut. I Do see a slightly larger resistor there that might be the current measuring resistor, but we'll have a look right? This is what's inside and it's just incredible really. So R Double 05? What's that? Um, 50 milliamps or five milliohms? something like that. Now, this is inevitably going to be a custom chip because I presume it's doing all the multiplexing or D multiplexing or no multiplexing for this array of LEDs on the rear.

that almost certainly is a voltage regulator. Because you've got to remember that the voltage on USBC can be anywhere from 5 to 20 volts. It really doesn't matter what this chip is, it's highly specialized for this purpose. The regulator doesn't really matter what it is.

We could try and have a look. I'll get the magnifying glass. Um, oh, it doesn't magnify that much, does it? Okay, it's an S C. Is that five? Oh, so is this a 5 volt regulator like I Say it really doesn't matter because um, we can see immediately how this works.

It is just simply USBC a custom chip current measuring capability. It will also be measuring voltage in order to be able to calculate watts and then a display made up of these discrete blue LEDs It's really impressive for that price. I mean yeah, there aren't that many components, so I suppose it would be that price. but what an impressive piece of Kit I'm impressed.

You can probably tell. um and what's even more impressive is it probably still works. So let's uh, plug it in and that is six Watts there can I bring that Focus just up a little bit. No, that didn't work at all.

Well, yeah, so um, six, What's there? No PD Let's take that one out and put it into this one. And there we're getting. Oh, what's that? 12 watts and the PD light? Which is that upper blue light 11 Watts which is what my phone seems to pull Um which is still actually functioning on that display? Um, I'm not sure if I can put the cover back on that I'll give that a try. Um, there we are.

Now for some reason, the phone's suddenly gone to 15 watts. Maybe it's at a higher state of charge? Maybe it's at 41 now. Maybe it's um I know it's gone back to 11. Watts Who knows what's going on? Oh maybe.

Um, the front display was on if I double click the front display. Oh yeah, it seems to take a little bit more power, so maybe something in the phone powered up briefly. But there we are. I mean it's still working.

11 Watts Power delivery light is on and that is. the circuitry isn't that amazing. So there we are. That's what's inside.

Um, a two key? yeah, two key. um, 100 watt USBC to USBC charge and data cable with built-in power meter which seemingly is also quite accurate for um, four dollars or about six dollars once you've added in vat. I'm impressed and I am going to buy a replacement. Cheerio.