this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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To get too know the true spec you need special measuring devices. No software can tell you the true spec without knowing the actual inside of the cable. You can do a few test to get a rough estimate though. But that means testing all the capabilities and see what it does. Could be using the cables way out of spec that way however.
Well something like this https://github.com/meliorisse/CordIDMonitor or this https://github.com/connection-information-suite/usb-connection-information-menubar-linux or https://github.com/nedrichards/whatcable-linux sounds kind of useful for my case
I'd try to stay away from isolated projects on GitHub that only have a single maintainer, to avoid the risk of installing malware. You could check the https://aur.archlinux.org/ to see if any of those have been uploaded here and if there are any comments on the package. If there are none but you still would like to install, check out this guide to learn how to vet the "installer".
It’s true that I’ve never thought about being more careful when I get these small programs from Github.
There are cheap USB cable testers that will tell you what pins are connected and what speed the e marker chip reports. Actually measuring the bandwidth of the cable requires some expensive test equipment though.
This will tell you which types of "fast charging" Power Delivery a cable will handle and if the cable supports data, and will identify some types of electrical faults https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-cable-tester-usb-tester-for-data-transmission-and-power-transmission-cable-testing-resistor-testing-type-c-emarker-for-usb-a-micro-b-micro-b-3-0-type-c-lighting-mini-b
And this kind of thing will tell you how much power is actually being transferred (but nothing about data transfer) - as someone else mentions, this also depends on the device you're charging/powering, and the power source, but it is a more immediately useful number than what specification is supported: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807855183284.html?browser_id=c9623fd12fa5452c9941ee83c4bcb933&m_page_id=jrd5irtoihqcaaw419fcdda6dc0206069af12e5513
Clean AliExpress link: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807855183284.html