Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables
63 points by sleepingNomad 2 hours ago | 15 comments
USB-C cables can be a mess. One cable charges at 5W, another does 100W and Thunderbolt 4, and they look identical in the drawer.
WhatCable sits in your menu bar and reads the cable data your Mac already has access to. Plug in a cable and it tells you in plain English what it can actually do: charging wattage, data speed, display support, Thunderbolt, etc.
Built in Swift/SwiftUI. Open source, free, no tracking.
bkummel 40 minutes ago
Doesn't work for me. Says "No USB-C ports detected", although I'm pretty sure my monitor is connected via USB-C, and the monitor also has a built-in USB hub where my USB keyboard is connected to.
replybkummel 10 minutes ago
There's an issue on Github for this now: https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable/issues/2
replyn3storm 47 minutes ago
can something like this be done for linux? maybe a wrapper for lsusb. I just found https://github.com/doug-gilbert/lsucpd which adds PD and more.
replybrk 26 minutes ago
14 Inch 2021 MBPro / M1 Pro chip / Sonoma 14.5
replyWhatCable says "No USB-C Ports Detected".
System info clearly shows my iPhone attached to USB 3.1 Bus.
bkummel 10 minutes ago
There's an issue on Github for this now: https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable/issues/2
replykmmbvnr_ 32 minutes ago
Could it be just a console utility?
replycaptainbland 29 minutes ago
Yeah I like the sound of the functionality but I don't like the idea of it taking up menu bar space. Console utility would be good or even a gui that can be quickly launched through spotlight
replyemaro 42 minutes ago
Pretty cool. What I don't understand is why both my USB@1 and USB@2 show the same connected devices. I'd expect to only see the respective devices. USB@1 is my USB-hub monitor, the other one is connected to my phone. Both show keyboard, etc. plus my phone as connected devices.
replyBiteCode_dev 11 minutes ago
Tangential, but LLT recently came out with their own lineup of USB-C cables guaranteed to be up to spec. And they have the main specs printed on each cable end, so you know what you grab.
replyThat should be mandatory.
aquir 35 minutes ago
Good stuff, but it's telling me that my USB-C Thunderbolt cable has been plugged in upside down but the connector handled this. I was not aware that you can plug in something into USB-C upside down!
replyjustusthane 11 minutes ago
I wasn't either (insomuch as I had never thought about it), but it makes sense if you think about it for a second. If you have one end plugged in one way, and the other end plugged in the other way, each individual wire is flipped from where it should be. The fact that you _can_ plug it in either way means that the device on one end needs to be capable of recognizing that and logically reversing it. Same as automatic crossover in Ethernet.
replyThat's all the program is telling you. It doesn't matter that it's backwards, but technically it is.