this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025

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What is the proper lemmy community to ask about computer cables? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm looking for the right lemmy community to ask a question about high quality USB-C or thunderbolt cables.

After my 3rd replacement Anker cable usb-c cable I'd really like to get cables that can last a few hundred cycles and I need a recommendation. What community can I ask that in?

all 21 comments

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ask Lemmy is not the appropriate place to ask Lemmy about Lemmy specific enquiries the proper place is Ask Lemmy About Lemmy where you can ask Lemmy questions about Lemmy and they will be answered. Ask Lemmy will not answer anything you ask Ask Lemmy about Lemmy and will only answer what you ask Lemmy that is not about Lemmy so try to only ask Lemmy about Lemmy on Ask Lemmy about Lemmy and not ask on Ask Lemmy. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Would it not be better to ask questions in more general communities, and fragment out to smaller communities when we reach a more critical mass of users?

Asking qurstions in smaller communities rarely fetch an answer

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

[email protected]

Etc. any community is fine, Lemmy is small enough that everybody will see it anyway

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you happen to be a Cat or Dog that consumes cables as if they are food? 🤔

[+] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think they ask because Anker cables are usually pretty good. Or at least once upon a time they were, I haven't bought them in a while.. mainly because the 4 that I bought in ~2015 all still work (supplemented with randoms that come with devices)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Time for me to bring shame to myself online! Get these magnetic adapters. I have them on my work laptop, my wife's Chromebook, my Legion Go, my dongle, my mom's laptop, and my portable monitors.

I love being mobile and packing everything up when it's not going to be used for more than a few hours. These save my nice cables and my ports. More recently, my wife and I got a second dog who is insanely high-energy and accidentally pulls on charging cables—these magnetic adapters have gone from a luxury to a necessity.

I can also confirm from numerous tests that these adapters can easily handle 100W for charging and 4K monitors. I've also used them with my dongle for 86W charging, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI out, powering an external display, and transferring photos from an SD card to a USB 3.1 thumb drive all at the same time on the one dongle.

ETA: I just noticed that I've been using these same adapters with the same cables, chargers, dongle, and monitors since July 2022. About 2.5 years and even is still working great (ohh God, I've jinxed myself.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I have similar ones - https://amzn.to/42ILGD1

And love them. Would have gotten the ones you linked had I seen them first, as I already had the cables.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I’ve read those are actually very dangerous and can fry your computer/laptop. I was looking into which to get and saw many Reddit threads warning against them

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Like I said, my comment has brought shame on me.

I'm aware that these connectors are far from perfect and that issues can occur. I used to run tech support for a middle school with over 2000 students and have seen all sorts of shit that seemed unbelievable. I've seen Chromebooks begin smoking and melting in the middle of state exams, batteries spontaneously puff and blow the keys off a laptop. I've seen brand new iPads puff and remove their own screens, and I've seen projector bulbs literally explode.

The point is, with large enough of a sample size, you're going to encounter all sorts of issues, the question is "what are the chances?"

For me: what are the chances my dog is going to rip my $3000 work laptop off my desk and fuck my life? On any given day, 100%. What are the chances that my magnetic adapters are going to destroy my $3000 work laptop? Less than 100%. Going by the reviews on Amazon, less than 10%, possibly.

But your needs might not be the same as my needs. I also want to address the part about noise coming from these adapters: if your components are properly shielded, you shouldn't have data being converted into wireless interference. I've had a couple of USB C dongles that would ruin the wifi and Bluetooth in my house, but (jinxing myself again) I haven't seen that with these magnetic adapters. Yet.

For reference, my first magnetic adapter was the one that came with my LG V60. Since then, I've purchased 8 of the adapters I sent you—6 for myself and 2 for my mom—and haven't had any issues, yet (really pushing my luck). But I also don't like to plug and unplug things in rapid succession that are likely to destroy my 'puter.

Should you get these, though? -shrug-
If they make you nervous, then no.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

There's also [email protected].

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

There is a buy it for life community. I'd try there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

One of the problems we had in our house was use. My wife likes to sit with her phone vertically resting on her while she lounges. That caused the cables to wear out quickly. We purchased right angle cables and it seemed to help a lot.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Either here or nostupidquestions if you just want a generic questions community or you might have luck in one of the technology communities.

Also if you want a decent cable you need one that is rated for higher power like +25w, as it will be higher quality to handle the higher voltage/current.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And here I am sitting on around 12 samsungs USB-C cables that just shipped with various devices ... and never ever has a single one worn out or broken.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I just buy in bulk.