Searching for the best silicone USB cable (frankchiarulli.com)

33 pointsby evakhoury5 days ago14 comments

pseudohadamard 4 days ago

Just beware that an awful lot of "silicone" cabling coming from China is actually overplasticized PVC, particular cabling used in instrument probes. It feels like silicone until it starts getting stiff while at the same time outgassing plasticizer like crazy, or you touch it with a soldering iron or similar. I would expect most or even all of the cat-ran-across-the-keyboard Amazon brands to be overplasticized PVC, not silicone (hint: Use the Knockoff plugin for Chromefox, https://github.com/Shpigford/knockoff, which will warn you for stuff that's sold on Temu West, aka.Amazon, it's warning on almost all of the pseudo-brands listed in the article).

I've also run into way too much cabling that's CCA or even CCS. Garbage on the outside, garbage on the inside.

hilbert42 a day ago

"…actually overplasticized PVC,"

Despite the point in my comment about power cable extensions coverings becoming hard through the lack of plasticizers, I confirm your point about overplasticized PVC in instrument cables.

I have a lot of instrument leads that I thought were silicone only to find that after a year or so they've gone hard. So much so that new unpacked ones can no longer be easily straightened (the kinks remain unless one heats the cable up and then straightens them).

Despite availability issues,the problem is trying to determine what's real silicone and what's not.

hilbert42 a day ago

I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation. It is so much better than much of the badly plasticized PVC and other plastics that are now used.

What's made this situation worse is that it seems that worry over plasticizers and health etc. has lead to a reduction in the amount being used in cables. I have some power extenstion cables whose jackets have gone so hard that I can no longer coil them effectively — even though I take care the coiled cable still ends up a tangled mess.

Even if silicone jacketing is more expensive it's so good I'd pay extra. Trouble is it's not normally available on products found at the local hardware shop.

idiotsecant a day ago

Unless you're running cables inside an oven just buy SOOW aka EPDM cables. They are the recognized standard for flexible, rugged cable assemblies resistant to just about everything. Silicone rubber is only used in very special cases because it's not as UV resistant or mechanically resilient.

hilbert42 a day ago

Sorry, not available where I am, nor do I see USB, coaxial cables etc. of that type.

Terretta 4 days ago

This article recommending scrabble letter brands seems sketchy.

Anker offers lovely soft silicone sheathed USB-C cables, in black or white and many lengths. They perform for data and do not get stiff or discolor. Our office specifies these unless TB4+ is required.

idiotsecant a day ago

How do you purchase them? Supply chain mixing is rough with a lot of retailers.

tansanrao 4 days ago

Not very sure of heat resistance, but I’ve been very happy with a bunch of LTTStore TrueSpec cables.

synack 2 days ago

Almost seems like it’d be easier to spend a couple weeks in Shenzhen getting cables made to your specifications rather than testing everything on the market.

bsder a day ago

I thought this is exactly what Linus Tech Tips did.

r_lee 4 days ago

this is awesome, I've also been looking for these kinds of cables more than the "braided" cables which are stiff and tend to eventually take some kind of shape and not straighten back

threecheese 4 days ago

It’s chubbycables. You’re welcome.

happymellon 4 days ago

I ran through their website and all the ones I selected were USB 2.0, and there isn't a filter for speed as far as I could see.

So no, it appears that "chubby cables" aren't the best.

threecheese 4 days ago

You are right, they are only really useful for charging (though 240w - beasts) or keyboards. I’ve given up on trying to find silicone cables for data transfer and just buy thunderbolt which are typically rubber (Apple ones are braided these days, but it’s a very tight braid).