Testing Cables: The BLE caberQU

BLE by caberQU

When I first saw the BLE by caberQU go live on Kickstarter, I got very excited it seemed like the perfect tool that I was missing. While I'm not typically one to support a Kickstarter, I remembered the caberQU brand from their C2C device that I already had and knew that they could actually deliver a product so I backed it. CaberQU was (to my knowledge) the first to produce a basic USB-C to C cable tester; the C2C CaberQU.

This unit has an array of LEDs that not only allowed you to check the continuity of all the pins and conductors of a cable but also gave insight in the spec of the cable with this information. While it was a quick and simple test it lacked the deeper information. That's where the BLE caberQU comes in. It's described as: 

"The BLE cable tester by caberQU can test USB-C to USB-C cables for functionality, charging power, data speed, cable health and many more. It is the next step in the evolution of testing cables."

Pre-production sample and case.

So, after backing the Kickstarter campaign, I reached out to Peter, one of the minds behind the BLE caberQU to see if I could get my hands on a early unit to check it and share with others.

Before I go further I feel I need to mention that thorough testing of a USB-C cable that also does real tests the data rate of the cable requires very specialized hardware that's really only geared toward hardware and cable manufactures. A tester like that starts at $15,000. So, it's definitely not something the average Joe will have. Any of the basic USB testers and multimeters you see out in the wild just isn't going to replace that device for thorough testing.

Speaking of multimeters, I've covered those in the past (read that HERE). They are great tool help troubleshoot and verify charging specs of devices and cables. But they only tell you so much. While there's been many iterations of multimeters out there that can and will read the eMarker chip on cables or tell you the charging protocol that a device supports. There is no all-in-one device that I'm aware of.

Now back to the BLE, Its a simple unit with an LCD display, 3x USB-C ports and 4 buttons. One USB-C port is for power input from any 5V USB source. The other two are for the connectors of almost any USB-C cable you want to test. I say "almost any" because due to the port placement on the device, the shortest length it can support is about 12in/30cm.
As for maximum length; from my testing, the longest cable you can reliably expect to test is 5m. This has to do with the fact that longer cables are just so far outside of the USB-C spec and combined with the multiple repeater chips in them, it limits what the BLE can accurately read from the cable. I spoke with Peter about these limitations for longer cables and he did implement some firmware tweaks to help a bit with longer cables. But it should be known there's just too many variables at play to offer 100% accuracy for cables longer than 5m and any tester will struggle with longer cables.

Supply power via USB to the top of the device and you're ready to test cables.

The strong points of the BLE are that it offers a quick and easy to read display of the Power Delivery (PD) spec and data rate supported by the cable. It verifies the continuity and connector pin-out. It also checks the resistance of the cable which can be helpful in determining a damaged cable.
As I hinted at earlier, the BLE doesn't do a real-time data transfer to confirm the speed/data rate of the cable. (That's where the fancy $15k machine would step in.) The BLE is simply using the information from the eMarker chip in the cable and the physical attributes like resistance and connected pins and stating what it should be capable of. This data isn't something that's easily obtained for most users but the BLE makes it very clear and easy to see.

Because not all USB-C cables are built the same it can be hard to know what any particular one is capable of so the BLE is very handy for going through a pile of unknown spec cables and determining which are just a USB 2.0 spec but are great for charging at 100W or if a cable is a 40gbps USB 4.0 spec. The cable below supports 20gbp/s but only 15W charging. So it would be good for an SSD but not to charge a power bank quickly.

eMarker information confirms that the cable is rated for 100W PD

I now know this cable has a shorted pin and need to take it out of my kit.

After going through a pile of cables which included a few cables that I suspected had issues the BLE helped to confirm that.

The BLE also has an accompanying app that works on both iOS and Android. The app allows for firmware updates of the BLE and provides all the same information found on the device. Additionally, you can also name cables and it keeps of history of the cables you've tested. 

While there are some other units out there that offers some of the features of the BLE like eMarker reading there's not one quite like it. This is certainly another tool worth having if you're life involves working with many various USB-C cables. My final production unit will be arriving soon and will live in my kit to help problem solve when issues arise.

You can pre-order the BLE from caberQU