Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables
148 points by sleepingNomad
by pimeys
1 subcomments
Cool. Just want to chime in that I wanted to see how quickly GPT-5.5 can turn this into a KDE Plasma 6 Plasmoid. Took about 10 minutes and two dollars, and now I have a nice QML app showing the same information in my taskbar.
Just wanted to say this because I feel it's really crazy that I can just do this today...
by bichiliad
0 subcomment
I love that this is a native mac app. Thanks for building this, and thanks for sharing.
by sagacity
1 subcomments
This is pretty nice, but why do a lot of Mac apps insist on living in the menu bar?
by bkummel
1 subcomments
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.
I would like to ask an LLM to rewrite it as Python CLI script. Is it even possible, or some Swift-only functionality is necessary?
P.S. Some time ago I learnt through HN of a one-line command in macOS which revealed the power (Wattage) of the connected charger. Can't find it now, but it was very useful.
by mp0rta
0 subcomment
Great project. It would be even better if it supported platforms other than Mac.
by ricardobeat
1 subcomments
I remember seeing a recent analysis where the vast majority of cables from Amazon misreported their capabilities. Is this tool going to be able to catch those, or blindly report what the chip advertises?
by kmmbvnr_
1 subcomments
Could it be just a console utility?
by aquir
1 subcomments
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!
by brk
1 subcomments
14 Inch 2021 MBPro / M1 Pro chip / Sonoma 14.5
WhatCable says "No USB-C Ports Detected".
System info clearly shows my iPhone attached to USB 3.1 Bus.
by thiagoperes
1 subcomments
I am definitely gonna contribute or fork to create an open leaderboard of cable brands and quality :D
by emaro
0 subcomment
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.
by denkmoon
3 subcomments
I get that the connectors are identical but I find it odd that people find it so challenging. Thunderbolt is the thick and short cable. If it's not thick it's not gonna work well and if it's over a metre it's not gonna work well. cf my pile of thin long "basic" usb c cables.
by BiteCode_dev
2 subcomments
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.
That should be mandatory.
by Alifatisk
0 subcomment
Any plans to support installations through Homebrew?
by ulfw
1 subcomments
The 'plugged upside down' is weird for a USB-cable. Especially as that doesn't work. I tried plugging it 'the other way around' and it showed the same 'upside down' warning
by gedy
2 subcomments
I like the idea and thanks for sharing, but I do think folks who vibe code or use Claude should take their time using, testing, and improving app before rushing to share. This was pushed/deved like 2 hours ago
Hacker News