Comment by mceachen
12 hours ago
I bought a cheap pack of 5 colors of 3m electrical tape. Each cable gets one or two pieces of tape:
Data:
White if usb2
Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue)
Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps
Power:
None if low/no Power Delivery
Yellow for 45W PD
Red for 65W+ PD
I suggest finding something else, electrical tape starts coming off after a few years, leaving behind sticky residue that's impossible to remove without some kind of solvent. Same goes for masking tape.
I use wraparound cable labels[0] which seem to work ok (although do end up sliding up and down the cable to some extent.)
[0] e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FQTX4MPL
I have 20 year old white duct tape on containers in my basement that has never peeled. It takes ink pretty well.
Obviously hell if you need to remove it, but we're talking about permanent labels. If I need to change a label I just put on a fresh layer of tape.
I assume he labels the bag and never has the need to remove it (you just take a new bag). Edit: Nope I was wrong. Bad bad bad
Heatshrink?
Heatshrink is great if you're making cables but you would need a really high shrinkage ratio to fit over the connector and then shrink enough, the common cheap stuff is usually 2:1, maybe 3:1.
You could cut the heatshrink tube, wrap it around the cable and then secure it with transparent tape. It would slide around but at least it wouldn't leave residue on the cable.
Maybe clip-on cable markers like this? [1] Easy to 3D print if you're so inclined.
[1] https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/pb-250-sm0c/cable-marke...
1 reply →
You could even do combinations of colors like on resistors.
Might get sticky residue after a few years
Love this, that sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!