What are you guys using for replacement USB cables that dont fail over time?

[GrannySShifting]

Ive bought a few USB 3.0s and have not had great luck with any. Got some with right angle which is nice so your not kicking it where it comes out of the interface

[04silverado6.0]

Anker 6 footers from amazon. The ones that come with hpt do not last 3 months for the hobbiest. They have 10 footers if you want to street tune a small bus/van.

[04silverado6.0]

I have been using the same 2 Anker amazon usbc to usbc and usbc to usba for 2 years or longer. Both have plenty of street tuning/data logging hours and many kicks when lifting the clutch.

[LilSick]

use the anker cable if you are not concerned about bricking the pcm

same with the cars battery - battery mart battery is fine if you could give two shits bout the pcm

if you care about your customers pcm however, as i do, run a extension if needed (to get the interface outta harms way)

all it takes is one good bump and it can end up with a lousy connection and cause a brick

i use a chubby cable ($30 for the 6.5 foot version) to connect the dongle to the laptop

a 2 amp genius on the car battery (X2 makes a reliable battery) (i like to use the genius with the X2 unless i am at the track and had just made a pass)

i suggest you also use some sort of a power supply so the laptop is always at full charge

anker makes a 521 power bank that is less than $200 for that

everything needs to be fully charged or charging but never plug both the laptop and the battery charger into the same panel

[04silverado6.0]

I always went by the advice of no chargers. None on the battery, none on laptop, no inverters. The anker seems to last very well. The only pcms ive had trouble are 2003 trucks and my own 2004 silvy. I have had a good clutch kick kill a data log but not ankers fault. Ive had the hpt og cable and some no name china get wrecked by a foot stepping in the vehicle. Not against a better quality cable but the anker comes in 2-3 packs for cheap and are durable.

[LilSick]

I always went by the advice of no chargers. None on the battery, none on laptop, no inverters.

what do you do when yer at the track logging passes tweaking tunes and writing calibrations???

[04silverado6.0]

Not saying ive never done the above. Just always done my best not to.

[RDF1]

If the vehicle battery is suspect i use a Noco GB40 battery pack on it.
Never had a laptop battery issue, If its less than 25% i have a Dell battery pack i can plug in to keep it safe. Ive used a inverter in the past and fried the laptop mother board and interface box. That was an expensive mistake.

For USB cables, i use the ones my wife gets from work, shes in the IT field and gets some nice high quality gold plated cable ends. Just dont know the brand, they are quite a bit larger diameter than the ones ive bought off amazon.

[Alvin]

They are consumables for me. As soon as they seem messed up they go in the trash and a new one comes out of my drawer. It's just not worth wasted time / productivity.

[LilSick]

What year was that where the inverter fried the laptop?

My race trailers have had inverters for quite a while and I never had a problem

Will definitely keep that in mind tho thx

[GrannySShifting]

I think is pure since wave inverters are ok, but other ones arent or something like that?

[Camaro6]

I buy a 10' amazon usb data cable (cable is pretty thick) so I can plug it in, put on top of steering column, then over to the passenger seat for laptop. I dislike things hanging by my feet or touching my legs.

[RDF1]

What year was that where the inverter fried the laptop?

My race trailers have had inverters for quite a while and I never had a problem

Will definitely keep that in mind tho thx

That was years ago. I dont remember what brand it was.
My problem was i had inverter getting power from the vehicle battery. It had some type of ground loop issue and tried to ground through the OBD port or something.
Now i use battery packs to power laptop.

[04silverado6.0]

Funny that since this topic came up i had a mean ol nasty clutch kick to the cable. Now having intermittent connection loss during writes and data logging. I did buy an extension cable but im also using a obd2 wideband and the last couple cars ive had needed a obd2 to 12v cigarette power adapter. Oh well.

[blindsquirrel]

Inverters are awful, stepping the voltage up by 10x means the input current also goes up by 10x as compared to the output current, and that's not even taking into account the losses inside.

[LilSick]

the input current (from the internal battery) has to be higher than the output current to your charger

the charger for my laptop is 3.3 amp @ 100v

my china anker box claims its only 300w 380w max

at the track you can leave it plugged in all day (other than when logging a pass, i disconnect for that) and the laptop is always full

i have wrote a thousand tunes

bricked one pcm

i know the importance of having both batteres fully charged, both cables in good shape, and all connections secure

you do you tho

i lack power : )

[blindsquirrel]

Cool. But there's math.

To get 300W output you need 300W input, plus whatever the inverter itself wastes. Most are only about 60% efficient. That means to get 300W output it needs 500W input. 500 watts from 12 volts supply means forty one point six amps.

[04silverado6.0]

Ive got to the point where i have a laptop with a decent 6+hr battery. I call it a day and close up shop when it gets to battery saver mode. When i was on the night shift i would recharge and go back at it pulling 12-14 hours of data logging. Not so fun during daylight hours.

[chevota]

I bought a bunch of 12" cables, various brands, and replace as needed. For me they see the most abuse from the dongle hanging and pulling on it as I take laptop back n forth from car and house. I only need to do this because the Editor needs to check with nazi headquarters everytime, and the dongle is part of said check.
Some cables last longer than others but I don't keep track. I do know, for me, USB C is a fail, and USB A I have thick paper in the port to tighten the plugs fit and minimize glitches. I don't worry about loading a tune, I worry about the Scanner stopping mid run. Whatever the reason, the paper makes a huge difference

[blindsquirrel]

because the Editor needs to check with nazi headquarters everytime

Jesus Christ dude, only some platforms are like that and only because they have to be, not because HPT wants it like that. If you don't like the way it works on your particular car then buy something different that works without downloading the definitions every time.