One thing I’ve noticed using these is…… JUST ABOUT ALL POWER BANKS COME WITH CRAPPY CABLES. With most of them I cannot exceed 0.22A no matter what it’s plugged in to, including 2A capable plug-in USB power sources. One cable will do 0.44A. My best one will do 0.84A. The ‘good cable’ (LePow powerbank) is flat and much larger. All tests using a decent power source and feeding the same tablet. The only variable was the cable.
If your USB or your powerbanks seems to take a long time to charge or be charged it could well be the cable. Seems most of them (mine anyway) are pathetic.
Apparently you want to find cables that are speced for 28/24 gauge. 28 for data, 24 for charging. Most of my crappy cables have nothing on them. My better ones do have printing like that. Oddly the flat one I found best so far has no printing but it’s a very distinctive cable and physically much larger and it’s a ‘charge only’ cable.
Monoprice seems to be a good name. Not too expensive on Amazon.
AWG18 is pretty less, it’s so less that it’s even below the requirements (at least AWG20) for the USB 2.0 guidelines.
The typical wire gauge used for USB 3.0 may be from AWG26 to AWG34.
So it will only have positive effects if thickness is big!
Like cheap lights, cheap cables are a crapshoot if you don’t know what to look for.
USB was originally intended to carry no more than 500mA @ 5VDC so many cables adhere to that rating level. Good cables will be listed with “OFC”- oxygen free copper- wires; the cheap common stuff is plated aluminum that degrades rapidly with bending, use, and corrosion at the plug connections. 24ga wires are a good combo of flexability, power capacity, and longevity as strands break over time with use.
