Just yesterday, I was telling myself I had been a fool to spend more money on yet more cable-ware, when I am surrounded by cables I don't need.
But now I feel a lot better, thanks.
Charging cables are set up in a couple of places in the house, aren't used for data. My dealer for charging cables is Rolling Square. They are nicely built and have complicated adapters on the ends that can handle all the USB-PD stuff, up to 100 Watts:
Yes, the TB4 cables are more expensive than the ones intended for just charging. And the charging cables are designed to provide power to a range of USB devices, most of which were designed before USB-C Power Delivery was a thing.
The charging cables have adapters on each end that can do USB-C Power Delivery, micro-USB with (I believe) "fast" charging per the Qualcomm or Samsung specs, or Apple Lightning.
But yes, they don't have the re-timers necessary for 40 Gbit data.
The Thunderbolt 4 cables cost about $50 right now (2 meters), about twice the price as the universal charging cables.
All of these cables have E-Marker controllers at each end to negotiate all of these modes. I was able to find the data sheet for a common charger controller, made by Cirrus Semiconductor. It's a little ARM Cortex M0 computer.
So a wired local area network of computers talk amongst themselves to figure out how to push energy and data around.
Rolling Square was pricing their stuff at deep discount for Black Friday, a good value. Kickstarter products, they've been around for at least five years but might be clearing inventory before the new year.
OWC, I think I was buying SCSI terminators from them back when the rubble of the Berlin Wall was still on the ground...
One last thing FWIW --
For my travel bag, Rolling Square has a super short version that can fit in your pocket. One of those, a Thunderbolt cable, and a quality USB-PD charger can handle just about any situation.
I also bought a new desktop PC last week and already misplaced the manual. It seems it has several USB-C type plugs, but they are also not all the same. How will I ever be able to remember which is which?
But now I feel a lot better, thanks.
Charging cables are set up in a couple of places in the house, aren't used for data. My dealer for charging cables is Rolling Square. They are nicely built and have complicated adapters on the ends that can handle all the USB-PD stuff, up to 100 Watts:
https://rollingsquare.com
Data-wise, they are just like Apple's charging cables: USB 2, 480 Mbit.
For data, I go with OWC Thunderbolt 4 cables. My two-meter cable should arrive tomorrow.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-4-cables
I feel like there should be a 12-Step program for this.