11

As you know, the Apple lightning cable has 8 pins on each side, but some accessory brands have some production of the same lightning cable as Apple but its have fewer than 8 pins. They have removed pin 3, pin 2-3, or pin 6-7, so the cables can be charged for iPhones (explain here), but I worry about the transmission data. How can you explain that to me? enter image description here

Quang Dam
  • 231

2 Answers2

16

Why do some accessory brands have pin 3, pin 2-3 or pin 6-7 removed from Apple's Lightning connector?

Short answer: Cost

Pins 2,3,6 and 7 and the pins used for data transfer. If a manufacturer leaves out these pins, it’s because they are using a cable with fewer conductors. Fewer conductors means less cost.

enter image description here

By reducing the number of conductors, they make “charge only” cables where there is no data transmission. If they leave out only a single pair (2-3 or 6-7) you’ll only get data transmission in one orientation of the connector rather than both.

Stay away from these cables; they are inexpensive because they are made cheaply. They can have faults or wear prematurely causing shorts which could damage your device.

Get a MiFi certified cable. A brand I am partial to is Anker; they cost more than generic “Chineesium” cables, but you’ll get better performance and reliability.

Allan
  • 101,432
  • I reference the "Chineesium" brand as well , plus 1. – Solar Mike Dec 29 '22 at 08:06
  • Obviously it will add up eventually, but it would seem like the mass production of heads with all the pins would be cheaper than the small amount of cost saved from removing a couple of pins – Samathingamajig Dec 30 '22 at 00:15
  • great answer Allan, but I have one more question about it. Pins 2-3 and 6-7 are used for transmitting data, so removing pin 3 will affect to speed to transfer data, isn't it? About the fast charge, do know more about it because the explanation from the Baseus said, 6 pins have no fast charge, otherwise, 7 pins have a fast charge. This means that pins 2-3 and 6-7 have other tasks as well as transferring data. – Quang Dam Dec 30 '22 at 03:40
  • 1
    @QuangDam 2-3 and 6-7 each work as a pair sending data in one direction. So as far as I’m aware, you can’t cut only pin 2 for example, and still have data transmission in that direction. As for fast charging, it’s possible the charger or device has to have knowledge of the other’s capabilities for fast charging to be enabled, hence the need for the data cable (though I don’t know if this is the case for Lightning, I’ve just seen similar schemes for other charging systems). – Giesbrecht Dec 30 '22 at 14:24
  • @Giesbrecht Thank you for explaining. As I think, removing two pins will not transmit data, but the "Chineesium" brand always commits that cables can transmit data, it's so strange. Maybe they customized something in the cables. – Quang Dam Jan 05 '23 at 15:07
1

Some people actually want this. Assume my iPhone battery is nearly empty. I could plug it into your MacBook to charge, but then your MacBook will try to sync it, which I don’t want. With such a cable, I get the charging power and nothing else. Guaranteed.

Of course you always want a quality cable. (But bad chargers are more likely to cause trouble than bad cables).

gnasher729
  • 1,217