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mceachen

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

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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.

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...

I’ve thought about just putting it on the connector itself. It may look stupid though.

Brother label printers (and I assume others) can print text small enough and sharp enough to fit onto USB connectors. (You'll need to manually trim the label with scissors to fit of course)

Visually, if it's something I'm going to be staring at on a daily basis, I like this much better than having tags hanging off of the cable. Tip: consider white-on-black labels.

The labels have been plenty durable in my experience, but if you need extra durability, you could probably just brush some lacquer over it with a Q-tip.

Man, I really need to get a label printer. There’s been a whole bunch of stuff I’d like to label already, but I’ve had no idea you could also change the font.

The Brother label printers are great. No authentication chips on the tape cartridges, so you can use cheap 3rd-party ones. I sometimes feel like Brother is the last company selling consumer-friendly printers.

One big differentiator between various Brother models that's not immediately obvious is the tape sizes they accept. The cheaper models don't accept the fatter 24mm/1" labels, gotta step up to the $99ish models for that.

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

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 remember some tape packaging having the lovely warning that "adhesive qualities may change over time". Indeed, some tape glues turn to dust, others to slippery goo or sticky goo, some become a mysterious immovable firmament that stays put until all the material around them has crumbled away.

I would not trust or even leave any kind of tape for long term application myself. There's always something better.

I've yet to find instances where electrical tape comes off of its own accord when wrapped. Even the electrical tape submerged 24x7 on my well pump had to be unwrapped.

I should have clarified: I use a 1" piece of maybe 5mm wide good quality 3M tape that wraps over itself.

This follows (at least my local) electrical code--it's quite robust. I have 40 year old electrical conduit that has tape applied like this and there's no movement, no fraying, no stickiness.

You could even do combinations of colors like on resistors.

Love this, that sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!

Might get sticky residue after a few years

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