One of our costumers bought standard cables for their high-end camera solutions, and suddenly they were in the midst of a lot of trouble.
Had to bin two out of three
After introducing USB 3 data transfer for some of their cameras, the customer started to receive reports on difficulties with computer connection, data transfer, and software breakdown – problems that seemed to occur independently and with no obvious reasons.
The cables in question were standard USB 3 – something you can buy everywhere.
In the beginning, no one suspected the cables, and the customer put all in position to identify the cause – looking everywhere else. However, after a thorough search for an explanation, they found that the troublemaker was actually the USB 3 cable.
As a result, the customer decided to test every cable before shipping, and they ended up discarding up to 70 %, because the cables didn’t meet the requirements of USB 3, and the quality was unpredictable.
So even though the manufacturers in theory have to meet the standards set for USB 3, the reality is different, because often they don’t test their products. Most of them claim to produce the cables themselves, but what they usually do is buying cable by the meter, cut it, and mold plugs to the ends.
Because so many cables were wasted, the customer had a hard time sourcing enough, and consequently they had to look for new suppliers to meet the needs.
EA-Connect already supplied various camera parts to the customer and was presented with the challenge. We managed to find a supplier who has full control of the manufacturing, and the cable trouble now belongs to the past. They also make use of the new cables in their industrial cameras for aerial photography. These devices need high protection against electrical noise to work properly.
On top of it all, the good quality cables turned out to be cheaper than the original ones. Today, the company has end customers, who swear by the new cables, because they last about twice as long as comparable standard cables – if they work at all, that is.
