Basically what is inside that allows wires to transfer only energy, only data, or both?
In: Technology
One aspect is the thickness of wires. The more power you want to transmit, the thicker a wire has to be (compare the cable of your kettle to the one of your phone charger). Data is similar, but uses very little power, so the cables can be fairly thin.
There is a different number of copper wires inside them. Power wires have only 2 or 3 wires inside them (+, -, and shield). Data wires have even more wires inside. Dual purpose wires like USB-C have data and power wires inside.
All copper wires inside a wire can be the same.
It’s what’s before and after the wires that change. You need to encode and decode the signals differently, and emit/reception power.
There are gonna be exceptions, but in general…
Wires for carrying energy tend to be thicker to minimize loss and heating. They also tend to be unshielded and unbraided – just straight wires. Wires that carry data tend to be braided or shielded, as this reduces noise and interference. Wires intended for both may be thicker *and* braided/shielded.
It’s more about the connections between the two ends of the cord. Cords that are only for power only have connections at the pins that carry power, so a power only cord will have less individual wires inside it than one that can transfer power and data. That’s why the power only cords are generally cheaper. They also don’t have to conform to the data speed standards that data cords have to conform to.
Energy and data are both the same thing in this context.. The wire transfers electrical pulses that are then decoded at your machine into data.
Finally, one I’m a pro in. I’m a professional network engineer.
It basically boils down to the number of strands of wire inside the cable. Power only will have 2 or 3: positive, negative and ground (optional). When features are added then more wires are added as well.
Hence why your phone charger cable is so thin compared to a power/data/video/audio USB-C
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