@larrybiggs @ai6yr @coolcalmcollected @vandorb12 Well, I do know that Apple has had a tendency to put in chips to try to make it harder for third parties to make accessories and force people to buy their way overpriced first party ones more. The best I could figure is that even though this was charge-only with no data connection they still threw a chip in there to keep the phone from fussing and limiting too much. But a chip wouldn't actually swell, so it must have other components as well. All I can think of would be a capacitor to do the actual swelling.

Based on what we see there I guess they used something layered and cheap... This is probably one cable where the phone should have fussed and limited charge rates...