A Handy OSHW USB Cable Tester For Your Toolkit

There’s no disgrace in admitting you have been burned by a cheapo USB cable — at any time given that some bean counter realized there was a few cents to be saved by generating “power only” USB cables, no hardware hacker has been protected. But with this basic tester from [Álvaro Prieto] in your arsenal, you will never ever be fooled again.

It is about as straight-forward a style and design as probable, utilizing very little additional than a two dozen LEDs, their connected resistors, and a widespread CR2032 coin cell. Only plugging both of those sides of your cable into the many flavors of USB connectors on the tester will finish the important circuits to mild up the corresponding LEDs, instantaneously telling you how a lot of intact wires are within the cable. So whether you’re working with some shady cable that doesn’t have the entire enhance of conductors, or there is some physical hurt that is severed a connection or two, you will know at a look.

Certainly the tester is designed principally for the 24 pins you’ll find in a suitable USB-C connector, but it is entirely backwards appropriate with more mature cables and connectors. We enjoy that he even provided the chunky Form B connector, which we have constantly been fond of thanks to its robustness in contrast to the more widespread Mini and Micro variants.

Hold in mind even though that this tester will only demonstrate you if there is a link between two pins, it won’t confirm how substantially electricity it can essentially take care of. For that, you will will need some additional machines.