USB C Cable Testers USB two or three

furyou on 21/12/2023 - 14:45
Last edited 21/12/2023 - 15:39

I'm looking to sort out my huge collection of cables to see which are worth keeping and which are broken

I see there are some cable testers which tell you if something is charging only or includes the data lines

I see some devices which tell you the voltage and current going through the USB device

what I want to do is test whether a cable is USB two or three <————— main thing
and also test the maximum wattage for PD charging

an I guess it would be useful to be able to test old chargers to see what they actually give out

So what kind of device am I looking for? Am I looking for one device that can do all this or are they two different devices?

Some of these things have LCD screens that have lots of outputs which I'm not sure if I would understand.

Electrical & Electronics USB Power Tester

Comments

  • boomramada on 21/12/2023 - 15:09

    Cables are like $10 these days, why not keep one or two throw away the others?
    You need something like this, not worthit.
    https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-usb-pd-tester-usb-c.h…

    • furyou on 21/12/2023 - 15:36

      because we have many devices, that we leave cables in!
      I duno.
      Throwing 20 cables out and buying more doesn't seem wise.
      Also usb3 Cables are not like $10

  • duk242 on 21/12/2023 - 15:38

    This is so weird. I was looking into this just thismorning…

    I've got the FNIRSI FNB58 cable tester - it'll tell you what charging protocols the cable & charger support (~$50-60AUD).
    As for USB2 vs USB3/3.1/3.2/4 testing… I got a bit stuck here - the simple way to check them is to check what pins are wired up, using something like this: https://www.tindie.com/products/petl/usb-c-cable-tester-c2c-… - but it works out at near $60AUD shipped, and I can't find anything else that'll do similar :|

    • furyou on 21/12/2023 - 15:41
      +1

      How about this
      https://www.amazon.com.au/Treedix-Cable-Checker-Charging-Typ…

      it has lots of lights the one you listed but I don't know what they mean

      is PD wattage something that can be tested

      • duk242 on 21/12/2023 - 15:47

        That is exactly what I was looking for… nice catch!
        So the one you linked there - that'll tell you if it has all the wires connected (so you can see if it has the wires to actually do USB2 or 3 data)

        The FNB58 cable tester (Aliexpress is your best bet) will tell you what PD wattage the cable reports it supports - and you can combine a load tester to actually see how much will run through it. The reported current from the cable is usually good enough for me though (my good cables report 87W or whatever the max is on the one I have, and the lesser cables say they only go upto 60W and so on).

  • spackbace on 21/12/2023 - 15:47
    +1

    what I want to do is test whether a cable is USB two or three

    Wouldn't take long to diagnose. Either with transfer speed, or charge speed, from a given device (eg phone to pc transfer speed, or phone charge speed)

    There, saved you $50

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