USB-Kabeltester USB-C-Kabeltester, Datenkabeltester Prüfplatine für USB-C, USB-A, Micro Mini Lightning-Kabel (WHL #114)
Simple test gear, this time from Amazon instead of AliExpress. A USB cable tester that sat around for well over a year – and was absolutely worth the money once I needed to use it.
First things first, I bought this back in February of 2024 on Amazon Germany, as AliExpress didn’t have the exact model available back then, for whatever reason. Seller was Treedix UK, shipping via Amazon, and with some other bits and pieces the order exceeded the free shipping threshold, so I only paid the 15.49€ for the item and no additional shipping cost. I just checked, similar testers are now available on Ali for around 8€ shipped (e.g. “Type-C Type-B USB Cable Tester Micro Short Circuit Switch Test Board Data Cable Anomaly Detection For iOS Android Test Board”) – and most of them even use the same shitty CR2032 coin cell holder that my model does, so be sure to buy the upscale ones for a couple cents more.
What does it do? Well, unsurprisingly, it tests USB cables. Quite a lot of them, probably even all of the ones that are defined in the USB standard except for extension cables (I think these are officially supported, let me know if I’m wrong). It does not cover very short cables and adapters that plug onto another cable, those need an extension to route around the other side. And it does not cover the abominations the market has brought up for very specific tasks, e.g. A (male) to A (male) from slim disk enclosures that wouldn’t fit a B type (before USB-C was a thing), or Micro-B (male) to Micro-B (male) for on-the-go applications on mobile phones back when, once again, USB-C wasn’t a thing yet.
The general idea is to route a cable from the left side (USB-A or USB-C) to the right side that has all of the ports that end devices typically use. I don’t really know why the left hand side has both USB-A 2.0 and 3.0, since full 2.0 functionality is available on the 3.0 socket, but that is also true for the Micro-B 2.0 and 3.0 socket on the right (depiced as two 2.0 in the Amazon image, so much for diligence of the Treedix marketing team). The other plug options are USB-B 3.0 (which also covers 2.0, no duplicate here), regular USB-C 3.0, Mini-B 2.0 (I think there is no 3.0 version of that oldie), as well as a Lightning port for which I do not own a single cable. All of those over to USB-A or USB-C are directly supported – and all of the other combinations need one ore more adapters to complete the circuit.
Circuit is also the correct term here: This device puts out some current on each and every pin, to make LEDs light up for the specific pin. This also means that a) this tester must not be connected to any real USB device as that would just ram a voltage into each and every pin, and b) active cables are also to be avoided, e.g. extensions and media converters that change over to optical fiber to span greater distances or the like. The tester must only connect to itself and ideally run from a CR2023 lithium cell, although an external USB-C power supply is possible as well. The coin cell holder is a crappy one, it does have two contacts to grab the cell but it is easy to damage and requires a screwdriver or similar tool to get the cell out. There are significantly better CR2032 holders out there that can be operated with a finger nail – when buying such a device, be sure to keep an eye on this specific detail. Also: The tester has a small standby current, it is not zero with no cables inserted. Since my unit sat for over a year, the battery was perfectly flat at 0.00V – no biggie, but annoying. Maybe changing the power setting to “external” (USB-C input) would do the job, aside from low leakage currents.
Originally, I only was on the hunt for a DisplayPort adapter cable, so I dumped my cable box and had a look. And while doing that, I also separated MicroB cables, as I wanted one for a Wacom tablet at work (and let’s be honest: The chances of ever buying Mini and Micro cables again are slim, and there’s no reason to hoard 5+ examples of each any longer). And somehow I felt the urge to…test them. All of them. So I ended up also cleaning out my USB adapter/short cable drawer, threw everything onto a giant pile, and had a look. Some adapters needed crazy concoctions with double gender changers and extensions, but in the end, everything was tested and either marked with a green dot (92 items, I counted them all)…
…or scrapped. These were the ones with e.g. missing shield connections, or annoying charge-only wiring, or wonky contacts, damaged insulation, real 3.0 connectors and 2.0 wiring, you name it.
Well, measuring all of these by hand would have been possible, but everyone doing that at this scale would hate himself after a couple of minutes. With the cable tester, that’s super easy – finding crazy adapter combinations is a nice bonus to that.
Pictured: Measurement of a USB-A 3.0 male to USB-A 3.0 male adapter – plugs into a 3.0 Micro-B male to 3.0 A male adapter on one side, and into a A 3.0 to C female adapter on the other side, which then uses a plain 3.0 C to 3.0 C cable to complete the loop. Four items confirmed in one go (I could have skipped the Micro-B by plugging in the other way round, I know…)
At currently 8€ a pop plus a coin cell, that’s an extremely helpful and affordable tool every nerd with a 100pc box of misc cables should own. Really cool if that same thing would exist for e.g. Displayport, HDMI, DVI, VGA, as well as 3.5/6.35mm audio jacks and 10pin RJ50, 8pin RJ45 and smaller variants…I wouldn’t rule out these already exist. Just maybe not for SCART connectors and 10BASE5 yellowcable 
