USB cable and charger tester

Been tasked with sorting out the mountain of various  USB A and C cables at work. Is there an easy plug in device to check if cable are good or bad. Also the same for checking chargers and UBB outlets.

I’m guessing one device for cables and one for chargers, nothing overly complex just to check the work as should.

Sounds like you’ve been set up to fail there..sorry to give you the bad news.

Chuck the lot in the electic waste recycling bin and buy new ones on an as-needed basis, such as Belkin or Anker, and from a known good supplier.

Unless you have the budget to pay some chump to sit there and frick about and oficially PAT test a rats nest of unknown cables…run….

Ask whoever has tasked you with this to detail the testing protocol.

Take a week off over Christmas for testing, come back and say they all work. If any don’t then you’ll find out soon enough.

Otherwise, what matty said. If it’s mission-critical then bin the lot and start again with Known Good. USB cables are a dice roll, they may work with a specific charging mode (of which there is at least three) but not transfer data. Is that “bad”?

What cougar said, there’s multiple standards of USB now.  And the data rate depends on the quality of the cable.

If they’re suspect / knackered put them in the E-Waste and buy ones the right spec

Unless you have the budget to pay some chump to sit there and frick about and oficially PAT test a rats nest of unknown cables…run….

You can’t PAT test a USB cable.

And the extent of testing the charger itself is switch it on and see if it works / check for damage and stick a sticker on it.  There is no other test you can do*.

*Someone will now post a photo of a Class1 usb charger in a metal case powered by an IEC lead. I mean the generic plastic wall chargers that have neither an earth or any exposed metal to do a leakage / touch test.

I did used to own a cable tester (did everything from USB to massive D-types ) but that only checks continuity with a DC current and that the pins are wired correctly. It couldn’t tell you if the shielding or twisted pairs were doing their job.

jeepers, i thought I over think things at times.

Seems wasteful just to bin every cable…. just because

We have many many desks with usb A and usb C charging ports. We would like to test these to see if working as should or not. As many users complain they dont work I suspect it maybe their cables  rather than ports, if I can turn up with a device and say your cable is shit, it would be better than it might be port or your cable .

I thought something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klein-Tools-ET920-Power-Meter/dp/B07GXZHPVR/   seems more robust than this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B093D63L8F/  which would test the port but not the cable.

The offending plug and USB ports

I’ll keep going down reddit worm holes

USB is only 5v, I am aware of some cases that go to 40v, but this is still below the normal PAT testing threshold

If you really want to go down this route, then surely it’s just a matter of illumination?

Test the ports with the meter you linked to.

Port good? Then test the cable by connecting it to the meter and then the working port.

Use one of these to connect the cable.

How many desks do you have to check?

Why have you been picked to do this?

How many desks do you have to check?

top of head 50-60

Why have you been picked to do this?

Because I’m the office building bitch and I believe its part of my job to check and maintain things

top of head 50-60

That should be doable in less than a working day.

Just test the ports, put a sticker on to say working or not.

If the port is good, then the desk users cable is shagged.

That should be doable in less than a working day.

Come on… I’m only there P/T  I said be a weeks work to boss, need factor in  time I have coffees, chatting  and wandering about looking “busy”

I’ll get them to get the Klein tester at least we can rule out anything on our side

We have many many desks with usb A and usb C charging ports. We would like to test these to see if working as should or not. As many users complain they dont work I suspect it maybe their cables  rather than ports, if I can turn up with a device and say your cable is shit, it would be better than it might be port or your cable .

I’ll keep going down reddit worm holes

Sounds like you have plenty of time on your hands to be going round testing employees phone chargers?

From a company perspective though I’d just get some USB port blockers.

1) They save your cost of having to test employees cables

2) Employees spend less time on their phones because they cant be on their desk plugged in

3)  You don’t need to spend time on Reddit.

😉

1) These people rent office space from us so not employees.

2) could care …see above. we provide the space

3) at least it works

?

… see that ^ was supposed to be emoji  < sigh>

You need something that plugs in to test, not that tests the cable too.

Testing USB-A is straightforward, you could test that with a known good cable and device. USB current meters will let you test the cable.

USB-C is the issue here, as it’s not just a dumb port, devices negotiate the PD standard (or don’t! If they’re cheap 5v devices).

So lots of reasons USB-C might not work, but the big one is usual PD devices into a “dumb” USB-C outlet (that only does 5V) or dumb devices (that don’t meet spec) into a PD outlet (that does).

I’d first check the spec of your desk outlets – that they do USB-C PD and all the voltages, if so, then a proper plug in tester that tests all the USB-PD voltages. If your built in ports are limited/not PD conformant…that’s probably why users complain 🙂

Hopefully that makes some sense?

https://www.dataroomdirect.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PixelTUF-Datasheet-2020.pdf

That it?

ok so that’s a “cursed” USB-A port, it takes a cable both ways… so you need to test it twice. Should be ok, but not to spec, and they work by bending the tongue part so it can fail.

It does most of PD3.0 so you’ll need a proper USB-C tester, does max out ~25W though so some devices (mostly laptops) will crap out on that and not charge. Cheap non-spec devices won’t charge off it, but probably will charge over a A->C cable (that’s how you can check it if someone with a specific device complains). The issue in that case is their device.

That it?

Yup  most complaints are about the USB C port

As a rough guide, I’d expect most phones to be ok with that, most laptops to _not_ be ok (too low wattages, Macs will work though), and most everything else to _not_ be ok (other stuff is more commonly not proper PD)