BitTradeOne USB Cable Checker2 [Assembled] Supported USB MiniB/microB/TypeC Cables/USB Digital Tester/USB c Cable Tester/USB Cable Tester Tool / H0.5xW3.5xD2.1 inch ADUSBCIM

Arnaud D.'s review is quite good, so I won't recap too much. But after looking at the other USB cable checkers on the market, I concluded this one was the best one to get. Some key and unique features of this cable checker compared to cheaper alternatives that only show simple wire connections via LEDs:- Measures USB cable resistance of VBUS and GND: if the resistance is too high, the cable cannot handle high electrical current. (NOTE: remember that resistance is a function of wire gauge and length, so short cables could still risk overheating if they have low overall resistance but a small wire. However, the feature is still useful to categorically rule out anything with high resistance that is sure to result in a big voltage drop and power loss.)- USB-C cables have various pull-up / pull-down resistors such as on the CC pin. This cable tester will measure the resistance values and show them on the OLED screen. These resistors in the cable are used to signal various charging configurations available to chargers.- USB-C cables can also have an e-marker chip that signal advanced capabilities to chargers and computers. This tester will show whether an e-marker chip is present, but it will not attempt to decode it.Of course, the tester will also show things like whether each pin in the cable has continuity and has been connected correctly, but cheaper testers could also be expected to do that. What cheaper testers don't have is the more advanced measurement features I just described.What this product won't do is actually decode the USB-C e-marker chip. For that, I would recommend the excellent ChargerLAB Power-Z KM003C USB multimeter tester, which is a good complement to the ADUSBCIM. That will decode the e-marker chip and show you the programmed information in the USB cable. And, that product is also great at reading charger capabilities, measuring power consumption, etc. However, the KM003C cannot tell you things like cable resistance, the pullup/down resistor values, or show you LEDs for the individual wires to show continuity. Therefore, I'd recommend buying both products.NOTE: The packaging is in Japanese. However, the OLED screen itself does not have any Japanese characters, so the product itself is approachable to English speakers. You can find the product manual on GitHub if you search for "GitHub ADUSBCIM" on Google Search. Someone recently provided a good English translation of the documentation, look at the README_en.pdf file when you find the GitHub repository. I would recommend reading that before buying if you would like a better understanding of the full capabilities of this product.

I have been hording cables for the last 10 years. I needed a tool to check my cables so I could sift through the garbage. This was that tool. Super easy to use, it seems like it was accurately identifying my cables. I tried several of my "known" cables and it identified them perfectly. I like that it is small enough to easy fit in my pocket.

This is the only "smart" USB cable tester that I found (all the others were passive, simply using LEDs to show continuity between ends).Aside from the basic good/bad test, here are two features that are most useful to me:1. Identifies power-only cables (no data lines)2. Identifies whether a USB-C cable supports all of the data lines for SuperSpeed or SuperSpeed+ -- just because it has C-type plugs doesn't mean it's high speed!There are passive testers that can satisfy the points above (if they have more than four LEDs, of course), but here's what you get with this smart tester:1. Line resistance -- high resistance on power lines (VBUS and GND) makes for a poor charge cable2. CC line checking:a) USB-C cables may have a pull-up resistor inside the plug that's used to signal to the power supply the maximum current that should be allowedb) or for high-power cables, there could be an E-marker chip on this line for more advanced power capability identificationc) some cables have a different pull-up/pull-down resistor on the other end of the CC line, which is a non-standard implementation and could indicate that the connector is sensitive to orientationSo, who needs this tool?1. It might not be a justifiable expense for the average user. if you have a pile of USB cables and just want to know which ones are good and which one to throw out, or which ones are power-only, a simpler LED-based tester would be enough.2. IT professionals and tech-nerds will benefit from the ability to confirm whether a USB-C cable is really just a USB 2.0 cable in disguise, or if it actually support full-speed data transfer. Maybe that external SSD is slow because you're using the wrong cable?3. Microcontroller software/electronics developers implementing USB power for their high-power prototypes, or high speed data transfer capabilities, will want to make sure they're using a proper cable for testing.Flaws:1. The device seems to be sensitive to connectivity on the shells of the USB jacks. Slight movement of a cable plugged into these will cause the LCD to clear and redraw (so there's a noticeable flicker) as it re-determines whether the shell is bonded to GND. Not sure if it's a flaw with the electrical connectivity between the shells and the microcontroller, or suboptimal firmware -- probably some combination of both.2. Given the physical nature of this tool (a raw PCB sandwiched between acrylic plates) and the fact that it uses an easily-programmable Atmel ATmega88PA MCU, I'm a little surprised that the firmware (and maybe the schematics) isn't open source. I can see some fellow nerds wanting to tweak the firmware for the benefit of all users, or even customize the firmware for their own use. But given the subjectively high price tag, I'm betting there's a rather wide margin that they aren't willing to cut into, so I get it.Given the flaws, it's still a very useful tool.