Arduino enthusiasts looking for a project to keep them busy this weekend maybe interested in a new project featured on the official Arduino blog for a handy cable tester. Equipped with a touchscreen the Cable Tracer builds on a previous project that is now 70% smaller than its predecessor and features a custom shield and snap together parts to eliminate any “meticulous soldering“.
The handy DIY project allows you to diagnose the type and integrity of both USB and RJ45 network cables and will identify the exact wiring configurations as well as diagnose broken wiring, and plug pin connections. Test over 10 cables types using RJ45, USB B/B3, USB A/A3, USB C, USB Mini, USB Micro/Micro3. Remove uncertainty and know for sure whether that cable is causing your project to fail by quickly testing its integrity using the awesome Arduino cable tester.
The touchscreen menu allows you to select from Auto Detect Mode and Manual Mode for a deeper diagnosis and is based on the popular Instructables project for the Arduino Cable Tracer published sometime back and also powered by an Arduino Mega 2560.
After a lot of positive feedback on the original Instructables project, I reworked the Arduino Cable Tracer and produced a smaller unit with a prefabricated PCB so that the heavy lifting related to soldering is avoided. Approx 70% smaller footprint, additionally includes RJ45, USB-A3, USB-B3, USB-B, USB-Micro3, touch screen menu that enables manual selection of ports to do a deeper diagnosis of faulty cables.”
Source: Arduino cable tester reads USB and RJ45 cables
