Arduino Cable Tracer Helps Diagnose Broken USB Cables
We’ve all found ourselves swimming amongst too many similar-looking USB cables over the years. Some have all the conductors and functionality, some are weird power-only oddballs, and some charge our phones quickly while others don’t. It’s a huge headache and one that [TechKiwiGadgets] hopes to solve with the Arduino Cable Tracer.
The tracer works with USB-A, Mini-USB, Micro-USB, and USB-C cables to determine whether connections are broken or not and also to identify wiring configurations. It’s built around the Arduino Mega 2560, which is ideal for providing a huge amount of GPIO pins that are perfect for such a purpose. Probing results are displayed upon the 2.8″ TFT LCD display that makes it easy to figure out which cables do what.
It’s a tidy build, and one that we could imagine would be very useful for getting a quick go/no-go status on any cables dug out of a junk box somewhere. Just remember to WIDLARIZE any bad cables you find so they never trouble you again. Video after the break.