Cabletester

The Advanced Cable Tester v2 tests USB cables, HDMI cables and DVI cables for a variety of parameters that normally require many different tools. Among other things, the cable tester checks the continuity of the contacts, the IR drop / DCR, the validity of the e-marker and the signal integrity of the cables. Detecting errors in continuity, IR drop / DCR, e-marker validation, and signal integrity during the manufacturing process is critical.

Certification of cables

That is why the consideration of quality control methods in every phase of the manufacturing process is important. This goes beyond the validation of the design in the production line. For this reason, there are predetermined parameters that cables must meet in order to obtain certification. The USB-IF certification or the HDMI cable certification are primarily intended to detect design errors, but due to the manufacturing processes it is almost inevitable that the specified tolerances of the cable parameters will be exceeded, which inevitably lead to production errors and damage to Devices.

A suitable and uniform quality assurance measure must be found for testing and certifying cables. Because even with tests and certifications by third parties, it is known that bad cables leave the factory and end up in the hands of end users. Appropriate validation of test parameters is particularly important with the HDMI cables, which are expensive to manufacture and USB cables are becoming increasingly complex.

Spezifications of USB

In the past, USB cables were simpler to build and manufacture, but the development of the USB bus is very dynamic, which means that USB cables are subject to ever increasing specifications. Due to the high currents and transmission speeds that a USB cable must support from the USB 3.0 specification, it is a difficult task for the production to meet the high specification and to remain within the tolerances for successful certification. That is why testing and securing the defective cable are not necessary to cause any major damage with this requirement. However, most cable productions are not willing to test their cables for quality defects. This is simply because they have no budget to adequately check the quality of the cables.

Suitable tool for quality assurance

Although the manufacturing costs of the cables are becoming increasingly expensive due to the ever increasing complexity in the production itself, the selling price of the cables remains the same. That is why the cable manufacturing is consistently in low wage countries, especially China. Because reshoring is not an option for most companies, the cables need to be checked for quality issues elsewhere.

In order to be able to meet the high diverging requirements at the same or cheaper price, there is a central starting point through the specified test parameters, which can be checked with the Actv2. Customers and companies in supply chains of large quantities of cables can use the ACTv2 here to ensure that there are no quality defects that could damage their devices. With an average test time of 5 seconds per cable and without complicated preconfigurations or necessary calibrations, the ACTv2 can be easily integrated into production chains.

The development of cables that pass the rigorous Actv2 testing results in fewer product returns, fewer support requests, and minimized product recalls. This offers users higher profit margins and higher customer satisfaction, which contribute to a good reputation and a good brand of the company.

ACTv2: Testable USB Cable types