LOTS OF BUTTONS AND PORTS MUST BUY 📝Note: The audio at the table might sound a bit weird because I messed up recording and had to fix it with post processing as best I could. 📝Note 2: Turns out you can also use this device as a make-shift universal audio adapter (Thanks to @ImmortalAbsol for the suggestion). You just have to make sure that in addition to the two cables you want to adapt, that you put another cable connecting to its own port on both sides to complete the continuity I guess, so I used the HDMI cable to connect the 2 HDMI ports since that covers all the connections. Then I plugged a 3.5mm jack into one side for audio in, then an XLR out on the other side, and it worked. There seems to be a very slight degradation in audio quality but it's not super noticeable. This also even works without a battery in it.
I thought the same thing, but it's micro USB so not all that useful these days. Plus I generally don't use public USB ports regardless of whether the cable is charge-only or not. But still a good mention for those that do!
Good point. USB has separate data and power wires. What I do is just not plug in at all on other chargers. I just make sure I have enough of a charge before I leave the house.
At 5:07 from top to bottom -6.5mm TS/TRS Jack: Like a guitar lead -RCA: You all know that one -Din: You may have seen MIDI connectors on old computer sound cards or electronic keyboards -5 Pin XLR: Used for DMX controlled lighting. -Speakon: Used for connecting amplifiers to speakers. Comes in 2 pin and 4 pin varieties. -3 Pin XLR: For microphone connections -Powercon: Is a mains voltage power connector. They're mainly found on professional lighting equipment.
You'll find powercon on a bunch of other things like video wall panels and loudspeakers as well, most of which you would find in a live production setting such as a concert.
Powercon is used quite a bit in showbiz in general. I've seen them not only on lighting equipment, also on active speakers and some even use them to power audio racks.
Powercon is also used on the passive speakers. They provide the powered singnal into passive speakers. It is used on big stages where the output power amplifiers are separate from the speakers. You can have one amplifier for 2 or more speakers.
Powercon is basically just Neutrik's better solution to replace the good old three-prong IEC connector for the AV industry. The lighting side of the AV industry adopted it first but we're starting to see it on video and audio stuff as well ! Pretty neat !
It looks so much more complicated than it really is..... I was thinking it was gonna tell you the quality of the wires, like the Linus video about HDMI cables, but it's just a continuity checker but also for all different connections..... like if you wired an RJ-45 to random wires in an HDMI connector, it would tell you which is connected to which.... I don't think I've ever seen anything like this toy before.... NICE!
@@ThioJoejust make your own media company the size of LMG. There is enough evidence that it's possible. In all seriousness though, that tool looks really fancy and I want it even though I'd have no use for the one that Linus showed or the one that you showed (at least not at the moment)
Indeed it is. At my church, our production team has one, along with our audio engineer because we have to occasionally check the cables and determine why they aren't working, or verify that they are working at all. I've used it several times to check the power and communication cables that we have going to our lights, and it would help me figure out what wire I need to resolder.
Two of those XLR adapters are imbalanced cables. XLR is often used to carry balanced audio, so to plug it into imbalanced interfaces, engineers and cable makers will often bond one of the phases to ground. You can also carry unbalanced stereo over XLR if you hate yourself.
Looks super handy! Specially if your trying to make a cable for weird devices that use existing connectors in... unique ways. - A lot of blood glucose meters don't have a USB port. They use a 3.5mm jack. Using this you could tell how its wired and make your own USB A to 3.5mm jack if you want to have a spare or something.
Honestly, this works for hacking egpus, as the chinese love to use USB 3.0 for pcie 1x, and hdmi for 4x. And they also love never giving pin outs for either use case.
7:05 The Small DIN is just a plug type and it has many uses, one of them is S-Video but also for example PS/2 (that only uses the 6pin variant). It is similar to D-Sub, similar plugs, different pin amounts and different use
Vintage Apple computers (older Macs and the IIgs) equipped with ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) use the same port as S-Video. Saved my high school a bunch of money once by having the Computer Coordinator order S-Video cables instead of Apple ADB cables. We had a bunch of Mac SEs I had refurbished, but we couldn't deploy them due to a surplus of ADB cables with bent pins - no spare good cables. (My SE "test bench" machine had two half-good cables spliced together.) 🤣Ordering Apple cables would've blown our budget to you-know-where, so the request was denied, but when I suggested the Radio Shack Solution, they approved the purchase order.
All you need is a Multimeter. Not only it can test cables but also check super complex circuit boards to fix your electronics, provided you have the knowledge to use it.
Yes, but this is aimed at live shows/event technology. There's no time to fiddle around with the prongs of a Multimeter. You can check a lot of cables in no time with this.
This is made for production, which is a VERY fast paced environment where we deal with literally hundreds of cables. If you need to test a cable out in the field nobody’s got time to mess with a multi meter. Also if you have to test a bunch of audio cables in inventory to weed out the bad ones you’re going to hate life with out this. It’s also common in production to make your own cables and in large batches, so it’s very important to test the wiring then. Another thing too is not all the cables this test are easy to jam the probes into. Testing Micro usb and HDMI is going to be no fun, also back to prosecution those fancy cables at the bottom have the “pins” completely covered. It would be really hard to stick a probe into a PowerCon or Speakon cable and see which pins you’re testing
The XLR-jack leads vary because XLR is a balanced setup. To wire unbalanced audio to XLR you connect ground and cold (1&3) of the XLR to ground of the other connector and then wire the signal to pin 2. The first lead is a bit naughty as it's connecting left and right together. The second lead uses a stereo jack as a balanced mono connection. The third one is another unbalanced to balanced lead but the signal line is broken.
This cable checker is great for identifying the pinout of most cables. Two issues: It won't tell you if there's an intermittent problem like other cable checkers will and it won't tell you if a connector shell is connected to any pin(s) inside the connector or not.
@@djdjukic It does, kind of. It won't tell you which end of the cable has the connection to a shell. It would have been better to have a separate pair of LEDs to show which connector had a shell connection. It is unusual to have a rotary selector with only 11 positions, the ones I've seen have 12 positions. Using such a selector would enable a separate shell connection test that would identify which end(s) have the shell connection. Determining the presence or absence of a shell connection is important because sometimes only the female is grounded in 3-pin XLR in order to prevent a local (RF) ground loop and at other times there is no shell connection to prevent anything, such as a ground loop, occurring should the shell come into contact with something else that is grounded. The shell is sometimes used as a second common or ground as well as a pin ground. For example, in aircraft using 5-pin XLRs three of the pins provide two audio channels and a common to the headphones while the other two pins are a balanced microphone connection with the shield connected to the connector shell.
agreed. i'd imagine in the Pro industry they would simply replace cables that don't work or no continuuity. what they don't want is a cable that works most of the time only to stop working or intermittently or poorly during a performance.
@@zodiacfml The problem with that approach is, sometimes you have two cables that look alike and one has one-to-one pin connectivity while the other is intentionally some other configuration. A/V pros usually go to pains to label the non-conventional cables and adapters but there are times when you need to know and even if there are visual indicators, they might be simply a color code applied by someone who isn't available, or you're the one who set it up that way but for whatever reason, you don't remember what the green shrink sleeving was supposed to mean. I own a very similar cable tester more focused on audio and used it primarily when fabricating my own XLR (microphone) cables to make sure I had made the correct solders, and then wiggled the connectors to make sure the lights didn't flicker. Oh, and sorry for the run-on sentences.
I have a similar one with a bit less plugs. It's bit more orientiert for event technology. Since I solder all my XLR, TRS cables and crimp my Ethernet cables it is very useful.
Another test I recommend is to wiggle each end of the cable when paused on each light to check for intermittent broken wires which might get missed if you just whip through spinning the dial. Also major caveat, Never have equipment plugged into the cables under test. The tester uses a battery (9v?) to run through the wire and light up the led. The 9v could fry sensitive electronics or the device might be putting out a voltage that can fry the tester.
Thanks Theo! I do tech work on the side for a community theater and this tester combines a lot of older single purpose ones I have. Much easier to carry just THIS one in the bag.
I will note that power only micro usb seems to be the one I got with my chromecast. From my testing having a data cable with it was pointless as it internally doesn't have the data pins connected. Keeping it with the chromecast might be the best option for resale, or if you need a data cable, well your chromecast might be using it.
I'll definitely be buying one. The bane of my existence is bad cables that users bring in when setting up and I've got 10 minutes to troubleshoot before events start. Sometimes it's already started before they decide they need help.
Awesome device. Not only it looks cool that makes you buy it, it's quite useful too showing the connections so you know what cable does what. Don't throw cables away, label them.
Man I would love this for USB C, of course would also want an even higher end model with a little LCD to tell you all about Thunderbolt and 100w PD charge and all that. Also the micro USB needs to check the OTG pin connection 😅
That would be so useful for the 1/8" mini jack to composite audio/video RCA plugs that are common with camcorders, portable DVD players, the older Roku and Raspberry PI. They each have different pinouts for L & R audio and video.
Only power USB cables are great when you are out traveling. So when you use public chargers it cant be compromised if someone have been tinkered with the charger usb port you are using.
I know a lot of AV and grips that have this. Nice quick way to see if a cable is bad after durring setup or after breakdown. Nice to test everything b4 it hits the road to the next site. Things happen and cables can break.
I prefer the digital versions that tests all lines at once. I had one with the mechanical switch like yours, and the switch broke from constantly switching because I used it so much (I run an auditorium, so had to test cables before each use).
I’ve had one of these cable testers for years and it’s been useful on many occasions. I’m a musician and used it to test cables at shows or in the studio and it’s saved a LOT of time by finding faulty cables right away.
I bought the CT200 rather than the CT-20. Although it doesn't have as wide a variety of connectors, it also checks for intermittent connections (and tells you which pin has the problem) as well as grounding issues, and has a built-in signal generator. It's an invaluable tool for me!
Keep in mind that this is a continuity tester not a certification tester so if someone wants to certify 10Gbps on a 100ft cat6 cable, it will not do speed test certification. This is just a basic electrical connection tester. Great tool, I got one very similar. Those other connectors next to the XLR ThoJoe is called PowerCon and SpeakOn (both are used in professional audio equipment installations/shows/etc) These testers have all pins that can be purchased in a connector (SpeakOn can go up to 4 pins, the tester has 4 pins per side)
Neat device! 1) Non-data cables are VITAL if you want to charge your device at a location offering charge points but you do NOT want your devices being spied upon or hijacked! 2) Great for determining which Cat-x cables are crossover cables vs straight-through, as well as how they're wired.
I can define some of the connectors down the side: Bottom: PowerCON- used for supplying power to equipment in the entertainment industry. Typically can be found on the back of active speakers, or on different lights. I believe ARRI uses them on some of their lights so if you've used their lights you've likely seen them before. As for which one's which, the blue one is AC in, usually from your power source, and the grey one is AC out, for daisy-chaining lights together. The SpeakON one (other side of the XLR 3-pin) is, no duh, used for transmitting audio from your audio console to your speakers. Like the PowerCON, it twists to lock into place. Personally, I've only seen this one going from a phono amp to passive speakers but I would dare say there are active speakers that use it as well (though if your console uses XLR you'll need an adapter) XLR 5-pin - looks like the 3-pin, but with 2 more pins. Typically used in lighting controls in a theatre. While there are 5 pins, only three actively carry data, with the remaining two being reserved for future use. Or, as my mentor told me awhile ago, "it's so the lighting team and audio team can't steal the other team's cables!"
I did structured cabling for a while. Having a verifier is a MUST! This one is nice because of the variety. Look up network crossover cable just for kicks.
The connections on the sides of XLR connections are SPEAKER line connections which have bass and treble split on two different channels. They are more robust and lock in place. They are used in music events like Woodstock or other festivals.
Those are nice but the extra cost of buying the DBX CT-3 was well worth it over this type. It has 2 detachable ends to allow you to go to each end of a cable and not be forced to have both ends of the cable right there. Usually you find a bad cable after it has already been ran.
I have a older and much more expensive version of this. Instead of all those extra connection points, what I have uses rf/coax/bnc connectors and/or ethernet ports, with adapters that plug in to show the pin outs of all sorts of cables. Plus it's also a tone tester with continuity pins for long runs to diagnose cable runs already installed to signal if the connection works and which pins may be shorted if they're not working right or dropping signal. Made by Fluke, inc.
It's probably for diagnosing audio problems in theatres, festivals or other stage tech stuff. I worked in a theatre for a while and have used all of these cables for carrying audio.
Yeah, I'm certainly thinking about getting this thing. I've had plenty of cables in my time that I could only test by trying them and an alternate cable with some device to see if it's the cable or the device so a handy tester like that could really just make it more obvious where the problem lies.
I have the exact same tester, on the face of the unit there are 2 circular ports coloured black and red (banana plugs). If you have a pair of leads you can test any wire and the unit will make noise and turn on a LED.
The ones around XLR are PowerCON and Speakon. Speakon is used to run audio from amplifier to those huge speakers used in events/festivals. PowerCON is used to run power to/between light fixtures. Then there is 5-pin DMX, which looks XLR, because there is also 3-pin DMX which is effectively same connector, DMX vs. XLR just have different thickness of cable (impedance of current if my English serves me right?), but DMX is for light fixture data (colors, movements etc. they work in IP-universes, so can be adapter to RJ45 cable). If I saw correctlyt, there is DIN X-pin, which was - at least - used for some audio/mics, at somepoint.
I bought this yesterday and it was delivered today. Checked out a cable that was giving me issues and determined that the cable was bad. Thanks for the review and keep it up.
That is the adult version of the board you can buy a toddler full of knobs and switches to keep them busy. Please open this and show the wiring inside. That either has to be complete chaos or a work of pure genius.
I already got a (two piece) RJ45 tester with an auto function. That’s all I currently need. It being two pieces makes testing house wiring a bit easier.
With TRS(Headphone Jacks) Tip=Left Ring=Right Sleeve=Ground TRS Sizes 3.5mm is also 1/8" 6.5mm is 1/4" RCA Color codes White=Left Channel(Mono) Red=Right Channel
@3:00 although I get why someone might not like them in the sense that it's annoying if you end up with one when you need data, they're awesome for their intended purpose and security reasons. In fact I wish they also made more of the opposite with data only and no power. There are situations where you don't want power feeding somewhere (some 3D Printers get 5v from a Raspberry PI) and eliminating 5v can help a lot to prevent issues. I just think there should be identifiers for them.
I actually made a little DIY one of these. super simple, all you need is to wire a push button and an LED for each pin , then connect all the pin 1s together, then the pin 2s, etc. and when you push the button if the circuit is complete it will light the LED.
that thing is awesome, i've literally just put a load of cables through my house for in ceiling speakers, but didn't have a way to test the speakon terminals, just ordered this to do that, thanks
I have the previous generation that doesn't have HDMI or USB B and B mini. It's definitely an invaluable tool for cable testing. The banana jacks on the front work as a great continuity tester because it has an audible beep as well as the LED. Just hook up some multimeter probes and you can test the continuity for anything, like PCBs or connected wires... and it's super fast latching. Even faster than my Fluke! Well worth the money.
Just bought one! Great purchase and it’s seems they now have USB-C tester. This is great to separate my high bandwidth cables from the others. Thanks for the video
I carry Behringer one in my gig bag. These manual ones are ok, but they're also a hassle to use on intermittent issues and pretty large to carry around. The automatic ones (liek the Behringer) tell you immediately if there's a break or short circuit when you wiggle the connectors/cables around. That's gold for saving time :)
"Ethernet Tester" In server rooms and large offices it's handy to have ethernet cable testers, which are similar to this one but can be phsycally split apart. So for ex. device's part1 goes to server room ethernet cable and device's part2 goes to some office room where the end of that ethernet cable is. Both parts 1+2 have ethernet ports and 10 LEDS.
Networking (cat45) has more requirements then just 1:1 connections, pairs need to match as wel or otherwise you won' get a connection on longer lengths
Joe - what are you doing? You just made me buy TWO of these - one for me and one for my field installer. And it arrived at 5:00 AM this morning. And I've spent the last 30 minutes running around finding cables and testing them for no good reason!
This is only a continuity tester. It does not test bandwidth or cable quality, nor does it test transmission cable errors or diagnose distance to problem. Just so everyone knows. Tip: You will get cross wired lights in crossover cables so don't throw that cable away if you are looking for such.
Looks like a very handy piece of equipment to have in the toolkit! This unit could also be used to diagnose a cable with an intermittent connection... wiggle the cable while you scan through all the pins until you see the LED flickering on and off.
Cool box. One thing I consider missing/must have: The option to light up all the diodes at once. When troubleshooting cables, the first thing I will be looking for is "does all pins make connection". Miswired cables occur much less frequently than cables that have broken pins/wires or ones that developed non-connecting spot when wiggled around. Imagine trying to check hdmi cable that makes video green unless its propped with matchbox.
I so wanted this when it popped up, in my works i've needed all those cables tested and two hands on a DMM while balancing the cable on a knee just was not enough.
Read the title of the video and thought, this sounds like something I'd say. Watched the video and thought, this looks like something I need, one for home and one for work!
2:58 charging only cables are probably more useful these days when we need to charge our devices on buses and trains without worrying about security. Of course that doesn't prevent other malicious attacks like overloading your devices!
Thanks for this review! I looks kinda handy, especially to identify different adapters, and it's faster, easier and more reliable than using a meter one pin at a time. There's no way anyone is going to build it for less, unless they have a bunch of spare connectors already lying around from old equipment they can salvage.
I have a continuity cable tester, for Ethernet cables, USB and coax/BNC cables. I have never used it with USB cables and haven't seen coax Ethernet in about a quarter century. It meets my needs and is much smaller than yours. Also, if I were to get a new cable tester, I would get one that checks the cable performance, instead of just continuity/shorts/cross wire.
I miss the troll content, but I still “thumbs up” the videos and have the bell subscription lol I wish you’d have a second channel just to screw with people again. You were the master. You were the master.
Have they detachable tester! Love it! I look like a god when I bust it out of RV to firgure out my military brothers and sisters cable issues in RV camps
I wouldn't put the data-only cable in the trash as they so have their uses. I'd put red heatshrink on the connectors to identify the lead, like the data isolator adapters I bought have red connectors and a black cable. The data isolators are useful for just charging and prevent unauthorized data communication. Such a cable can also be useful, for example, to power up a USB hard drive where you don't a data connection in case the drive has malware on it.
6:30 the first one is a XLR output to bridged mono left right. The second one is a TRS basically a straight through, Watch out for the reverse of this because that will put Phantom power on devices that were never meant to have that. poor headphone jacks there's not that many remaining. Not quite sure about the third one. It might have a circuitboard in it or some thing else since that connector is bigger than again it might not.
Great little gadget. Been looking for something like this for a while. Shame it hasn’t got USB-C but sure there must be something out there that has that as well at a reasonable price
It would be really nice to have for my job (a/v installation) but the size and cost aren't quite worth the amount of times it would help out since I can always re-terminate or replace cables. I do, however, have one that does rj45, bnc, and usb (rj45 is essential, bnc is helpful, and I've never used the usb)
Which even then some of the sizes like you got a placement of seven numbers you got a placement of six numbers 543 then you got establish which directions your photos are coming in which most the time is in pattern recognitions construction or which way your service is feeding out if it's going to the correct places or not
Hmm. Back in the '80s. I broke down and built my own tester for microphone cables. I could have used this one many times over, but back then only a few of them even existed.
These are really common in A/V Production. We can deal with literally HUNDREDS of cables. And it’s common to make a lot of cables in house to do testing the wiring is super handy.
for USB, I think that the trident symbol should ONLY be used if the cable has data lines, and for the faster speeds the corresponding number should be printed below.
I have seen a "cable" tester, but it was around 400$. Tests any connection there is in computers, or for industrial machines that use same type of connections.
Are there pass-through like devices that can be used as a go between a usb stick and a computer, that could detect and filter any spoofed commands? if there are, could you a hands on review of those?
I love these, we had one at my old job, we used pretty much every function of this. I always wished that they added VGA to it, then it would have had everything for our needs
