Which USB power tester do you recommend?

[Its wednesday my dudes]

Hi guys,

I wanted to get a USB power meter/tester and I am kinda overwhelmed by the mass of mostly cheap looking USB power tester/meters. After looking around I setteled for this one https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07DCS11GM
I ordered one, tried it on a broken e-reader I intend to fix, and the screen went all fuzzy permanently after connecting the e-reader. I thought I had bad luck, ordered another one and the same problem occured.

So I am back again at picking one. My question is what USB power meter/tester you guys are using/recommending and if it has some kinde of short circuit protection (?) to not getting fried, just because a bad device was connected?

Thanks a lot for your input!

[nctnico]

I have this one. Works pretty well.
https://joy-it.net/en/products/JT-TC66C

You shouldn't be super concerned about short circuits because USB ports are typically current limited.

[4thDoctorWhoFan]

I have a couple of these CT-3 USB testers and they are nice.
https://www.amazon.com/AVHzY-Digital-Multimeter-Detector-26-0000V/dp/B073R7YRM9/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=usb%2Bct3&sr=8-3&th=1

[BILLPOD]

    My most used  USB Tester is my J7-C, as it is the easiest to control of all of the ones I have, (I try out most as they come out).   Most of them have a convoluted control system of push-button and rocker switches, that are NOT intuitive AT ALL.   The J7-C takes just 4 clicks of the push-button switch, to navigate it's menu.
      I also like my UD18, as it is easy to control with my tablet, using Bluetooth

[ddavidebor]

I have tried many of these as I design and manufacture tablet computers.
In my experience, the best are from ChargerLab. the KM003C is the latest
https://www.chargerlab.com

https://www.chargerlab.com/introducing-the-brand-new-power-z-km003c/

However, this might be overkill for your needs.

[Its wednesday my dudes]

You shouldn't be super concerned about short circuits because USB ports are typically current limited.

That was just a wild guess from my side, since I saw two USB testers die by just connecting the same bad device.



Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions, I will study them.

[bffargo]

The UM25C is the best one I've owned so far. No, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but seems to have the most accurate and non-randomly fluctuating voltage / current readings. It easily supports 30V.

I've tried everything from the old OLED pixeled or fixed segment LCD displays to the IPS tiny color to the newer ones with the shuttle keys. I find that the non-Riden made ones, usually with 5th decimal digit or more, are generally useless due to wide variations in readings and off by more compared to a calibrated DMM. That's why I always go back to the UM25C.  Some of the other ones has protocol triggers and detection which is good, but most of my USB work involves plain old 5V.

All work in a pinch, and I've hacked a few to serve as inline monitors for things like power tool battery depletion and the like. But for pure USB, I'm happiest with that one.

I've spent $3 to $20 maximum (inflation or no coupons available at the time would bring that to probably $26 maximum now) for all of mine. I can't bring myself to pay $30, $50 or more for a USB tester. Perhaps some of those are really good, but look to just be variations on the 38S/48S ones with the low quality "Oscope" function or the high digit counts that provide me no additional value.

[DaneLaw]

Have tried quite a few over the last decade or more of these small USB meter gadgets - some with BT and all that jazz, and some without.. often fitted with so many features that it's starting to be troublesome controlling it all from crude pushbuttons.

One USB-meter, I often tend to use a lot, is these round one's below, as they have all the plugs in one, Barrel DC, TypeC, USB3, MicroUSB, temperature, Bluetooth and they were quite cheap around 10 to 15 bucks incl. EU VAT & shipping and the build were good for the price with USB3 sockets https://lygte-info.dk/pic/USB%20meter/USB%20tester%20Atorch%20UD18%20%28Hidance%29/DSC_0011a.jpg
 but somewhat old, like a handful of years back, since they were sold at sites like Bangood.. review https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBmeter%20USB%20tester%20Atorch%20UD18%20%28Hidance%29%20UK.html

The latest one I got is one from Fnirsi. FNB58 with bluetooth and got tons of settings.
very polished interface with PD3.1 140w trigger, not sure what the prices was, but I guess it was around 35 to 40 bucks (incl. shipping and 25% danish VAT) so likely cheaper in US...
but its mindbending the features that are build into these USB meters, now-a-days.
// yep Fnirsi FNB58 around 37 US so not cheap https://tinyurl.com/592zaaeu but for the price, suited with tons of features, but likely also too advanced' if you just want some crude USB-meters that give you the basic stats.
But decide what main-interface you want.. TypeC or USB-A.. for TypeC the TC64 is a decent very tiny TypeC-meter, but only one current direction for display-reading, though can also be had in a two-way version TC66' that is like more than double the price of the TC64, but take a look on "Lygte-Info" tons of reviews of USB-meters and the features they have and how they perform according to spec.  https://lygte-info.dk/info/indexUSB%20UK.html

[MarkMLl]

The latest one I got is one from Fnirsi. FNB58 with bluetooth and got tons of settings.
very polished interface with PD3.1 140w trigger, not sure what the prices was, but I guess it was around 35 to 40 bucks (incl. shipping and 25% danish VAT) so likely cheaper in US...
but its mindbending the features that are build into these USB meters, now-a-days.
// yep Fnirsi FNB58 around 37 US so not cheap https://tinyurl.com/592zaaeu but for the price, suited with tons of features, but likely also too advanced' if you just want some crude USB-meters that give you the basic stats.
But decide what main-interface you want.. TypeC or USB-A.. for TypeC the TC64 is a decent very tiny TypeC-meter, but only one current direction for display-reading, though can also be had in a two-way version TC66' that is like more than double the price of the TC64, but take a look on "Lygte-Info" tons of reviews of USB-meters and the features they have and how they perform according to spec.  https://lygte-info.dk/info/indexUSB%20UK.html

The link below describes that type of meter being repurposed as a smart charger, which is interesting.

https://hackaday.com/2023/01/01/use-usb-c-chargers-to-top-up-li-ion-packs-with-this-hack/

However, what I'd like to know is the extent to which that (or for that matter any) type of meter can report what resistors are connected to a peripheral's data and (for mini/micro) ID lines, since (as I understand it) resistors on the D lines announce whether a peripheral is USB v1, v2 or power-only while various resistors on the ID line can informally signal the type of the peripheral (I've seen a list related to I think Samsung that described the options: lots of debugging adapters etc.).

The particular reason I'm interested is that I've got a blood pressure meter where the same connector can either be used to connect a pulse oximeter, or for a USB connector to a host. I'd quite like to know what's going on here without taking it to bits...

I could obviously do that using an Ardiuno etc. and some analogue switches, but am interested to know what's available before I consider putting time into it.

MarkMLl

[Veteran68]

I currently have these:

X-Dragon - First one I owned, cheap and simple. One of my dogs somehow got hold of it and took it outside, I found it in the backyard wet and covered in mud. Cleaned it up and it still worked!

Klein Tools ET920 - The one I've used the most to this point. More sophisticated than the X-Dragon but much less than the Fnirsi FNB58. I like how it has flexible cable leads for both USB-A and USB-C, unlike the unibody testers with a rigid connector, and which require patch cables to use both A and C type connectors. The cable attachment makes it less likely to be bumped or jerked and risk breaking a port or connector.

Fnirsi FNB58 (Bluetooth) - Most sophisticated one I own, it has tons of features including waveform display of voltage and noise signals, like a mini oscilloscope. I haven't used this one as much yet as I just got it a couple months ago. Requires a patch cable to use with USB-C devices. Fnirsi does make the C1 model that has a USB-C connector, but less features.