Section for USB Power Delivery Testers?

[Sonartech]

I received my USB Power Delivery Tester Pro a few days ago, and I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to find bugs. What process do you want us to follow when we find bugs? Can you create a section in the forum for PD Testers?

To prime the process, here are some interesting things I've learned about the new PD Tester Pro over the past week:

1. STRANGE: The Pro units have no serial numbers - not on the device label or in the software. The PM125 at least called itself "PMPD5FRRLN" or something like that.
2. BUG: 100% of the time when I try and use the FFT graph function on the Pro, the hardware locks up and requires a power-off-restart
3. DESIGN: The Pro PM240 use the galactically hideous Micro-USB jack for the analysis port. Please, dear God, let USB Micro-B die already. I have replaced more of these garbage USB ports than any other USB port for the past 15 years - I have Q-Tips that are more durable than these things.

Congrats on finally getting these released!

[David (PassMark)]

You can Email us with any issues. Or post them here.

1) Serial number called "ID" in the user interface.

2) Yes, we found this bug as well. We should have solution in the next FW update, likely in next few days. We have an internal V1.7 release and there will be a public V1.8 release that should fix this. It seems to be a random memory alignment issue for the data buffer.

3) We didn't want to use another Type-C port as that would seem to be too confusing to have 3 of them next to each other. And Type-C ports are equally fragile but harder to replace. Micro-USB was the next best commonly in use port.

[Sonartech]

Cool! Thanks for the clarification on the ID/Serial number - I'll make a label for our asset control. Also, FWIW, I've never had to change out/replace a full-size Type-B 2.0 connector before.

Here's another maybe bug:

BUG?: I assume that the "Zero" button on the display shouldn't have any function when the PM240 is acting as a source, yet it briefly changes the display to 0.0, but the behavior's odd in that it only does that when you release the Zero button.

Thanks again!

[David (PassMark)]

The "Zero" button is for setting the load to zero when the device is in power sink mode.
While in power source mode, the Zero button does nothing, but yes the UI does flash zero briefly, despite nothing actually changing at the electrical level. So it can be ignored. We might hide the button or replace it with some more useful function (e.g. disconnect).

[Sonartech]

Hi, David -

I had a chance to look at my PM240 today, and now I'm remembering why I asked about the serial number in the UI -- I don't have one. This is what my UI looks like when connected to the PM240:



Seems like my firmware version and hardware version are also incorrect/bad. Anyway, that explains why I have no serial number.

Thanks!

[Sonartech]

Update - it looks like Passmark posted a new version of the Test Application (v1.0.1004). The change log doesn't mention anything about fixing the ID, Hardware Rev, API or Firmware version recognition, but it does.

Suggestion: It would be nice if we could get an e-mailed notification when these files get updated, and also please add a date when the files on the download page were updated.

Here's what v1004 shows, now:


My ID format is considerably different than yours - does this seem accurate? Hardware and firmware versions are matching now, however.

I noticed that my unit shipped to me with firmware v1.7, but the latest firmware version on the download page (as of 4/29/2025 1100 PST) was v1.6.

[David (PassMark)]

Version 1.8 of the USB PD Pro firmware is now available for download.

Main changes are
- Fixed an issue that would cause the unit to sometimes freeze during an FFT calculation
- Fixed issue on Source Port where Apple type profiles stopped working after the first connection.

[Sonartech]

I found a pretty bad race condition bug today, one that might have damaged my tester (still need to do a check out):

1. Successfully loaded firmware v1.8 to check out FFT fix
2. Not plugged into host PC, not running test software, unit is completely cool
3. Plugged in 45W USBPD power supply (fan is not on)
4. Selected 20V 2.25A profile from touch screen (fan is not on)
5. Dialed load up to 45W maximum (fan is not on)
6. Select graph mode, then immediately switched to FFT (fan is still not active)
   
   At this point, I got called to the lab and stepped out of my office for about 30 minutes. Tester stayed loaded.
7. Came back to the office and display is completely trashed (see picture below) and unit is super-hot. Internal fan is not running. Display is "trying to update" but is just garbage moving around. I collected some pictures.
8. I immediately pressed the EXIT button on the touch screen and the internal fan came on almost instantly, max speed, exhausting extremely hot air. I did remove the load due to the situation.
9. After about 2 minutes, the fan had completely cooled the unit and the display returned to normal.

I reproduced the bug 2 more times. The bug appears to be that the FFT graph is somehow inhibiting the internal fan thermal interrupt from turning on the fan, so the unit just allows itself to overheat.

This is what the display looked like:

[David (PassMark)]

Oh, that is a nasty looking photo. We are looking at the cause / solution today.

[David (PassMark)]

It seems that the cooling fans were being disabled while the FFT graph was active (leading to what we believe was overheating of the display, causing corruption).

This and a couple of other issues have been corrected in V1.9 of the firmware, released today.
https://www.passmark.com/products/us...o/download.php

If you find any additional issues, please let us know.