USB short circuit tester (USB SOS)

[David (PassMark)]

We have a new product in development: A USB short circuit tester.

Cheap, near indestructible device to test for killer USB ports.

Protect your expensive gear from ports with over voltage, shorted data lines, etc..

Green = Good.
No lights = Bad
Red = Bad






We are calling it USB S.O.S.
S = Shorts Circuits
O = Over voltage
S = Sensor

Should be available around the end of Oct 2018.

[David (PassMark)]

Type of faults that can be detected are,

Over voltage or under voltage on VBUS
Short circuit between VBUS and any of the data lines
Invalid voltage on data lines
No voltage on the port


Detailed specs are,

Green Pass LED turns on when:
3.85V < VBUS < 5.5V
D+ & D- < 3.9V
SSRX+ & SSRX- & SSTX+ & SSRX- < 1.5V

VBUS Red LED turns on if:
5.5V < VBUS < 7.75V

D+ or D- Red LED turns on if:
V > 3.9V

SSRX+ or SSRX- or SSTX+ or SSRX- Red LED turns on if:
V > 1.5V

[David (PassMark)]

Product page is now up for the USB Short Circuit Tester
Part number: PM119

[David (PassMark)]

Stock of USB short circuit tester has now arrived from the factory and we are ready to ship them out.

[BillyWood]

if your usb tester pass the test but the port still having issues then yo should try power-cycling the computer? I believe some motherboards use active protection on the USB ports that needs to be reset.

[David (PassMark)]

Active protection on the host ports isn't something we have looked too deeply into. My understanding however is that some ports will shut down when overloaded. If the port is shut down then it will show up as a fail (no green light) with our USB SOS tester.