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Comment by izacus | Hacker News Reader

It's really strange that even getting a separate testing device is really hard. There are some that test pins and some that can read the emarker, but none affordable that can do both.

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I'm assuming it would involves more ICs which it can bump the cost of the testing kit exponentially to test all of the pins.

If it's exponential that's a huge assumption that needs more backing.

I'm not a EE. It is my understanding that to fully test 24 pins would includes putting a full load of higher wattage through those wiring to ensure they are capable of transferring. Higher wattage which means it needs a larger transformer to output that large amount of power or it would need a 200+ watts power brick to supply the wattage. That includes needing safety/failsafe components to protect itself and the device it is connected to, thus increasing the risk of potential damage if it was mishandled. I won't be surprised if the cable reporting that it can handle higher wattage when it is not in reality. Also, this includes the testing system to ensure it is handling rigorously without damaging it.

I don't know the cost of the such device, I am assuming the higher cost based on other devices for other thing such as ethernet cable tester such as Fluke which are $100+.

I don't see how testing the wattage would be much different if it was two pins on a barrel plug.

Also you only really need to test the resistance here. Or volts and amps separately.

And I don't know if testing power was even part of the idea or if it was more about doing a signal test.

There isn't a big enough market for it, so any device capable of doing this would be expensive due to lack of economies of scale.

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