Smart Cable Testing?

I found that a smart cable broke. Students were getting motor error messages on port 1-3. When a motor was plugged into port 1 on a drive a bot. When I replaced the cable everything worked. When I used the old cable on a different brain the old error messages showed up again.

  1. Is there a toot or device to test the smart cables?
  2. Can one wire go bad and cause errors like I have seen?
    Thank you
    Alan
  1. This may sound obvious, but it sounds like you’ve already tested the cable, and found it to be bad. What more do you want to test? If you’re interested in getting it replaced, contact VEX customer service, and they may replace it.

  2. Do you know if that cable ever worked correctly? In my opinion, the most likely cause of a cable “going bad” is students pulling on the cable, without releasing the connector.

Steve

Aloha Kinnama,
It looks like you’ve just discovered the secret to getting rid of error messages. Change motors and change wires. Beyond that I don’t have a better way of checking wires and motors.

-BAILEY

Also many kids bend the tab on the connector. Even if it looks good, it might be close to breaking off. That leads to a loose connection.