MichaelMeissner:
stonent:
I don't have an official pinout of the cable but from continutity testing, no pins are cross connected. It does appear to be a 1 to 1 connection.The side of the cable that goes to the device being tested has a known pinout. Theres, power (12 to 24v), ground, Bus 1 data+, Bus 1 data-, Bus 1 common, Bus 2 data+, Bus 2 data-
The final pin has no listed function, but it does correspond with a pin on the other side of the cable.
Not having the electronics background, I would suspect if the cable normally gets 12-24v, you would want to test it with 12-24v, otherwise you might miss problems that don't show up with smaller voltages, but does show when you are using the cable as expected. Obviously with the Arduino, you can't drive it at that voltage directly, and would need an opto-isolator, relay, or similar to drive the voltage.
Yeah but it's low current. The diagnostic tool can also be powered from a USB port. So shouldn't be more than 2.5W drawn on the cable.
The cable itself when cut apart looks like ethernet with a woven sheath over it and then dipped in the same stuff the black coating on a computer power cord appears to be.
I think for intermittent cable breaks I've got a good idea now about what I'd like to try.