bperrybap:
So a short between the power and ground wires would be bad.
Seems like this should be part of testing for a good/bad cable.If you hook 4 Arduino pins to the 4 separate wires on the "far" end of the cable, you could check for
continuity in each loop as well as for a short between the two loops
with nothing connected to the other end of the cable since the other end of the cable already has
connections that are crimped together on the "close" end.--- bill
Unless I implement a switch I don't think I can test for shorts without running out of pins. Even then I'd need 4 different switch positions. (there's more than 1 type of 4-wire cable, the black and red loop variant and then straightforward pin to pin variant. Plus different positions for the 3-wire and 2-wire cables.)
I think I'll take this home and work on it on Sunday, see if I can come up with something.