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USB Cheat Sheet

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Re: USB Cheat Sheet

#51

Post by moron4hire »

masklinn wrote: post #17
legalcorrection wrote: post #8

Suggestion: maybe include all the USB-C-plug Thunderbolt versions too. My personal policy these days is to just buy reputable Thunderbolt cables for all my USB-C needs. Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing? Also, I think there's a difference between active and passive USB-C cables, or something like that.

> Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing? If you're happy with it then probably not. The main possible issues are that it's more expensive and you get shorter and thicker (less flexible) cables, a passive non-optical TB (or USB4) cable will top out around 1m. Less capable cables can be longer and thinner which is convenient for e.g. mice and such small devices. But otherwise may not matter overly much.

I've been pretty happy with my less flexible cables. I don't need to snake them around tight corners anywhere. Being less flexible seems to keep them from auto-tangling.

Re: USB Cheat Sheet

#55

Post by johnwalkr »

mschuster91 wrote: post #18
johnwalkr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually get optical usb3 and thunderbolt (all generations) cables. Thunderbolt was originally called light peak and shown off by Intel and Apple in demos as optical, and Sony had a line of laptops with optical light peak connectors to connect to external GPUs. But ultimately the default became non-optical because it can carry power too.

> But ultimately the default became non-optical because it can carry power too. There's no problem in making a cable with two fibre leads for data and two (at higher lengths thicker to reduce issues with voltage drop) power lines.

That’s a good point although optical usb3 and thunderbolt3 cables tend to be advertised with electrical isolation as a feature and suggest using an external hub to provide power.[1]

[1] https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/...

Re: USB Cheat Sheet

#56

Post by ChrisRR »

Someone wrote: post #47

No USB On-The-Go ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go ) or Wireless USB ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_USB )? USB is a triumph of marketeers over engineers. All these things are called USB because USB sells (see also: Bluetooth).

Bluetooth Smart aka. Bluetooth Low Energy aka. Wibree aka. not actually bluetooth

Re: USB Cheat Sheet

#57

Post by mschuster91 »

johnwalkr wrote: post #55
mschuster91 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ultimately the default became non-optical because it can carry power too. There's no problem in making a cable with two fibre leads for data and two (at higher lengths thicker to reduce issues with voltage drop) power lines.

That’s a good point although optical usb3 and thunderbolt3 cables tend to be advertised with electrical isolation as a feature and suggest using an external hub to provide power.[1] [1] https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/...

Whoa, that pricing is quite a bit.
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