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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

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Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#321

Post by lmm »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #287
nerpderp82 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is malicious, you cut off the d-sub connector and put another one on. I have never heard of someone replacing a monitor because the pins on the connector were damaged.

I've never heard of anyone replacing their hard wired monitor cable. And in any case I certainly wouldn't have had the skills, so I think "malicious" is an uncalled-for term here. Maybe my boss (the owner) knew better and chose to charge people for new monitors, but I definitely didn't.

Have you never wired a plug? I'm baffled that it would never occur to you that the connector is replaceable.

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#322

Post by boneitis »

dylan604 wrote: post #299
Sakos wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easily going into the early 2000s. I remember trying to setup LAN parties in 2004/2005, where the wrong combination of patch or normal cable with hub/switch/PC made everything a nightmare.

I found a few patch cables mixed in with regular cables. one day, i got so tired of messing with them, i cut the cables and put them in the trash. i could have just trashed, them, but that didn't feel right. i mean, what if someone were to go dumpster diving. the curse would then be on them.

I've certainly more than once outright thrown out items for just falling outside of the return window rather than hand-me-downing them to friends for being so crappy that I didn't want to ever operate them ever again in any context.

The one I remember the most was a Bluetooth speaker that yapped your ear off for a half-minute combined with an obscene amount of jingle beeping at 100% blast and more LEDs than a Christmas tree as a power-on/off procedure back when they were novel items.

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#324

Post by bigstrat2003 »

lmm wrote: post #321
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of anyone replacing their hard wired monitor cable. And in any case I certainly wouldn't have had the skills, so I think "malicious" is an uncalled-for term here. Maybe my boss (the owner) knew better and chose to charge people for new monitors, but I definitely didn't.

Have you never wired a plug? I'm baffled that it would never occur to you that the connector is replaceable.

I wired a plug for the first time in my life this past year. Nor have I ever known someone who has wired a plug. It's pretty rare to have to do something like that, in my experience. Certainly at 18 I wouldn't have had any reason to believe that was even possible.

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#325

Post by yieldcrv »

proud to say that I’m almost all usbc

my ILEC camera, PS5 game controller, iPhone, laptop, work laptop donglebook, all charge from the same cord and power block when they need to

my portable speaker is still microusb on one side and usb 2.0 or whatever nomenclature on the other side

airpods are primarily inductive charging, but it has a lightning cable port, along with my apple keyboard and mouse when I need to connect them to a different computer and go wireless again

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#326

Post by andersrs »

lesuorac wrote: post #13

I know everybody is still on the high from USB-C but I'm still going to go on the record it will be one of the biggest disasters in cable history. 1) There's going to be video-only cables; low-voltage only cables; etc and this time everything is usb-c so you can literally only tell which ables work by testing all of the dozen cables instead of the 1-2 USB-As you have. 2) The connector is symmetrical but the pins aren…

But we tried the port for each use case thing in the 90s and it sucks. VGA, Printer port, ps/2 for mouse etc. It's pretty easy for me to tell which usb cable works with my monitor dock because it's a really thick one.

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#327

Post by nucleardog »

ianferrel wrote: post #149
Ajedi32 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to do a double take after reading this comment to make sure I wasn't reading an old thread from 2014 or something. USB-C has been out for years now and neither of these predictions have come to pass. Your comment aged poorly before you even finished writing it. USB-C isn't without its problems, but neither of those are one of them.

I have USB-C cables that look the same, but some of them carry video and some don't. I have USB-C charging devices that will charge off of some cables, but not off the one that will charge my laptop. I now have a box of weird crappy cheap USB-C cables with taped-on notes that say which toys they'll charge. I never had this problem with previous USBs. If the cable fit in the port, it would charge and transfer data. So…

Yeah, I don’t know how anyone can say this is not a problem. I’m sure there’s some deep technical reason why each cable does or doesn’t work, but as a user I have no idea why it’s the case or how I can figure out which cable will work where.

I thought I was being smart ordering some decent Anker cables until I found out when trying to connect a display that they apparently they only support charging? And maybe USB 2.0 transfer speeds?

So I went back looking to try and figure out what I needed instead. Depending on what the various devices involved support, I needed some variation of a thunderbolt cable (2, 3, or 4?) or a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C or a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C. But then I’m supposed to know something about thunderbolt versus DP alt mode versus god knows what else none of which is clearly labeled or explained anywhere on the devices I’m trying to connect.

But then there’s this handy table from Adafruit that says maybe not? https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/85323 — apparently only Thunderbolt supports video, or DisplayPort? And USB-C “full featured” cables are only for higher speed charging, not displays?

Find 10 sites, get 10 different answers.

Anyway, turns out a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C cable worked for this specific display. Why? No idea. Will it work elsewhere? No idea.

I’ve been in the industry professionally for about 25 years now and I have no idea what cable I need to purchase and have no idea how to tell before I purchase whether it will work for a specific use case. I have no idea what non-technical people are expected to do with this besides try every cable they own and pray.

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#328

Post by [deleted] »

nucleardog wrote: post #300
mtoner23 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk, lightning has the opposite problem where the contacts are exposed and degrade very quickly on the cable and need to be replaced constantly. Great for apple. And lightning has the gripping pins on the phone which degrade rather quickly too over repeated use. No cable is perfect I fear

Unless we go to something radically different then one side or the other is going to have the flimsy bits. For my money, I’d take a flimsy cable over a flimsy device port. Replacing a cable is a two minute trip to Amazon. Replacing a device port is a pricey and annoying trip to a repair shop or an evening with my soldering iron cursing the universe.

[deleted]

Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)

#329

Post by FrankoDelMar »

joshstrange wrote: post #304
rainbowzootsuit wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that a USB-A fits reasonably by feel into an Ethernet port for extra points.

Oh good, and here I thought I was the only one who had done that... more than once.

Admittedly I did this today.
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