Has no one told the one about the USB guy's funeral?
They put him in the ground, but realized he was the wrong way 'round so they pulled him out and put him in the other way.
USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
351–360 of 544 posts
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
My class got taught it in high school age 15-16, shrug. (And I'd done them at home before that)
Sure, obviously different people will have different experiences. That's why I was careful to qualify it by saying "in my experience". But we never did that at home (though oddly enough my dad did plenty of other electrical work around the farm), and it definitely wasn't something I got taught in school. Until this year when I replaced my dishwasher, I had no idea one could even replace a power plug or that some thin…
Wow, that is almost impressive. Especially since you will find power plugs hanging next to the light bulbs in almost any grocery store in the world. But I guess, one need to know, to see them. Maybe we shouldn't think the users of our software are totally hopeless when they don't find all the functions we put in the menus.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#353> you can up the odds by looking at the inside first, or identifying the logo
No, this really only increases your frustration once you find out that some USB manufacturers can't tell their head from their *** when it comes to making the connector.
ASUS, I'm looking at you.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
New iphone ships with a beautiful braided USB-C cable that's charge only. I'm going to cannibalize the usb-c cable from my external nvme drive if I ever want to plug the new phone in. Some usb-c cables are 100W compliant, many are not. None of them are clearly labeled.
The new iPhone ships with a USB 2.0 cable, it does data transfer, just not at USB 3 speeds
I think the regular is USB 2 and the pro is USB 3
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#355Earlier 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.
Wait, there already are PD-specific cables, video-specific cables, and the like. If your cable is short enough, it's not an issue, but if you want one longer than 1 meter, you will likely have problems with 4k video on a cable that isn't specifically designed for high data rates.
The high speed and power delivery cables have chips on them, so the connected devices won't use high speed or PD if the cable can't handle it, regardless of length.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#356Earlier 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 a USB-C cable that only charges when oriented one way.
Then it is broken I think you have both a broken cable and a broken device, or one not up to spec. Some devices only connect to one side, which will work on a good cable, since it is connected to both sides. One of the PC manufacturers did this early on with USB C. I can't remember who it was.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I want the connector that can be attached by only moving the TV a few inches, just enough to get my hand to fit and feel around, not something I have to rearrange the furniture for and break out some headlight to see which direction the cable is oriented. With BNC cables, I could do it with my eyes closed.
I find that a USB-A fits reasonably by feel into an Ethernet port for extra points.
I did that today! right hand side of lenovo X230, then wondered why my mouse didn't work
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
4. Is it capable of charging this device? 5. Is it capable of charging devices when plugged into this charger? 6. If it can charge this combination of things, what wattage can it charge at?
4. Yes, all USB-C to USB-C cables can charge at a minimum of 60W which should be sufficient to charge almost anything 5. It depends, but the output capacity is printed on the power supply[0]. (Compare to USB-A, where the most you could do is 12W.) 6. The minimum of the cable (60W for any cable, 100W for some cables, 240W for a very few[1]) and the charger [0] Annoyingly, this problem is compounded when using a power…
4) A USB 2 cable with USB-C in both ends can't 60W.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
> isn’t exactly common but it’s not exactly rare either. Using electronics needs a drivers license like equivalent. Some people shouldn't have access to them if getting an HDMI connector wrong is an issue.
> Using electronics needs a drivers license like equivalent. I bet everyone seriously wishes there were a "seriously honestly just not a fucking idiot" license. The fact that we know which way a connector goes puts us in a whole different league from the rest of the population; most people are so braindead stupid that they can't even fathom being smarter. Sometimes I wonder if being neurodivergent is even worth it. D…
The issue isn't knowing which way a connector goes; the problem is that some people act like gorillas and try to use brute force to force connectors into place, and then don't understand why it's broken.
Normal people will try to push a plug in with a normal amount of force, find it doesn't fit, then realize they're doing it wrong and try something different. (Or in the case of USB-A, turn it over and try again, find that's wrong too, then turn it over yet again and find it fits perfectly.) But there's some sector of the populace that just doesn't seem to understand how much force is appropriate for things like delicate electronic connectors. I'll bet that if you took a tour of their homes, you'd find many other broken and beat-up things too.
Re: USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with USB-a isn't that it's non reversible, it's that it's non-reversible _and_ rectangular, so it's not clear at a glance which way round it should go. All they had to do was make the connector have a non-symmetrical shape so that it's immediately obvious which way round it goes when you pick it up - you could do it without even looking. Think of how much time we'd have collectively saved with this minor…
Right, the only thing worse than USB was the PS2 port. What sort of madness drive someone to invent a round connector that is keyed. Hyperbole aside, there are some very good reasons to go with round connectors, it can be very strong and you can put a big nut on them to have an extremely secure lock. however the PS2 connector is nether of these things, It would require a much more robust key to work well. The worst c…
The PS/2 connector was just a mini version of DIN connectors from the mid 1900s. They were sometimes used for printers and floppy drives in place of wider parallel connectors. In general, once you knew where ‘up’ was you could figure out the orientation in a way that is still more intuitive than USB. XLR cables are similar and still widely used, but have more external cues as to their orientation.