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SMK Toughens Up Those Tiny Micro-USB Connections
An anonymous reader writes "If a gadget ships with a micro-USB port, I see it as a plus because it isn't proprietary — meaning I can easily and cheaply buy replacement cables. But the micro-USB ports aren't the strongest connectors in the world, so if the gadget is expensive (a smartphone) and you accidentally bust the port, you're in trouble. And that's easily done. Japanese manufacturer SMK may have fixed the problem, though, with a new double-strong connector design. They started producing them on Friday, and at an output of 500,000 a month, hopefully they'll be shipping with most new gadgets before long."
Unless it's going to reduce there under contract replacement costs smartphones will not have these. US phone companies want your phone to break every couple of years so you buy a new one with a new contract so they can have horrid service.
No sir I dont like it.
It's called a "through-hole mounted connector." Phone manufacturers just like to save a few pennies by using a surface-mounted connector, which is weak as shit.
*Yes this is even stronger, good for the improvement. But through-hole is strong enough, the problem of weak connectors was caused by phone manufacturers being cheap bastards.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Stop depending on a dab of solder to support a connector and mount it to the case where it belongs.
This used to be the standard way of doing things.
I thought that one of the reasons to move to micro-usb was that the parts most likely to be damaged are now on the easier to replace cable side, as opposed to mini-usb where the springs were on the device side. So I would think that the likelihood of device side damage was already less than with mini-usb.
I agree. However I remember that Apple also patented the discussed DC jack, and doesn't probably want to license it for less than 100% of your laptop's price.
Anyone else think its gotten a bit sad that a company building something to last/stand up to use has become a news story?
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
The micro connector was designed for 10,000 cycles, IIRC. So you can plug and unplug your phone 6 times a day for 4.5 years. Note that the mini-USB was only designed for 1/10th of that, so the micro connector is the better choice. Go check the Wikipedia article if you don't believe me (not that it's any more authoritative than I am).
Original link seems slashdotted for me. Here's an alternate:
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/smk-just-made-micro-usb-ports-a-lot-stronger-20110919/
I know it seems like an odd complaint these days, but my issue with USB connectors - pretty much all of them - is that I don't understand why they don't have a more obvious bias.
It's not clear which side of the plug is up.
Oh sure, if you are looking at it in bright light, you can USUALLY tell clearly.
But if you have bad vision, or are trying to put the cable in a blind spot (we're never plugging in cables that are hard to see, under desks, in the dark, or all three, are we?) it's pretty much a 50% chance if you have the plug right side up.
With the micro usb it's even worse, given their delicacy putting them into a phone, and the ease that one might misinterpret the "not fitting this way" with "not fitting because I'm not pushing hard enough".
Why didn't they make the USB plug format a triangle or some other shape that has a clear "top" and "bottom".?
-Styopa
Sometimes making something harder or stronger doesn't actually solve the problem. Firstly, you can simply shift the breakage point to something more expensive (the circuit board itself). Often, making something more flexible and forgiving goes a lot further. A "soft" connector that flexes instead of breaks would be much more useful.
I see this with surface coatings all the time. If we have a problem with scratching, making the surface harder actually is counter-productive. Making it softer and more malleable is more likely to solve the problem (the surface deforms around the particle that's scratching it, often resulting in no damage. Even when it still scratches, the resulting defect is much less noticable).
"Bend with the wind"... it's why Bamboo is such a useful material.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
I can't remember the last time I charged my phone over the Bluetooth port. Oh wait, it doesn't charge over Bluetooth.
If they only cost a fraction of a cent more than the old connectors, there's no chance that they would get used
They might cost less once you figure in the cost of in-warranty repairs.
That's doubleplusgood news!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Wireless devices ought to be totally wireless. They already have Bluetooth, so they don't need a headphone jack. Syncing can be done over the Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular radios, which are already present. Charging should be inductive. (The inductive-charging people need to agree on a standard, or one of the three competing schemes needs to win.)
Then the unit can be sealed up and made watertight and dust-tight. There's already a Casio G-Shock phone that meets military ruggedness standards, so this is quite possible.
I don't believe that Apple doesn't have a valid patent on it. Waring has had magnetic breakaway cables for years and has been using them for powering deep friers.
A lot of patents on this sort of tech are simply a reiteration of what should be considered prior art with an appended "in a mobile computing device."
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I say we adopt the Nintendo cartridge connector as standard, that way if it stops working all you have to do is blow into it and you're good to go..