Slashdot Mirror
Reversible Type-C USB Connector Ready For Production
orasio writes: One of the most frustrating first-world problems ever (trying to connect an upside-down Micro-USB connector) could disappear soon. The Type-C connector for USB has been declared ready for production by the USB Promoter Group (PDF). "With the Type-C spec finalized, it now comes down to the USB-IF to actually implement the sockets, plugs, cables, adapters, and devices. The problem is that there are billions of existing USB devices and cables that will need adapters and new cables to work with new Type-C devices. It’s a lot like when Apple released the Lightning connector, but on an even grander scale. Further exacerbating the issue is the fact that China, the EU, and the GSMA have all agreed that new mobile devices use Micro-USB for charging — though it might be as simple as including a Micro-USB-to-Type-C adapter with every new smartphone."
One of the most frustrating first-world problems... they keep inventing new incompatible connectors for no good reason (at least for the consumer).
It was a great idea for the EU to legislate "One True Connection", because we now have "One True Connection" rather than eleventy-billion connectors, soon to be eleventy-billion-and-one connectors.
I only need to connect my 'phone to charge it. I really don't give a shit if it's Micro, C-type, Mini or Purple Dildo shaped.
This is genius.
"This new connector, whose only value is that it's reversible, doesn't work on the billions of existing devices. Why don't we include a non-reversible adapter?"
Hell, for extra convenience, just leave the adapter on the cable all the time.
.revelc woh ...
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I know, one more USB connector to have an adaptor for... But this is how the mini/micro and even old USB 'A' should have been from the beginning.
There's nothing worse than having to blind mate USB, and having to flip it four bloody times before it works. (except maybe blind mating 'F' connectors, or sometimes D sub..)
Sent from my PDP-11
Easy of use? The locking tabs and uni-orientation of all the micro connectors sucks compared a lightening connector which plugs in regardless of which way you grab it off the floor in the dark.... That, or it's to screw up benedict cummberbatchs ability to determine who is a drunk by how messed up the connectors of their phones are ;)
Oh, they have the internet on computers now
As an Apple customer, I am quite happy they ditched the "30-pin" connector and went with the reversible lightning connector. One less thing to fiddle with when charging my phone. Nice to see USB picking up the feature, even if it is a couple years later with implementations still not available.
That said, the cable/connector interface on the lightning cables is not nearly strong enough for the insertion/removal force required. It will be interesting to see if the USB design will work better in that regard, as the shield does provide some mechanical latching.
This is today's XKCD - and it's already out of date !
http://xkcd.com/1406/
Is there a reason why USB cables can't be shaped like 3.5 mm speaker cables just with more 'stripes'? Then they could be plugged in any direction and they'd be rotate-able.
It was a great idea for the EU to legislate "One True Connection", because we now have "One True Connection" rather than eleventy-billion connectors, soon to be eleventy-billion-and-one connectors.
I only need to connect my 'phone to charge it. I really don't give a shit if it's Micro, C-type, Mini or Purple Dildo shaped.
All you need is one of these puppies:
http://xkcd.com/1406/
Also, if you have the Purple Dildo shaped connector and try to pass through airport security screening, you may have an interesting afternoon...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
What do you mean, not strong enough? We've managed to walk an Apple wall wart out of an outlet several times. The lightning connecter stayed connected to the iPad.
Perl Programmer for hire
Err MicroUSB doesn't have thumb screws. You must be thinking of a different connector like RS232 or DVI.
So they are finally getting the connector right. After 5 different connectors and almost 20 years they are finally going to fix the USB connector problem (at least most of them). Not only that but they designed with a future awareness that will hopefully prevent the Micro-USB3 nightmare (two connectors in one) in the future.
It's Smaller than every previous USB connection.
It's reversible so you can plug it only one time.
They designed it with the ability to add additional wires in the future as the standard evolves.
The C connector supports USB 3.1 which allows up to 100watts of power transfer (enough to power smaller laptops).
IIRC it's also designed to put less strain on the connection to the circuit board so you won't get the solder flex failure so common with USB.
What they got wrong is it's almost indistinguishable from Micro without close examination. They didn't put in a color or other requirement that would have made the port obvious without close examination, even though it's smaller a LOT of people are going to be trying to plug USB micro connectors into these ports.
All in all I'd say the USB working group finally fixed a few major problems with USB and it's a good standard that will probably eventually replace all A,B,Mini and Micro ports over the next few years. The beauty is finally incorporating 100watt capability, it should be possible to have standard power adapters on laptops that use 1 or 2 USB ports for power eliminating the need to replace your power brick all the time.
It likely won't, and its failure will be expensive on the device.
As a non-apple-fanboy, I do have to say that the lightning connector used on iPhones is a smarter connector. If it's going to break due to external force, it'll break the tongue off the plug, rather than damaging the socket, subsequently a lot cheaper and easier to fix. Replacing broken microUSB ( and soon Type-C ) sockets on phones, tablets and similar devices is rarely cheap and frequently has additional complications ( such as lifting tracks, broken PCBs or just nearly impossible to find a suitable replacement connector ).
It's a lot simpler extracting a broken off tongue from a lightning socket and getting a new cable.
Please keep in mind an important aspect of this new cable, it supports 100 watts power transfer. That means most devices, including laptops, can be charged through this one connector. I see that as the best reason to switch, fast charging and universal connector for all my devices. The article glosses over that important detail. It also enables 10 Gbs data transfer.
Look at your fuel gauge in the car. There is a little arrow on it that tells you which side your gas tank is on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World_problem
The USB 3.0 Micro B connector is horrendous design:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...
Seriously, worst connector ever. Did they really think that abomination would be used on cellphones?
Work colleague got a new Ford Ranger, the arrow points to the wrong side :-P
That's not the wrong side, it's just that on his Ranger, the arrow points to which side of the pump you're supposed to be on.
In view of recent revelations that USB Security is fundamentally broken, is the new spec just for a connector or does it include any interface implementation of better security? http://www.wired.com/2014/07/u...
Say what you will about Apple and their tendancy to buck the greater tech trends in the industry, but when Apple does buck the trend, their solution is technically superior and more user friendly than the incumbent alternative. The Lightning connector is but the latest example. Previous examples include Thunderbolt over USB 3, Firewire over USB 2, ADB over every pre-USB keyboard and mouse connection.
Look on the bright side - with Type-D they'll figure out how to go reversible and genderless and then we'll be done for good.
Along those lines: the "gendering" (sort of) of USB was deliberate. USB is a master/slave protocol with a host that supplies power and a device that (optionally) consumes it. The cables were designed to prevent people from connecting two hosts together and shorting out their power supplies. The newer USB On-The-Go (OTG) standard allows two hosts to connect using special connectors (micro-AB) to control power switching and a connection protocol for deciding which end is the master, but it's pretty complicated and requires analog voltage measurement. Fun to have on a smart phone, but massive overkill for most devices.
Visit the
you left off the best one, the magsafe plug that gets sucked into the port when you just dangle the power cable near it
also, you'll catch flag for bringing up Thunderbolt
Type-C is [...] genderless.
No it's not.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
frequently has additional complications ( such as lifting tracks, broken PCBs or just nearly impossible to find a suitable replacement connector ).
Depends entirely on the connector. There are plenty out there with through hole anchors in the PC and many devices use them. If you manage to do something to damage the board in the cases there's likely not much left of your phone.
The lightning connector has one thing going for it: a single manufacture and a single design. MicroUSB on the other hand comes in all shapes sizes and connections on the PCB end. Heck some of them are physically bolted to the device case ensuring no stress on the PCB at all.
The problem with MicroUSB is when you have a myriad of designs and vendors you end up with amongst other things cheap and nasty connectors. Combined with a desire to maximise profits why would (insert phone vendor here) care if your phone breaks when it saves them $0.10 and causes you to either buy another or send it in for an expensive repair?
The standards body can't fix this because if they limit the connector designs then engineers around the world will cry foul.
Pretty much every data connector has its pins exposed to the air and subsequently ingress of dust and liquid when not mated. Having a big metal enclosures/ground planes/shields around the connector is about electrical noise control and sometimes to a limited degree about preventing mechanical damage.
The old apple connector was awful, prone to breakages and pin-lifting due to "real humans" using the devices, it also was a significant pain to replace in the iPod Touch due to its wide body and numerous pins ( at least the phones had a replacable flex lead containing the dock connector ), it was also exceptionally good at picking up crap (lint, paper, body gunk, drinks ... everything that you'd think people wouldn't in their right mind have near it ). I like that it's been changed around to the lightning connector, yes the pins are exposed on it, but it would seem that for a portable device that's floating around in a lot of random environments, the lightning cable is the one that gets the least exposure ( compared to the device ) as it just sits at home waiting till the user returns to charge up their device again. The most common problem we've been encountering is just the socket on the phones filling up with lint over time causing the connection to fail due to the inability to fully insert the plug - thankfully easy to fix of course.
The MicroUSB connector on phones usually are mashed due to people deciding "No, it really MUST fit this way". The SONY Xperia with the Micro-A was a wonderful disaster in that respect ( yes, I know the key is offset to prevent incorrect insertion, but it's useless against determined humans ), or due to looser tolerances the tongue gets partially sheared away when the phone is dropped on the connector while plugged in.
Who knows how people manage to break things in strange ways, but they do, "we" might not, but "they" certainly do.
What you have to consider is that Apple devices are almost luxury items, which mean that they can get away using components that are too expensive for low-end devices.
USB is designed to be cheap and good enough, otherwise it couldn't be "universal".
Actually Apple makes a large profit on each device sold...so yes there are more relaxed cost constraints but it's not like they're eeking by and just barely making money on these.
The actual savings comes from Apples immense and immensely simplified manufacturing. Not only do they sell eleventeen billion of ONE product SKU (ok, some colors or extra flash but that's NBD). So Apple doesn't order 20% of battery A, 40% of battery B, 10% of C, etc....they order eleventeen billion of ONE battery. At that point they get it custom made to exactly what they want and for a substantial discount...they're well known for buying the entire factory output of a certain product for a given time. That's a big reason why the original iPod was the only device so small...they effectively (and realistically) bought the entire production of 1.8" hard drives.
Yes, they do use good materials and have extremely tight tolerances. Efficiency of scale. It's funny though, some people have chronic problems with connectors and cables - complaining about lightning, 30-pin, mini/micro-USB, etc. I never see to break my cables or connectors. Like...ever. I seriously have no idea what 'these people' are doing. I don't baby my electronics either!
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.