cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cringecollective.io/post/75583
why isn’t it ok? why???
Meme “the number of people who think this is an abomination” over a photo of a USB-A to USB-A cable, “but think this is perfectly acceptable” over a photo of a USB-C to USB-C cable, “makes me sick.”
Removed by mod
The joke is that A to A doesn’t make sense.
It is a fact that USB-C is superior.
The floating tang in the center of the USB-C receiver is a classic “planned obsolescence” design feature. Its built to fail and force you to buy a new device.
Source on this?
I’d love to see a source, I have literally never had the internal flap break and I must have had at least 30-40 devices pass through my hands with USB C by now
Everything from a cheap Chinese brand wireless mouse up to my main phones (which are constantly plugged in and out) to all the random laptops, tablets, Xbox controllers and other peripherals in between.
It’s never happened, though crud does build up in my phone port after a year or 2 to the point that I have to clean it out, but that’s nothing but a small paper clip and 5 minutes
Yeah just guessing if the cable supports the right usb-c protocol. The port is great. The protocol is horrible you have like 10 different versions of the same protocol. And you have to pray that your cable supports the right one you need.
USB-C is an absolute shit-show. Half a dozen types of identical looking cables all with different performance and compatability. They can be power only, USB-2 only, USB 3, 3.1, 5gb, 10gb. Some can carry 5A, others only 3A. Some may support thunderbolt. Cable sellers and manufacturers can/will claim anything.
For people selling USB-C devices it’s a massive support problem. It looks like the device is defective, but someone may just have swapped out the cable for their phone charger cable and there’s no way of telling.
The joke is that USB-A shouldn’t be paired with another USB-A. It should be using a USB-B on the other end. USB-A to USB-A could potentially be damaging, as both devices will expect to be providing power. USB-B denotes that a device is “receiving” USB, not “sending” it.
I realy don’t want a cable i plug both ends in wrong and have to turn them a couple of times
I actually have a double sided male A cable. I was shocked when I got it but I have this laptop cooler that has two A ports on it, presumably to allow a pass through but I’m always nervous that I’ll plug it in and fry something.
Cut it in half and avoid the spec violating abomination.
You’d probably be able to remove the cooler’s non-compliant a-port and just solder the cable directly.
Then at least it’ll be less of an abomination.
A to B made more sense in a world where devices cannot serve as both roles vai negotiation. My android phone when I got it utilized a data transfer method of plugging my iPhone charge port into my Android charge port, then the Android initiated the connection as a host device.
The true crime is not that the cable is bidirectional, the true crime is that there is little to no proper distinction and error checking between USB, Thunderbolt, and DisplayPort modes and are simply carried on the same connector. I have no issues with the port supporting tunneled connections - that is in fact how docking stations work - just the minimal labeling we get in modern devices.
I’d be fine with a type-A to type-A cable if both devices had a reasonable chance at operating as both the initiator and target - but that type of behavior starts with USB-OTG and continues in type-C.
In the long, long ago, we used to use USB-A to A cables to transfer customers’ Mac OS X user profiles when they would buy a new Mac. Also worked with Target Disk Mode, way back when.
Apple didn’t use FireWire for that?
They did, but the first run of MacBooks we got that didn’t have Firewire would let you use USB. But we needed an A to C adapter to make that work.
I only remember doing this with FireWire. Which model supported target disk mode over USB-A?
The USB spec requires one master and one slave device, which is usually decided by which type of connector each side has. USB OTG can bypass that restriction, but I’ve only ever seen it done with micro USB or type C.
I actually have one of the USB A cables above from an old android tablet that had 2 full USB A ports on the side.
One was always a slave/device port while the other actually had a physical switch to change from Host to Device.
That used to be my mobile media tablet. I could cast wirelessly or steam directly from the mini HDMI port. Such an awesome device for how cheap it was.
“they are the same picture” -my wife
I actually have several USB-A to USB-A cables.
Why?
For the glory of Satan, of course!
you can use them to transfer files between PCs without the need for a flash/thumb-drive I also have a few flashlights that charge in and out through a USB-A
Hub switches, for one. Power is another (usb a is easier to solder on by hand, as well as cheaper)
What if I put a C-to-A Adapter on both ends? Is that okay?
Yea but it’s inefficient. USB-A has a significantly lower transfer rate than USB-C so it’ll bottleneck
C to A adapters are sick and illegal
I still have some
Why would that be illegal? Shouldn’t there be some way to plug an older flash drive or console cable into a laptop that doesn’t have a type A port? (Ahem, Mac)
This is what I mean. This won’t help in your case.
They might have been referring to an adapter with a female USB type C port and male type a port.
What’s a common thing that would require the use of USB A on both ends?
it was common amongst digital cameras in the early 2000’s.
and maybe you could somehow link up two computers as well…? tho that could have been some specialized cables
They make A-to-A cables with a bit of file transfer software integrated into the cord. Useful for transferring big files between two PCs without setting up a network.
nothing worthwhile, as it’s not allowed (for a good reason)
The only place i ever saw it was on those cooling padas for laptops
I guess the usb spec makes you sick then.
With the the first one you can fry your gear, while stuff that takes the second one does auto negotiation.
I actually found an A to A cable in my Big Box of Cables I Might Need One Day™ when trying to flash my Gotek floppy emulator with FlashFloppy firmware.
My WH1080 weather station has a USB-A connector on the device side, I assume for the convenience of the slimmer profile.
That’s the only natural occurrence of that cable I’ve ever seen.
The other one was a custom board printed in 2001 at the electronics class, where I was some kind of precursor by powering it with a USB cable rather than a bulky lab power supply. As I did salvage the connector it was a A-A abomination but they had that cable at the supermarket for some reason ¯_(ツ)_/¯
It is expected to be rare, since A to A cables are out of spec.
If you go buy one of those laser engravers off of eBay, for some reason their data in ports are USB-A, and they come with USB A to A cables. My understanding is you can both plug it into a PC and run it kind of like a printer, click Print and the machine jumps to life, or plug in a USB key with tool path profiles on it to use standalone. Why not have a USB-B port for device mode and a USB-A port for host mode is beyond me, I don’t live in Shenzhen.
Well, if you have asymmetric cables, there’s always one clearly-defined host and the other one is the slave.
it works like sex: with usb-c, both devices more or less kinda have ti “negotiate” who’s dom and who’s sub. that takes extra negotiation effort and makes the protocol more complicated. and therefore more expensive imo.
Just a small nitpick, but sub or dom doesn’t care about gender or sex, its top or bottom you mean in your example :)
bottom dom sounds interesting 🤔
Is that like a power bottom on steroids?
I have an external 3.5“ HDD enclosure that has a USB-A port to connect the usb cable to. I have no idea who thought that was a good idea. The difference in price to a B connector can’t be that significant…
You underestimate what price difference is significant in some cases. If it is even a tenth of a cent cheaper, it is decided.
I know, but it shouldn’t matter. Also, it feels like the amount the A port is cheaper an A to A cable would be more expensive
I have a similar PATA enclosure. I thought it was cursed until I got to reuse the A-A cable to upload FlashFloppy custom firmware to Gotek floppy emulators without wiring up a USB-serial adaptor.
