[Closed] Why are there so many different types of USB connection?

Who's going to post xkcd first? 😉

Progress, innit.

And what does the U stand for?

And what does the U stand for?

Universal, which makes sense if you had to play around with the interfaces that were popular before USB came along.

Yet it doesn't [i]seem[/i] very universal

Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB used just for charging everyday electronic devices! There's no bloody data being carried, it only needs one standard variety, but no, the muppet manufacturers have to use half a dozen different varieties. 🙄
And before anyone mentions Apple, they've always used one standard USB plug/socket for charging and data, and two proprietary plug/sockets on the iOS range in ten years, unlike pretty much every other manufacturer, and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits. 😡

Yet it doesn't seem very universal

It is a lot [i]more[/i] universal than serial and parallel connections.

Doesn't the universal bit stand for the communication protocol not in the connectors.
And yes it is frustrating, especially unnecessary proprietary connectors. At least USB C can be used either way round which is progress.

There's only 8!
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Joke:

today they buried the man who invented the USB. There was a small delay as they put the coffin in ground, then took it out, turned it over and put it in again.

8? Rubbish! Where the iphone/pad/pod ones? where this one?

[IMG] [/IMG]

Half a dozen varieties? Not in regular use today surely. There is pretty much one standard for mobiles. One for other portable electronics and one for big stuff like printers.

I don't think things can be a bit universal, they either are or they aren't. And if they put it right there in the name then that's what I expect.

the bit that is universal is the protocol, not the connectors. Apple stuff isn't USB. There are many connectors to give manufacturers options as devices come in many different shapes and sizes.

DezB - thats an 8 pin UC-E6 like-mini-usb proprietary connector!
[img] [/img]

Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB

There's one* variation of micro USB, which is micro USB. Anything else is something proprietary which happens to look similar.

(* - ok, two, but I've never seen micro-A in the wild)

and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits.

But, but, but, I'm currently charging my Sony phone with a Samsung charger.

The evolution of them is pretty much due to the amount of data that can be transferred down the cable. Type C is much faster than the original format. You have different cables for iPhone etc essentially because apple want you to use their proprietary connectors. Although historically every manufacturer seemed to have their own format cable it seems to me that (apple aside) this has pretty much been stopped in favour of the USB standard.

It's not the connector that's universal, it's the protocol.

Then they should have called it a UPSB connection

And IIRC aren't Samsung USB cables slightly different again, they look the same but they just won't fit.

Then there's micro HDMI. Why did we need another connector that looks almost the same?

CountZero - Member 
Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB used just for charging everyday electronic devices! There's no bloody data being carried, it only needs one standard variety, but no, the muppet manufacturers have to use half a dozen different varieties.
And before anyone mentions Apple, they've always used one standard USB plug/socket for charging and data, and two proprietary plug/sockets on the iOS range in ten years, unlike pretty much every other manufacturer, and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits.

Most the mobile industry standardised on micro USB for charging years ago. Apple didn't and invented a proprietary connector.

Various other gadgets use a mix with some using mini USB.

The differences in USB were historically mainly for size reasons and then more recently to increase capacity and then to introduce a bi-directional cable.

Progress, innit.

Pretty much. Everything evolves. Including USB and wheel sizes.

Diminishing returns though (USB B to mini-A massive. To MicroUSB.... not so much)

USB is a decent albeit argueably not perfect standard, both the protocol and the connectors. Miles ahead of the current MTB industry where IMHO the standards of standards are slipping.

What do people think is not Universal about USB then?

I think it does deserves the univeral name as it was a collabrative effort which was well thought out enough to prove successful for a massive range of connections from mice to memory sticks, wireless adapters, scanners, digital audio, etc and on a wide range of hosts from PCs to phones, routers, set top boxes, etc.

It is not the standards fault that some manufactures dont play ball and use their own proprietry connectors. The worst offenders are the point&shoot cameras which use usb protocol with a proprietry connector for no reason whatsoever.

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's the protocol that's universal, not the connector.

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's the protocol that's universal, not the connector.

wobbliscott - Member
the bit that is universal is the protocol, not the connectors. Apple stuff isn't USB. There are many connectors to give manufacturers options as devices come in many different shapes and sizes.

Personally I'm quite glad I don't need to have a phone thick enough to plug this into
[img] [/img], mini is still bigger than my phone wants to be. C seems more robust than micro and the double sided bit makes a lot of sense

It's pretty phenomenal how far USB data transfer speeds have come over the ~20 years the connection has been around...
1.0: ~1.5Mbps
1.1: ~12.5 Mbps
2.0: ~480 Mbps
3.0: ~5120 Mbps
3.1: ~10240 Mbps

(Above is Mega bits per second, divide by 8 for Mega Bytes per second)

The relatively new 3.1 generation 2 in theory runs at twice the speed of my 512GB Crutial MX100 Solid State Drive and just over half the theoretical speed of my 512GB Samsung 951 NVME SSD! 😯

half way up the page

😆

The only thing nowadays to slow transfer speeds down is to film it in an action thriller, you can almost hear the screaches and whirrs of a zx spectrum.

why do some usb cables
refuse
to charge some devices?

Because they want to get to the other side?

Because some devices measure the resistance of the cable and determine a safe charging rate, so a cheap cable won't work with a 2A charger and smartphone.

Similarly my phone charges at 9V rather than 5V with the right charger.

Sometimes they still work with the wrong cable or charger, but usualy at 500mA or less, and on a tablet or bigger phone that can be slow enough that you'd never notice it charging.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

And IIRC aren't Samsung USB cables slightly different again, they look the same but they just won't fit.

I've not had this issue. I've got a Sony charger & original cable that will charge my Sony phone, my Wife's Samsung phone, our LG tablets, our Kindles and my Bluetooth speaker.
We've got LG chargers & original cables that will charge all of the above.
We've got Samsung chargers that will charge....have a guess....all of the above....
We've got an Amazon Kindle charger that will charge all of the above, admittedly at quite a slow rate because the cable is fiddly.

The only things I can think of that we need a different cable for are my Nikon cameras, my knock-off Aldi special Moon Comet rear light & my Garmin; for those I need the mini-USB cable.
Dunno why they all use a larger connector, when they are intrinsically 'compact' devices.

The printer cable is a complete non-issue because you plug it in once & it's done. That cable has been around for god knows how long, so it's probably a question of things moved on but that design had established itself for printer applications.

Regarding the cables that refuse to charge comment; it's as TINAS says - they can't handle the higher current requirements of that device. Often the device will tell you it's not charging or not register as charging, but if you leave it overnight it will charge up - just very slowly.

thanks for the info
but
compatibility of plug shape not much use
if
cables themselves invisibly incompatible
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

theauthorities - Member
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

all my
Sony/Samsung/LG/Anker/Amazon
cables
charge all
my
Sony/Samsung/LG/Anker/Amazon devices.

Do I win a prize?

Does your Apple cable charge your Bluetooth speaker? Your Garmin? Your e-reader? Your portable battery pack?

It's hardly surprising that a proprietary cable from a single manufacturer works across all devices, is it? 🙄

and also all my
LG/Nexus/Polar
cables
charge or power or connect to all
my
Arduinos/Raspberry Pi/Mbed/Polar watch/Nexus/HTC/I'm sure I forgot something (camera probably)

Handy when every charger is mains to USB plus a USB to micro-USB cable. So not only is everything a standard setup for charging, it's also a standard setup for connecting to the PC too 🙂 without a 2nd cable.

Just the next phone that might differ if it's the flippy floppy no need to plug in 3 times to get it the right way around USB-C type.

thanks for the info
but
compatibility of plug shape not much use
if
cables themselves invisibly incompatible
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

another advantage of 'c' is that charging can happen from the device on either end of the cable. the older standards will only charge one way - one is master and the other slave ( unless you use a work-around ). useful for us at work ( if our 'electronics guy' would get with the ffing program, or at least this century 🙄 ) for reasons i won't bore you with, but for instance you may wish to top up a laptop battery from a tablet, if you wanted to get something off it but didn't have the charger and it was flat.

how can i tell what are "quality" cables?

It's hardly surprising that a proprietary cable from a single manufacturer works across all devices, is it?

no it's not
but that doesn't make it less useful

That started reading like a crap haiku competition for a bit

Is this the "one" Apple cable to which you refer?

[img] [/img]

theauthorities - Member 
how can i tell what are "quality" cables?

I've got maybe 30 USB cables knocking around from gadgets over the years. Cheap and expensive ones. All do the job and not one has caused issues with charging.

A lot of charging issues are down to the default 500mA current yet device wanting 1 or 2A. All depends what you plug it into.

Connect to a PC and you might only get 500mA or you might get more, but depends on the PC and often the particular port you connect to. And then some PCs or devices will drop to 500mA if the connection is data as well as charge. If you short out the data line it may then draw the full rate. You can get fast charge adapters you stick on the end of the cable which do just that and are fairly cheap.

Plug into a mains powered USB socket and you still may only get 500mA. Either because the socket only delivers that or again because of the data line. This time because some USB charger sockets don't short out the data on their side so the phone thinks it's connected to a PC. Again an adapter to short it out sorts the issue. That's with the kind of sockets/chargers you plug an ordinary USB cable into. A dedicated USB charger brick with cable sticking out of it isn't a problem, except when you use the wrong one that's rated for a lower current.

Then you have gadgets that just can't charge via standard 5V USB, so they do non standard stuff and require a dedicated charger. My Dell Venue tablet charger runs at 5V 2A for ordinary devices but plug the tablet in and it gets 12V 2A - 24W charge, and that's the only time it will not take days to charge.

Is this the "one" Apple cable to which you refer?

no.
have no old-style devices.

Personally I'm quite glad I don't need to have a phone thick enough to plug this into

Yet it is with increasing regularity that I now see people with a secondary inch thick battery to charge their 'phones from.
Rather makes a mockery of their nice slim devices. 😆

Mini USB worked for me, my mobile, camera, playstation et cetera all worked off the same cable.
Much more reliable than the newer shapes and sizes from my experience (work in a pub so always charging customers' telling bones).

You can get fast charge adapters you stick on the end of the cable which do just that and are fairly cheap.

They also have the effect of making it charge only rather than charge and sync. Handy when you're charging from somewhere where the source isn't trusted (PC in an Internet café, for instance).

Portapow do variations of them, and they'd a pretty decent explanation of how / why on their site last time I looked.

USB is a decent albeit argueably not perfect standard

It has a major gaping security floor in it though - the device provides the driver which normally runs with root privilege and no checks. Basically it's a highly effective method of spreading malware, very handy for infecting air gapped computers....

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/how-omnipotent-hackers-tied-to-the-nsa-hid-for-14-years-and-were-found-at-last/

Hence fast charging data block cables:

[url= http://www.portablepowersupplies.co.uk/portapow-fast-charge-data-block-micro-usb-cable/ ]Ta-da![/url]

It has a major gaping security floor

Scary!

[quote=theauthorities ]have no old-style devices.

Ah, you're referring to the "old-style" devices which came out when micro USB was already a standard for charging devices made by everybody else - since when Apple have changed their standard twice?

I don't see any issue with the "device" end of USB cables - 3 standards depending on the size of device, with the middle size dying out now micro is becoming ubiquitous (my old camera has a 4th different one which is a pain as I can never find the right cable, but that's because it is unusual). The problem with USB is with the A connector, which is a particularly rubbish design which could have been hugely improved by making the outside of the connector asymmetric in the same way all the others are.

You can get reversible USB-A cables. Basically the 'tongue' bit without the outer shell, and then the connectors duplicated on the other side. (The OnePlus phones come with such a thing, I think.)

The problem with USB is with the A connector, which is a particularly rubbish design which could have been hugely improved by making the outside of the connector asymmetric in the same way all the others are.

I'd say the main problem with USB is precisely the asymmetry, one thing that Apple got right.

And USB type C got right.
The OnePlus 2 and 3 phones are USB-C ? so reversible by design. X or 1 might be micro USB. But it's only the A connector that has an issue with being the wrong way round every time you try it. The plug has a logo which indicate "up", but that's useless when host device mfrs put sockets in random orientations.

I was doing my nut trying to find the USB connector on my 3D printer... ****ing chinese crap, they've used some different board and it doesn't have the USB, pricks!

Had another look at the USB lead- it's standard on one end, B on the other, I didn't even know USB B was a thing so I'd ignored the socket thinking it was a network cable or connector for some sensor I wasn't using 😳

[quote=Northwind ]I didn't even know USB B was a thing

😯

half your problem will be that you're using cheap cables, you need to replace the contents of your USB cable drawer with these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nordost-Heimdall-USB-Cable-1-0m/dp/B00KSLVZY6

This joke was originally in a cartoon but I can't remember where and I can't draw so..

Industry bigwigs gather: "There are 16 different standards, all doing the same thing. This is ridiculous and inefficient. Let's have an industry wide agreement and establish a universal standard."

some time later...

There are now 17 different standards.

xkcd

Yep.

[img] [/img]

https://xkcd.com/927/

One issue with Apple which I'm not sure has been discussed recently boiled my piss. Ive got an 80Mb Ipod classic whose sound gizmo has failed, OK so stuff breaks, it's about 6 years old, I'll get a new Touch. I've several radios and CD/Radio combos which have docking stations for said classic. New Touch is useless when connecting to these unless you buy their £25 connector which makes the IPod wobble about and looks as though it will break at any time, alternatively pay £35 for a wired one and have the IPod laid down on the radio which is also a bit crap. Any suggestions on this one?

MrNutt - Member 
half your problem will be that you're using cheap cables, you need to replace the contents of your USB cable drawer with these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nordost-Heimdall-USB-Cable-1-0m/dp/B00KSLVZY6

That's a bargain. PC World normally sell them for twice the price, insisting you need one even if there's a cable in the box anyway.

Any suggestions on this one?

Does the iPod have Bluetooth?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Receiver-Adapter-Speaker-Station-Support/dp/B00OQ1Z87E (and a host of similar devices).