Real talk though, I think specs are literally my favorite thing in the world. The truly great ones are so good that there’s never a real reason to deviate from them - if you do, you’re either doing something wrong or you’re taking a shortcut for a hobbyist project (which is fine, but not for anything mass-produced). USB is mostly one of those great specs. The cable you posted is an abomination. There is always a better way.
Yeah! Arbitrarily make one of those ends USB-B, then require it for nearly every damn printer in existence and don’t include the cable with the product.
Yes, I am aware that those are all separate decisions made by different assholes.
Every part of that is fine except not including the cable with the product. But I don’t think I ever got a new product with a USB-B connector that didn’t come with the cable.
Those devices should always use type B (standard, mini, or micro) connectors. Type A should always be used on the host side. The reason is that a type A connector on a host or a hub acts as a power source. A male-A-to-male-A cable allows two hosts to send power through the cable, which will likely blow the USB circuitry or kill the entire device. This is why connecting a keyboard to old micro-B smartphones required an on-the-go adapter, or an AB socket and supporting electronics that can act as both a host and a peripheral device.
Type C can be symmetric because the specification requires compliant hardware to perform this kind of negotiation (and more) between the two sides.
I never seen one with a clip until recently. I just purchased a new monitor and the DP cable it came with had the clip. First time for everything I suppose.
Why do they even make them with the clips? If someone trips on a cable or something, and there’s no clip, it’s a mild inconvenience to plug it back in. If it’s clipped, you can bring the whole computer crashing down!
Or stretch out the twists in the individual wires. That will also cause signal issues.
IIRC, cat5 cables are rated for 50lbs of force on them. They’ll technically hold a lot more than that, but you can’t guarantee the twists will stay in spec.
If you stretch, kink, or squish a CAT5 cable, there is a good chance that it will not work at 1G even if none of the conductors are broken or shorted. Sometimes they will initially connect at 1G, then fall back to 100M after some random amount of time making troubleshooting more annoying.
Designed so they wouldn’t become another HDMI fiasco, where you have to search for aftermarket clips so your plug stays in. Now, do Displayports need it, probably not. They feel about as secure as a USB. But there is that fear going back to even VGA, where most worked fine without screwing them in, but just to make sure… (I can’t recall, did EGA have screws?)
Do they also make cables that dont have the power pin (21 iirc?) Connected so both gpu and monitors try to power each other and never actually power up?
You know they make displayport cables without the clips, right?
I did not know this. Are they allowed by the spec?
Fuck the spec.
Well it’s about time my flowerbed got some fresh pixels
I’m so glad I can finally clean my boots efficiently
That is atrocious, but I’m howling because that is literally PipeWire
Is this what I need for streaming services?
Is this a good way to clean dust out of your port?
Do you condemn hama?
You anarchist!
Real talk though, I think specs are literally my favorite thing in the world. The truly great ones are so good that there’s never a real reason to deviate from them - if you do, you’re either doing something wrong or you’re taking a shortcut for a hobbyist project (which is fine, but not for anything mass-produced). USB is mostly one of those great specs. The cable you posted is an abomination. There is always a better way.
Yeah! Arbitrarily make one of those ends USB-B, then require it for nearly every damn printer in existence and don’t include the cable with the product.
Yes, I am aware that those are all separate decisions made by different assholes.
Every part of that is fine except not including the cable with the product. But I don’t think I ever got a new product with a USB-B connector that didn’t come with the cable.
I sold printers at a big box store for a few years. Do not count on those things having cables in the box.
There are certainly better ways, but I suspect this way is cheaper as the only need to stock one connector type.
External HDDs, external DVD drives, laptop cooling pads, if you were looking for examples.
Those devices should always use type B (standard, mini, or micro) connectors. Type A should always be used on the host side. The reason is that a type A connector on a host or a hub acts as a power source. A male-A-to-male-A cable allows two hosts to send power through the cable, which will likely blow the USB circuitry or kill the entire device. This is why connecting a keyboard to old micro-B smartphones required an on-the-go adapter, or an AB socket and supporting electronics that can act as both a host and a peripheral device.
Type C can be symmetric because the specification requires compliant hardware to perform this kind of negotiation (and more) between the two sides.
The latch is optional. Most of my DP cables don’t have them, and I’m glad for it because they’re sometimes a pain in the arse to unlatch.
It’s a strength check. It takes the might of Thor to squeeze the plug enough, in a tight space, at an odd angle, behind the computer.
I have a hell of a lot of DP cables, and only have one or so with clips.
I’ve never seen one with a clip.
And I have never seen one without.
The power of the anecdote!
I never seen one with a clip until recently. I just purchased a new monitor and the DP cable it came with had the clip. First time for everything I suppose.
Why do they even make them with the clips? If someone trips on a cable or something, and there’s no clip, it’s a mild inconvenience to plug it back in. If it’s clipped, you can bring the whole computer crashing down!
Cable strength. Loose cabling can cause contact and thus signal issues
Or stretch out the twists in the individual wires. That will also cause signal issues.
IIRC, cat5 cables are rated for 50lbs of force on them. They’ll technically hold a lot more than that, but you can’t guarantee the twists will stay in spec.
If you stretch, kink, or squish a CAT5 cable, there is a good chance that it will not work at 1G even if none of the conductors are broken or shorted. Sometimes they will initially connect at 1G, then fall back to 100M after some random amount of time making troubleshooting more annoying.
Loose cables can also damage the port and themselves.
Permanent installation for server multiplexer is useful.
Designed so they wouldn’t become another HDMI fiasco, where you have to search for aftermarket clips so your plug stays in. Now, do Displayports need it, probably not. They feel about as secure as a USB. But there is that fear going back to even VGA, where most worked fine without screwing them in, but just to make sure… (I can’t recall, did EGA have screws?)
I think all of the serial style connectors did, but some were considered optional in the spec.
Yep and the DisplayPort standard says the latch is optional
In fact, I’ve never seen a DP cable with the clips. I had no idea they existed !
Do they also make cables that dont have the power pin (21 iirc?) Connected so both gpu and monitors try to power each other and never actually power up?