• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

USB Plug For Idiots

I can see the spring's, or whatever compression device they are using breaking/jamming over time.

Other then that, great idea!
 
springs* DAMN YOU NO EDIT BUTTON (Steve, can you put in a 1 minute edit timer? Then lock post?)
 
a workaround for something that should have never happened in the first place: USB's rectangular connectors were a bad choice.
 
Whatsisname said:
a workaround for something that should have never happened in the first place: USB's rectangular connectors were a bad choice.
Click to expand...
Agreed. That, or make it obvious (and universal!) which side of the port and plug go up.

This idea is brilliant, and I can only hope it makes it to market. Actually, I'd take a different tack: because of the unavoidably higher cost, this concept should be applied to the host side off the connection
 
An overly complicated, mechanical (ie more prone to failure) method to support laziness. I'll stick with figuring out which way the USB plug needs to be oriented and save myself the extra cost associated with purchasing and then repurchasing a device that uses this.
 
USB 3.0 is pretty much idiot proof now... I always hated reaching behind any random computer to plug in a USB plug and i would have it backwards so I'd have to twist the cable and hold it tight 180 degrees the other way to plug it in.

USB 3.0 seems to have half black/half blue so you can see which way it goes much easier... no?
 
Plus, don't you think they would have made USB cables like that already if it were possible?

USB3.0 seems to be easy enough I think

usb3.jpg
 
Mohonri said:
Agreed. That, or make it obvious (and universal!) which side of the port and plug go up.

This idea is brilliant, and I can only hope it makes it to market. Actually, I'd take a different tack: because of the unavoidably higher cost, this concept should be applied to the host side off the connection
Click to expand...
I don't know about that. I understand your cost argument, but what if the springs/moving parts break on a usb port on a laptop? Then the port is shot and fixing that is a pain to say the least. Desoldering and soldering on a new USB port on a motherboard is difficult. A motherboard swap is expensive and will possibly trigger Microsoft's activation.
 
pgaster said:
I don't know about that. I understand your cost argument, but what if the springs/moving parts break on a usb port on a laptop? Then the port is shot and fixing that is a pain to say the least. Desoldering and soldering on a new USB port on a motherboard is difficult. A motherboard swap is expensive and will possibly trigger Microsoft's activation.
Click to expand...

I broke the (only) USB port on my first laptop because I kept jamming plugs in the wrong way. :( It was one of the vertical plugs, and you had to jam plugs in even when putting it in the right way. Thankfully I didn't use the port that much before I killed it, and the laptop already had one foot in the grave.
 
I've always wanted a USB plug that I didn't have to stare at to see which way was up. it seems that USB connectors are always the wrong way you try to plug them in.
 
yay lets have power and ground pins right separated by a insignificant gap.. That will totally work. If they wanted it designed that way, they would have. Alot more goes into designing a connector than some simple drawings, there are many mechanical and electrical considerations(and alot of math).
 
Maybe I just don’t get it but for me all I see is more points of potential failure. Or at best a complex solution to a simple “problem”.

Now I quoted problem because I wasn’t aware we had one really. PS/2 ports were “round” but they had a bump on them so that by touch you knew what way was up. Now I am rather sure every USB cable I have has this same bump but it is instead the symbol for USB. This just by touch tells me what way is up and yeah just like PS/2 that has always been enough for me to plug things in without line of sight.

Either way I thought knowing what way the plug goes was the easy part. I thought the problem most people had was actually finding the exact position of the hole. And I don’t see how this would help with that. The solution in this case is to buy a USB hub and mount it where you can see it or easily access it.

Now I realize this doesn’t help the guy who broke his laptop above but honestly. It sounds like the USB port was out of spec or misaligned. I would have had the unit replaced once I discovered the issue. It sounds to me like it would have failed prematurely even if your were not trying to plug things in the wrong way.
 
I agree that the double-sided plug is easier (I managed to KILL a desktop Mobo by putting in in the wrong way, literally wiped out the entire input panel so all I could do is RDP into it) but at the same time, how hard is it to line them up? I agree this is an overly complicated rube-goldberg-esqe solution
 
All those people blasting this idea for being "for lazy and stupid people" must not ever try to blindly plug a USB cable/device into the back of a computer that sits under a desk and up against a wall...
 
I agree that it should be easier to tell which way is 'up' with that rectangular connector, though the simpler solution would be to label the damn connector. There's no need to engineer something elaborate that's probably going to break quickly.
 
An asymmetrical design wasn't so wise to begin with, USB has always been a bit of a pain to plug in.
 
If you read [H] you don't need something like this. It's the people that you help out, you know who they are, that can benefit from this. I agree it's a good laugh at first, but it is a good idea for "Joe 6-pack".
 
While the person who made this is very good with graphics design, they clearly have no concept of mechanical or electrical design. Even if all the reliability issues were worked out the cost would add several dollars to every product it was on.
 
This looks like an interesting idea but adding mechanical components will just make it more fragile, prone to dust and jamming and who knows what else. This will cost more to produce and will make ultra small usb devices impossible. I suppose this could be a useful alternative for older folks and such but I seriously doubt this would really be widely used. Cool idea though and definitely has use.
 
USB plugs on monitors vary in orientation from monitor to monitor. My work HP monitor has a different orientation than my home Dell monitor. I can definitely see the usefulness of this.
 
overclock said:
USB plugs on monitors vary in orientation from monitor to monitor. My work HP monitor has a different orientation than my home Dell monitor. I can definitely see the usefulness of this.
Click to expand...
It's also not consistent even for Dell monitors--you can't see the ports on the side without leaning around, so you just have to guess how they oriented the ports on your particular model.
 
Temo Vryce said:
If you read [H] you don't need something like this. It's the people that you help out, you know who they are, that can benefit from this. I agree it's a good laugh at first, but it is a good idea for "Joe 6-pack".
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with technical knowledge or laziness at all.

I would *LOVE* this. I've broken a couple of USB ports on accident by doing the whole 'try and plug it in one way, wiggle it a bit, then flip it over and try again' thing since I couldn't actually see the port.

Jfkfhhfj said:
yay lets have power and ground pins right separated by a insignificant gap.. That will totally work. If they wanted it designed that way, they would have. Alot more goes into designing a connector than some simple drawings, there are many mechanical and electrical considerations(and alot of math).
Click to expand...

Might want to go re-examine the picture...

Dylan80 said:
USB 3.0 is pretty much idiot proof now... I always hated reaching behind any random computer to plug in a USB plug and i would have it backwards so I'd have to twist the cable and hold it tight 180 degrees the other way to plug it in.

USB 3.0 seems to have half black/half blue so you can see which way it goes much easier... no?
Click to expand...

No. Still has all the same problems. It doesn't matter how you color it if you can't see the port or the port is covered by a flap (like on the front of an xbox 360)
 
I don't see how this helps people trying to plug it in sideways or other odd angles, back to the drawing board imo
 
Very clever. Now let's see if anyone will make a product based on it.
 
"USB Plug for People who don't Pay Attention"

Brilliant idea as it takes some thought out of the process for those who find "thinking" an encumbrance.
 
I think a more practical way to do this would be to remove the keying from the connector on Microsoft's Kinect. Since their are already pins on both sides, the connector could easily be modified to be fully reversible.

5192123080_b090ae7c9a.jpg
 
Harb said:
All those people blasting this idea for being "for lazy and stupid people" must not ever try to blindly plug a USB cable/device into the back of a computer that sits under a desk and up against a wall...
Click to expand...

+1

I completely agree.
 
When I'm trying to plug something into a USB port I can't see, I seem to always choose the wrong orientation first. It's one of those things like buttered toast always landing butter side down when you drop it.
 
I think I have a drawer of SCSI and 10base2 terminators around here somewhere...

You kids and your lawn walking, plugging in USB is easy.
 
pborschowa said:
I think a more practical way to do this would be to remove the keying from the connector on Microsoft's Kinect. Since their are already pins on both sides, the connector could easily be modified to be fully reversible.
Click to expand...

If we're switching connectors anyway, at least for idiots like me, the issue is not really that the connector has to go in a certain way, it's that I have to look at the connector to see what way that is*; which means the plug and the socket need to be lit and accessible by my eye. Something like the kinect connector you showed, you can tell by the shape which way it goes in, so you don't have to look at it, if you can feel it.


* And since I'm an idiot and broke a port on my laptop by trying one way and then the other, and then both with force (a fair number of times), don't tell me to do that. :D
 
motherboards USB ports are always have the USB port space at the bottom facing the motherboard same norm goes for USB ports on cases as well (in monitors depends on what side of the PCB board is so can be confusing when going between monitors)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top