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Old 17th Aug 2020, 2:31 pm   #121
Maarten
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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Pity they never lived up to the first part of their name 'Universal'
I'm pretty sure in the USB 1.0 standard the U stood for Unusable
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 5:08 pm   #122
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

On the grounds that of the 200 or so computers I own, only this PC (and I guess the RPi, if I count that) has a USB or or _can have a USB port), it's certainly not 'universal'.

It is serial.

Electrically it's not a bus. If it was you wouldn't have to have hubs.

So I call it 'Useless Serial Botch' at least in polite company...

Truely my least favourite interface of all time.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 5:59 pm   #123
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

It's interesting that USB gets a mention. Many years ago I was talking about interfaces to mobile (well technically hand portable) telephones with Nokia. At the time with what we were trying to do, our massive problem was the lack of a common interface standard. Nokia came and told us, that this new USB interface was going to be a standard. To be fair they did start to use it albeit via a bespoke connector on their phone, as did a few others. But the control protocol was still unique and was no help whatsoever. I could only have dreamed of bluetooth even with all its quirks. It's interesting, and I hope still on topic that we are talking about common physical connectors where the protocols aren't well controlled and cause the 'standard' to be pretty useless.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 6:02 pm   #124
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

I think USB stands for Ubiquitous Serial Bits, it works well and easy to implement on a microcontroller. OK a slightly bewildering selection of connectors but cables are very cheap and readily available.
 
Old 17th Aug 2020, 6:15 pm   #125
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

For all the criticism of USB, at least with USB3.0 there is a version which comes with proper thumbscrew retainers so the weight of the cable/conector can be properly supported, and it won't get inadvertently pulled-out when a cat jumps onto your desk.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 6:35 pm   #126
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

A Magsafe version might be even better as the jumping cat will surely throw the cable including the device on the floor.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 9:52 pm   #127
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned SCART yet.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 10:59 pm   #128
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Possibly because everyone beat no one to it
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 11:29 pm   #129
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Oh yes they have and here it comes again.
Most connectors are fine, the worst of all would defo be scart, they are great when they work but any vibration on the upper floor results in a picture changing colours, plus my hand behind the set trying to get the thing to stop creating random colours.
Dunno why these things were even invented in the first place, RF VCR wires seem more reliable, somehow.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 11:40 pm   #130
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

...Until the advent of channel 5, when someone had to go round the country retuning modulators.
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 1:59 am   #131
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

There is one particularly horrible connector:

No connector, in a place where there really needed to be one. Places like those wired-together PCBs where the wiring breaks off as you try to persuade things far enough apart to get in with a probe or a soldering iron.

David
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 2:16 am   #132
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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There is one particularly horrible connector:

No connector, in a place where there really needed to be one. Places like those wired-together PCBs where the wiring breaks off as you try to persuade things far enough apart to get in with a probe or a soldering iron.

David
This sounds similar to how the old Japanese amps are wired, a solid core wrapped around a post.
David, I know what you mean, had similar happen in the past, it creates more work by accident.
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 3:04 am   #133
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Isn't that how modern Fender and Peavey amps are wired? 20 non flexible wires JUST long enough to ensure you can't get into the amp.

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Old 18th Aug 2020, 3:49 am   #134
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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Can I place a vote for my current least favourite connector, the Superspeed/USB 3.0 version of the micro USB connector?
+1 to this. Unfortunately they are still common on external hard drives, and horrible things. The standard USB 3.0 type B connector is far better, but quite uncommon, while type C are still priced at a premium, so I'm working with these things way too often.

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Originally Posted by Terry_VK5TM View Post
The Australian 3 pin plug Plug per se - take it or leave it, but the horrible push over plastic cover is a right royal pain to both put on and remove without taking chunks out of your hands.
Those Australian style ones are absolutely terrible - back when Dick Smith sold parts they did these here in NZ, and I only ever bought one - terrible things, so I went back to the more expensive NZ-designed PDL ones. Rear entry, side entry or tapon, they've always been so much nicer.

Oh and I like F connectors with compression crimp. Have never had an issue with them, and much prefer them to PAL/Belling Lee ones.
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 10:10 am   #135
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Blind person looking for a black cat in an unlit coal-cellar - by which I mean the problem of black connectors sitting in a black surround so there's very little clue as to orientation. A bit of white plastic around the connector (SCART, IEC12/13, USB - whatever) would make finding the correct orientation so much easier.
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 10:35 am   #136
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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black connectors sitting in a black surround so there's very little clue as to orientation.
They do label them to help you.... in black indented pictograms moulded into the black plastic surrounding the black connector.

The use of pictograms rather than text is good. It is thoroughly egalitarian. No matter what languages anyone speaks, they will have the same difficulty in understanding them.

Pessimised!

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Old 18th Aug 2020, 10:47 am   #137
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Philips were devils for that- admittedly, they had a somewhat more polyglot market reach than many, but I did wonder if there was a surplus of bored and mischievous Egyptologists in Eindhoven....
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 12:41 pm   #138
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

Cat, snake, cat, cat, sungod...

lemme see

Snake = cable, that's clear. Sungod? light? ah, CDplayer input.

I think the cats were just decoration.

But to read the markings you have to hold it at just the correct angle to the rays of the setting sun on the spring equinox, otherwise it's all just black.

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Old 18th Aug 2020, 12:56 pm   #139
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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Originally Posted by joebog1 View Post
Isn't that how modern Fender and Peavey amps are wired? 20 non flexible wires JUST long enough to ensure you can't get into the amp.

Joe
How do they even assemble them? They are single sided boards so the only way to solder them is on the track side.

Ugh.

Craig
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Old 18th Aug 2020, 12:59 pm   #140
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Default Re: The most horrid connector ever...

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
For all the criticism of USB, at least with USB3.0 there is a version which comes with proper thumbscrew retainers so the weight of the cable/conector can be properly supported, and it won't get inadvertently pulled-out when a cat jumps onto your desk.
To be fair though, the standard USB does have the fun aspect of being the only connector with three orientations.

Don't believe me? Well, think back and recall how many times you have tried to insert a USB plug for it not to go in, so turned it upside down and it still won't go in, so you return it to the original orientation and in it goes.

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