Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
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."
It's about the winding and not about the USB version, right?
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…
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.
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)_/¯
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.
It is expected to be rare, since A to A cables are out of spec.
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.
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.
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.
I only remember doing this with FireWire. Which model supported target disk mode over USB-A?
A to B made more sense in a world where devices cannot serve as both roles via 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.
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.
I realy don't want a cable i plug both ends in wrong and have to turn them a couple of times
I've never seen a USB-A to A cable in the wild, except recently, where I finally unpacked my SATA/IDE USB adapter from Ugreen.
I've had old Ugreen devices with a similar setup. Notably a KVM that fried my keyboard bc they failed to follow USB spec.
A-to-A cables are, in general, a hardware design smell. It's best to avoid devices that don't care enough to follow the spec.
Most cheap usb switchers will use them on the computer-switch side. I have a few models that I was testing out so I have a small pile of these. They’re great for cutting in half and using as a small usb power supply cable to breadboard projects, along with the horde of 5w Apple chargers I have in a bin.
They are commonly used with USB keystone connectors. For some reason most of them have A connectors on both sides.
They used to be moderately common in the before times, like 2.5 inch IDE HDD times.
For added horror those often where Y cables, too.
My USB KVM switch uses them
Huh, I'm not sure they are comparable.
Didn't USB A and USB B use a master-slave relationship in which the male would (generally) always be the slave, whereas USB C uses agreement and discussion to decide the master and slave roles regardless of connector gender.
Please do correct me if I'm wrong. Also, do we say "agent" now instead of "slave", or what is the new term?
In the usb world its "host" and "device", not "master" and "slave".
But yes you are right
Mechanics are still trying to figure that out with the "master cylinder" and "slave cylinder"
I believe the common terms now are "domme" and "sub"
I'm going to refer to myself as USB-B from now on
I can't tell if this is real life or sarcasm....
Did I really miss the memo on this one?
I think the biggest problem I see with A to A is: who's delivering power, and who's receiving it? Maybe if you use it only with the device it came with then it'll be fine, but if anyone tries to just hook up that cable to two random computers, it might actually cause a short circuit and fry something.
Whereas Type-C was explicitly made to handle such situations.
Or a shorter reason: Type-C cable is allowed by the spec while Type-A is not.
Hrm. I have a keyboard that requires an A to A cable and I think it works with the cable any way around...
Might be wrong.
It makes sense, if I remember correctly the older USB cable (i.e. everything before Type-C) are passive, so as long as the pins are wired symmetrically it wouldn't matter which side is which. But whoever made your keyboard really blundered, there is no reason in the world why anyone would do this. There's so many options: the B connector, mini USB, micro USB. All would make sense to put in the keyboard. A just doesn't.
Let me guess: you got it from an ultra cheap online store? AliExpress/Wish/Temu?
Both ends of a USB cable are generally male (unless you're talking about an extender). Generally the type B end (in mini, micro, or full configuration) would be the client though I have seen a couple of clients use Mini or Micro A.
I think reusing server/client naming for USB connectivity instead of master/slave would fit it
master/slave could be primary/secondary, primary/subordinate or principle/agent, so you're correct on that replacement.
I personally am a big fan of "Mantrap" becoming an "Access Control Vestibule" mostly because it's fun to say.
I like controller/peripheral, which is the most descriptive in my opinion. That's what's commonly used for SPI.
Yeah we’ve been going by primary-secondary where I am for the just 6 to 7 years now but I don’t think a universally agreed replacement for the terms exists yet.
Who are these people?
That's just one internet rando.
The internet rando that caused me to make this meme
Was gonna ask, never heard of anyone.