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A 2 way micro USB connector. Never thought they existed (lemmy.zip)

submitted 10 months ago by sarmale to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Mini USB has to be one of the most robust connectors I've used tbh. All my original cables from over a decade ago still work flawlessly, as well as the ports on the devices housing them.

As for Micro USB... not great. I hope USB-C is more durable, so far I haven't had any issues with ports going bad that wasn't down to some ultra cheap adapter or cable

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I've had plenty of Mini-USB failures, all of them in the socket. There's a reason why when Micro-USB was designed, they bumped the required mating cycle rating to twice that of Mini-USB.

The biggest problem with Micro-USB, is that it got adopted as the standard charging port for smartphones, which proved even the doubled mating cycle rating way insufficient.

For reference:

USB-A, USB-B: 1500 cycles (but they tend to stay put)
Mini-USB: 5000 cycles (good for sporadic data transfers, and once or twice a day charging)
Micro-USB, USB-C: 10000 cycles (better for daily charging, not so much for many times a day)
Magnetic adapter, Wireless: until it burns out, but not so standard.

If you had problems with Micro-USB, expect about the same to happen with USB-C. Plugging it once a day to charge, should last 30 years; plugging it 10 times a day to "top it up", will break it after 3 years on average.

Personally, I've put some magnetic adapters in all Micro-USB stuff like 5-6 years ago, and so far only one of the adapters has broken, all sockets are like new.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The problem with micro USB is that hardly anyone ever had issues with the ports or cables on mini USB, then micro USB comes along with it's massive 10000 cycles, but the cables break so easily so loads of people have problems with them. All because some people wanted smaller ports.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I'm sure the cables work but I can assure you the terminals on devices eventually do fail. I had to replace one on my old android phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

mini-usb cables are robust, but the sockets they plug into were pretty fragile, i’ve had multiple break.