Is there a scientific need for this or is it just to make people have a drawer full of leads and get pissed off when they can’t find one that fits?

Who’s going to post xkcd first? 😉

Progress, innit.

And what does the U stand for?

And what does the U stand for?

Universal, which makes sense if you had to play around with the interfaces that were popular before USB came along.

Yet it doesn’t seem very universal

Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB used just for charging everyday electronic devices! There’s no bloody data being carried, it only needs one standard variety, but no, the muppet manufacturers have to use half a dozen different varieties. 🙄
And before anyone mentions Apple, they’ve always used one standard USB plug/socket for charging and data, and two proprietary plug/sockets on the iOS range in ten years, unlike pretty much every other manufacturer, and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits. 😡

Yet it doesn’t seem very universal

It is a lot more universal than serial and parallel connections.

Doesn’t the universal bit stand for the communication protocol not in the connectors.
And yes it is frustrating, especially unnecessary proprietary connectors. At least USB C can be used either way round which is progress.

There’s only 8!

Joke:

today they buried the man who invented the USB. There was a small delay as they put the coffin in ground, then took it out, turned it over and put it in again.

8? Rubbish! Where the iphone/pad/pod ones? where this one?

Half a dozen varieties? Not in regular use today surely. There is pretty much one standard for mobiles. One for other portable electronics and one for big stuff like printers.

I don’t think things can be a bit universal, they either are or they aren’t. And if they put it right there in the name then that’s what I expect.

the bit that is universal is the protocol, not the connectors. Apple stuff isn’t USB. There are many connectors to give manufacturers options as devices come in many different shapes and sizes.

DezB – thats an 8 pin UC-E6 like-mini-usb proprietary connector!

Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB

There’s one* variation of micro USB, which is micro USB. Anything else is something proprietary which happens to look similar.

(* – ok, two, but I’ve never seen micro-A in the wild)

and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits.

But, but, but, I’m currently charging my Sony phone with a Samsung charger.

The evolution of them is pretty much due to the amount of data that can be transferred down the cable. Type C is much faster than the original format. You have different cables for iPhone etc essentially because apple want you to use their proprietary connectors. Although historically every manufacturer seemed to have their own format cable it seems to me that (apple aside) this has pretty much been stopped in favour of the USB standard.

It’s not the connector that’s universal, it’s the protocol.

Then they should have called it a UPSB connection

And IIRC aren’t Samsung USB cables slightly different again, they look the same but they just won’t fit.

Then there’s micro HDMI. Why did we need another connector that looks almost the same?

CountZero – Member 
Bugs the bejeezus out of me that there are so many different variations of micro-USB used just for charging everyday electronic devices! There’s no bloody data being carried, it only needs one standard variety, but no, the muppet manufacturers have to use half a dozen different varieties.
And before anyone mentions Apple, they’ve always used one standard USB plug/socket for charging and data, and two proprietary plug/sockets on the iOS range in ten years, unlike pretty much every other manufacturer, and Sony have been one of the very worst culprits.
Eejits.

Most the mobile industry standardised on micro USB for charging years ago. Apple didn’t and invented a proprietary connector.

Various other gadgets use a mix with some using mini USB.

The differences in USB were historically mainly for size reasons and then more recently to increase capacity and then to introduce a bi-directional cable.

Progress, innit.

Pretty much. Everything evolves. Including USB and wheel sizes.

Diminishing returns though (USB B to mini-A massive. To MicroUSB…. not so much)

USB is a decent albeit argueably not perfect standard, both the protocol and the connectors. Miles ahead of the current MTB industry where IMHO the standards of standards are slipping.

What do people think is not Universal about USB then?

I think it does deserves the univeral name as it was a collabrative effort which was well thought out enough to prove successful for a massive range of connections from mice to memory sticks, wireless adapters, scanners, digital audio, etc and on a wide range of hosts from PCs to phones, routers, set top boxes, etc.

It is not the standards fault that some manufactures dont play ball and use their own proprietry connectors. The worst offenders are the point&shoot cameras which use usb protocol with a proprietry connector for no reason whatsoever.

I’m sure I read somewhere that it’s the protocol that’s universal, not the connector.

I’m sure I read somewhere that it’s the protocol that’s universal, not the connector.

half way up the page 😉

wobbliscott – Member
the bit that is universal is the protocol, not the connectors. Apple stuff isn’t USB. There are many connectors to give manufacturers options as devices come in many different shapes and sizes.

Personally I’m quite glad I don’t need to have a phone thick enough to plug this into
, mini is still bigger than my phone wants to be. C seems more robust than micro and the double sided bit makes a lot of sense

It’s pretty phenomenal how far USB data transfer speeds have come over the ~20 years the connection has been around…
1.0: ~1.5Mbps
1.1: ~12.5 Mbps
2.0: ~480 Mbps
3.0: ~5120 Mbps
3.1: ~10240 Mbps

(Above is Mega bits per second, divide by 8 for Mega Bytes per second)

The relatively new 3.1 generation 2 in theory runs at twice the speed of my 512GB Crutial MX100 Solid State Drive and just over half the theoretical speed of my 512GB Samsung 951 NVME SSD! 😯

half way up the page

😆

The only thing nowadays to slow transfer speeds down is to film it in an action thriller, you can almost hear the screaches and whirrs of a zx spectrum.

why do some usb cables
refuse
to charge some devices?

Because they want to get to the other side?

Because some devices measure the resistance of the cable and determine a safe charging rate, so a cheap cable won’t work with a 2A charger and smartphone.

Similarly my phone charges at 9V rather than 5V with the right charger.

Sometimes they still work with the wrong cable or charger, but usualy at 500mA or less, and on a tablet or bigger phone that can be slow enough that you’d never notice it charging.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

And IIRC aren’t Samsung USB cables slightly different again, they look the same but they just won’t fit.

I’ve not had this issue. I’ve got a Sony charger & original cable that will charge my Sony phone, my Wife’s Samsung phone, our LG tablets, our Kindles and my Bluetooth speaker.
We’ve got LG chargers & original cables that will charge all of the above.
We’ve got Samsung chargers that will charge….have a guess….all of the above….
We’ve got an Amazon Kindle charger that will charge all of the above, admittedly at quite a slow rate because the cable is fiddly.

The only things I can think of that we need a different cable for are my Nikon cameras, my knock-off Aldi special Moon Comet rear light & my Garmin; for those I need the mini-USB cable.
Dunno why they all use a larger connector, when they are intrinsically ‘compact’ devices.

The printer cable is a complete non-issue because you plug it in once & it’s done. That cable has been around for god knows how long, so it’s probably a question of things moved on but that design had established itself for printer applications.

Regarding the cables that refuse to charge comment; it’s as TINAS says – they can’t handle the higher current requirements of that device. Often the device will tell you it’s not charging or not register as charging, but if you leave it overnight it will charge up – just very slowly.

thanks for the info
but
compatibility of plug shape not much use
if
cables themselves invisibly incompatible
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

theauthorities – Member
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

all my
Sony/Samsung/LG/Anker/Amazon
cables
charge all
my
Sony/Samsung/LG/Anker/Amazon devices.

Do I win a prize?

Does your Apple cable charge your Bluetooth speaker? Your Garmin? Your e-reader? Your portable battery pack?

It’s hardly surprising that a proprietary cable from a single manufacturer works across all devices, is it? 🙄

and also all my
LG/Nexus/Polar
cables
charge or power or connect to all
my
Arduinos/Raspberry Pi/Mbed/Polar watch/Nexus/HTC/I’m sure I forgot something (camera probably)

Handy when every charger is mains to USB plus a USB to micro-USB cable. So not only is everything a standard setup for charging, it’s also a standard setup for connecting to the PC too 🙂 without a 2nd cable.

Just the next phone that might differ if it’s the flippy floppy no need to plug in 3 times to get it the right way around USB-C type.

thanks for the info
but
compatibility of plug shape not much use
if
cables themselves invisibly incompatible
all
my apple cables
charge
all
my apple devices

Try
spending
half
of
what
your
apple
cables
cost
on
quality
usb
cables
then
they
will
work
with
all
devices
and
will
be
much
more
durable
than
the
apple
cables
too.

another advantage of ‘c’ is that charging can happen from the device on either end of the cable. the older standards will only charge one way – one is master and the other slave ( unless you use a work-around ). useful for us at work ( if our ‘electronics guy’ would get with the ffing program, or at least this century 🙄 ) for reasons i won’t bore you with, but for instance you may wish to top up a laptop battery from a tablet, if you wanted to get something off it but didn’t have the charger and it was flat.

how can i tell what are “quality” cables?