• iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          People need to stop using gender with cabling. It’s confusing as hell. They’re plugs, which mate with (plug into) receptacles, and there are pins, which mate with sockets! Is a plug with sockets male or female? What about a receptacle with pins?

          As a wire harness master, I will die on this hill.

          • lime!@feddit.nu
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            8 months ago

            if it has pins it’s male because it shouldn’t have any power. feminist electrical theory.

    • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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      8 months ago

      A local electronics shop around here is selling one of those as a joke. Except it has a male plug on one end and a 220 volt dryer plug on the other.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Technically USB A male-to-female extension cables are also forbidden, at least in terms of USB 1/1.1/2.0 and were never supposed to exist. That’s not to say that they didn’t, because they certainly do, and sometimes even manage to work in the process. But the original USB spec specifically envisaged that a passive extension cable should never be available to the consumer, probably for the simple reason that the maximum allowable cable length was 5 meters with no ifs, ands, or buts. And USB 3.x is only 3 meters. If allowed, people would inevitably daisy-chain so many cables together that their connected device would stop working, and then whine at the manufacturer/retailer/Microsoft about it being “defective,” so this was nipped in the bud in advance.

      All that said, I have nevertheless accumulated about 20 of the damn things over the years in varying lengths and levels of quality. I have violated the official cable length spec with impunity and more often than not gotten away with it, albeit usually only for low-demand devices like keyboards.

      • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
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        8 months ago

        I had one at work that was some 15m long between a pc and a barcode scanner, in a really noisy environment with 3ph inverters and motors etc. Worked like a charm

        • StarMerchant938@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Got one stretching 7 feet between my media center computer and a webcam across the room (so I can take video calls on my tv from my recliner). Works great for that and whatever else I plug into it because I’m too lazy to feel for the USB port behind the computer.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s not a matter of banned, it’s a matter of physics. Every connection standard has a maximum length specification, the point beyond which you will not get reliable data transmission due to either signal loss via impedance in the wires, or timing issues.

  • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I have one of these 8bitdo sticks. It performs well, but more importantly, it’s compact compared to other fighting sticks with similar hardware. That borderline proprietary cable gives me the heebie-jeebies.

  • MudMan@fedia.io
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    8 months ago

    Are you sure? A bunch of arcade sticks use a USB A port to plug in an official controller and bypass some chekcs for console support. I assume you actually own this and it came with a male A to male A cable in the box? As in you’re not accidentally plugging in a USB A cable going to your computer in the port meant to plug in either a console controller or a bypass dongle?

    I am, to be clear, asking for a friend and was never super confused about why my brand new leverless controller wasn’t working, myself.

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I have a keyboard like this, yes it came with the cable (same A male plug each end) and yes it’s used as a USB device.

  • TomMasz@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I have a Type A to Type A cable. It came with a simplified music player for dementia patients that I set up for my elderly aunt. No idea why they chose to do it that way.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      What’s this music player called? I’ve been scouring the internet for years looking for a simple spotify enabled “boom box” that doesn’t require you to use a phone to operate. Seems like such a simple product that seemingly doesn’t exist.

  • edinbruh@feddit.it
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    8 months ago

    Meh, I have at least two hdd enclosures that use that cable.

    Standards don’t mean that much when the hardware manufacturer just doesn’t care

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Entirely likely they figured a cable with Type A on both ends would be a cheap “proprietary” cable.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I have a flashlight that does the same for its charging port. It’s also capable of being used as a power bank by plugging another device’s cable into that same port. I’m not entirely sure just how much protection circuitry is behind this and I haven’t cared enough to subject it to anything heavy duty.

  • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    Id love it if more things did tbh. A controller really doesnt need the bandwidth of a proper usb type c cable, and type A would be much more securely attached (physically) to something that moves around IMO.

        • swab148@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Type B is used for printers most frequently, in my experience, though I do have an old external HDD that uses it, as well as the audio interface for my desktop.