Thank you, USB-C (and the EU too).
Well, some stuff still has dedicated adapters, but hopefully those phase out sooner or later.
Usb C is nice, but fragile compared to barrel adapters. I don’t know how, but my so broke two USB C tips in the last week.
Are you buying cheap ones? Cause I’ve never had one break on me. Either user error and cheap.
Me neither, but my so may not be as gentle. One of the cables was a laptop power supply, which is kind of dumb connector for a device that is likely to get jerked accidentally. Anyway, my point is that a standard barrel connector is not as delicate as usb c.
USB-C seems to break way more often than micro-usb or the Apple connector ever did. For me the connectors will look fine, but the cable burns out or something. I stopped buying cheap cables on Amazon, and at the gas station, they don’t last.
Idk what your doing to your poor usb c connectors. But they are way more durable than micro usb or the apple headers ever were.
USB-C is not just more durable than micro, it’s many times more durable!
Could debris be getting in the connection?
No, I checked.
I’ve noticed the opposite. I’ll use a Micro-USB cable for 1-2 years (sometimes less) and it’ll always start having flaky connections requiring more and more jiggles to get working. I’ve used the same USB-C cable for a bit over 5 years and it works as well as the day I bought it.
Micro USB was the bastard child of Loki, and a glass cactus that can only be inserted one way up your ass.
Somehow my USBC lead has stopped charging my phone at high speed, it still challenges the phone but really really slowly. What the hell?
Issues with CC conductors? USB PD works via CC* and USB BC works via DP/DN.
*old versions can communicate via Vbus, but it didn’t become popular.
EIDT: forgot about CC
Just because they’ll be able to physically connect and give a non zero amount of power, doesn’t mean they won’t be obsolete.
Hell of a lot easier to adapt USBC to USBD or whatever the next standard is.
As USB gets upgrades to provide more power, we will need those barrel jacks less and less. My laptop can only charge 65W from USB C, but 130W from the barrel jack. It’s a couple of years old now, I think from before there was a standard for USB to provide over 100W, but USB C can provide 240W now. So new laptops shouldn’t even need barrel jacks anymore.
You still need the PSU brick cable part to generate that kind of power.
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I don’t know how I feel pumping 240 W through these flimsy wires. I know it’s probably alright, but still… it doesn’t look like it’s meant to take 40 amps.
I recently ordered several 240W PD USB-C cables and you should rest assured, they are chonkier
Thanks for the info!
I think if a device follows the standard, the 240 W mode should use 48 V * 5 A - still more than you’d use with normal USB cables, but less insane than 12 V * 20 A
I was guesstimating 40A × 5V. Your numbers sound reasonable!
If the cable is USB-IF certified you can trust it.
And no more radio shack to buy more of these!
I really don’t know where to go any longer for some things like this. I know, interwebs has it but I usually have questions that scamazon won’t answer.
Mouser or Digikey are your friends here.
You pay a little more than the cheap stuff on Amazon but you can be sure you’re getting the exact specs you ordered.
Mouser really is to me a neat lil store. You get in, ask the guy in the counter for the exact stuff you want, they type one or two things in a computer, check if that’s actually what you want and in less than 5 minutes they fetch it
That’s not how websites work
They have physical locations?
Stuart Little himself rings you up
Technically, yes, websites have physical locations in that they are hosted such that, no matter how many levels of containerization and virtualization there are, they eventually run and exist in some way on physical hardware.
No, as in Mauser has physical retail stores
If it’s important… Double check the output with a meter just to be sure. Only got burned by it once, but for expensive/complex circuits, just give the critical components a sanity check.
Whoa dad is that a vintage 1970s 6.3VDC 400mA?
Yes, yes it is, son.
Oops, the jack is half a millimeter too big. Time to find another one…
just wait until he learns about polarity
A lot of those work for other products. It’s still good, don’t throw it away.
My dad has been an electrical engineer since the early 70’s. My inheritance in this regard is staggering.
The ferrite is strong with this one.
That’s nothing I have an adapter kit that allows you to charge any type of. All of the big name brands like, Nokia, and Motorola.
It’s a wild collection of 16 pins and barrel jacks and split connectors or if you want to go super futuristic mini USB B. I can charge any phone I want provided the phone I want to charge was manufactured before about 1995.
Micro USB cables are just as bad. They seem to multiply on their own.
Def the tribbles of the cable world.
Last month, the power adapter to my router died out of nowhere. I wasted a ton of time troubleshooting literally everything else other than the power adapter because I’ve never had one die before the actual device itself.
Of course none of the other adapters I had on hand fit. I had to order a new one…
With a soldering iron and another supply with the same voltage and amperage, anything is possible.
Having some spare AC adapters with barrel connectors is a pretty handy thing to have around if you do any electronics work
12v 900ma…. Hmm… let me check my box of assorted plugs
Ah, negative tip!
A good thing to keep in mind is that you should match voltages, but with amps the cord just has to be equal or higher than the device. It’s a rating of what the cord can provide, not what it’s spitting out at all times like voltage.
So in your example of 12v 900ma, a 12v cord thats 1a or greater should work fine assuming the barrel is the same. This can also help declutter anyone’s ‘collections’…if you have a whole mess of 12v cords, you can safely ditch the lower amp ones.
Can confirm. Hmmm, 5V 2 A….
I have a drawer full of these as well. But they wont move to the next apartment once I move.
You will need one within a week of getting rid of them and it will cost you $60-$80 dollars. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had them for a month or 10 years without needing one, as soon as you get rid of them, you’ll need them.
Thrift store. There are always dozens there.
Which is also where you should donate you’re unneeded ones. that way, the day after donating them, you know where you can get cheap ones because you all of a sudden need some.
That’s what you say now.
We should all get together and make a bank of these adapters, gather them all up in one place in every city so that when you have an electric razor with no power cord, you can just go down to the Adapter Bank and find something that fits
An effects pedal collector’s dream, really.
I think I have a big box of them somewhere. They have come in handy from time to time.
The other day I noticed a device with an adapter that had wildly different amps and voltage but the Watts were the same and it fit so…
I think it goes there…
That is going to result either in a bang or nothing happening.
You can use a power supply if:
-
the plug fits
-
the polarity is correct ( - and + are at the correct location)
-
the voltage matches
-
the current and wattage is the same or higher
-
I literally inherited a massive collection of these when my ex died because his family didn’t want to deal with them. I tried to save one of each plug type but I couldn’t store 50 lbs of adapters forever
I’m not the only one then
Internal monologue: well I haven’t used a parallel cable since '93, I should probably toss this out.
remembers that one time I couldn’t find this cable and it screwed me turning in an assignment
sky darkens, eyes become shadowed, teeth become exaggerated, skin goes pallid
Internal monologue: but after all, it’s mine. Why shouldn’t I keep it? Why shouldn’t I keep the precious.