Cables!

Y

yakers

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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OK, maybe this should be a 'pet peeve of the day' but its really irritating the variety of cables I have to collect and maintain (find them, remember or label them) there are 3 USB sizes: regular, mini and micro, then my fitbit watch unique cable and my Arlo security uses a standard mini cable but a unique charger, it knows if I use another type. New Apple iphone lightning cable isn't USB. My battery chargers all have various small plugs and are not interchangeable. PITA when I travel.WTF? Why can't there be more standardization?
Love to have some adaptor cable/plug that could handle everything when I travel, but some systems (I'm talking about you Apple & Arlo) know if you don't use their brand cable.
 
yakers said:
OK, maybe this should be a 'pet peeve of the day' but its really irritating the variety of cables I have to collect and maintain (find them, remember or label them) there are 3 USB sizes: regular USB-A, mini USB-B and micro USB-Micro-B or maybeMicro-A, then my fitbit watch unique cable and my Arlo security uses a standard mini cable but a unique charger, it knows if I use another type. New Apple iphone lightning cable isn't USB-A, it's USB-C. My battery chargers all have various small plugs and are not interchangeable. PITA when I travel.WTF? Why can't there be more standardization?
Love to have some adaptor cable/plug that could handle everything when I travel, but some systems (I'm talking about you Apple & Arlo) know if you don't use their brand cable.
Click to expand...
The terminology or at least the most common vernacular has seemingly changed. See above.

What you (and most people) call USB is USB-A, it was the most common USB type. Is it "odd" that the newest iPhone cable is USB-C to Lightning, and the new iPad Air 4 is USB-C to USB-C. Both were introduced about a month apart.

It is a little annoying, we have 6 iPhone & iPad charging bricks that are useless now. And I need 4 different cables now,

  • USB-C to USB-C for charging iPads,
  • USB-C to Lightning for charging iPhones,
  • USB-A to Lightning for connecting (play) car or (upload/download) PC to iPhone, and
  • USB-A to USB-C for connecting (upload/download) PC to iPad.
And of course unique cables like USB-A to proprietary for Garmin devices.


different-connectors.jpg
 
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My problem is disappearing chargers and cables. Grandchildren are the culprits, and they never admit where the cords are. We find them in and under beds and in the bathroom behind the door.

It's enough to make you get a long light bar and install all your chargers with the cords. Then secure all the chargers and cords with duck tape.
 
Bamaman said:
It's enough to make you get a long light bar and install all your chargers with the cords. Then secure all the chargers and cords with duck tape.
Click to expand...

Great idea. Or I have some extra Tile tags I could attach.
 
I'm not Larry the Cable guy, but... I have more.
 

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WE are fortunate that almost everything we have uses the same connector. The only thing that does not is our cameras.
 
bobandsherry said:
The latest connector, USB-C to USB-C now makes that useless. Those are used for higher speed charging.
Click to expand...

It's pretty hard to use a USB-C to USB-C cable to charge a Kindle or an iPad Air 2 unless you buy additional adapters for it, and those are just more things to keep track of. Maybe someday when I replace those devices with items that actually have USB-C ports my cable will become useless, but until that time, it works for me. I just bring the brick that plugs into the wall (the one for the U.S. or the one for Europe, depending where I'm going) and the single cable that splits three ways, and I can charge everything I travel with at the same time. Buying a new brick and a USB-C cable that can only charge one thing at a time would actually be a step backwards.
 
cathy63 said:
I have one of these for traveling. It works great, even charges multiple devices at the same time. ...
Click to expand...

I saw one of these at my sister's recently when I visited her. I think that is the way to go.

It charged my USB-C phone fine... perhaps not super fast but acceptably fast.
 
Bamaman said:
It's enough to make you get a long light bar and install all your chargers with the cords. Then secure all the chargers and cords with duck tape.
Click to expand...

We have done something similar. In several rooms in the house (at least 1 room per level)we have multiple USB chargers plugged into outlets, or have extension cords with USB ports, or replaced the standard wall outlet with one that includes USB ports. Cables are installed in about half the ports. Since we are not "Apple People" it is easier to manage. One can either use the cord or use the cord that comes with the device.

It is more convenient for us, no need to carry cords around for USB charged devices. Visitors have a choice of using our cords or their own.

I have also done this in my cars, as mine either have no built in USB ports or low power USB ports. I added devices that plug into the power sockets to provide multiple ports and added cables to them.
 
The problem with these "Hydra" cables is that Apple changed its firmware (or some other mechanism) to prevent the use of them to charge many iOS devices.
 
G8tr said:
The problem with these "Hydra" cables is that Apple changed its firmware (or some other mechanism) to prevent the use of them to charge many iOS devices.
Click to expand...

Then it sucks to use Apple products. :D

JK... I'm a bit surprised at that in that I think my sister who had the hydra cable that I liked uses an iPhone. Is the change to prevent them from chargin iOS devices recent?
 
G8tr said:
The problem with these "Hydra" cables is that Apple changed its firmware (or some other mechanism) to prevent the use of them to charge many iOS devices.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?

I use this type of cable all the time with a variety of Apple and other devices.
 
Apple should have switched their Iphone to USB-C with the Iphone 12. Instead they kept their proprietary lightning connector and added a proprietary MagSafe wireless charger to it.

It makes no sense since their latest IPads and MacBooks are all USB-C.
 
OP is right, all these choices in cables is annoying.

We have a power bar with adapters and many wires so we can charge up our phones and tablets without hunting down for the adapter and cable.
Still have to hunt for the camera one.
 
Jeez, you younguns. My drawer has a few SCSI cables and DB9's mixed in with all the others.
 
Bamaman said:
My problem is disappearing chargers and cables. Grandchildren are the culprits, and they never admit where the cords are. We find them in and under beds and in the bathroom behind the door.

It's enough to make you get a long light bar and install all your chargers with the cords. Then secure all the chargers and cords with duck tape.
Click to expand...
You might want to put in an order with Monoprice. Every few years I'll order $30 or so worth of cables, and at $1 or less per cable (for micro-USB) I don't worry about losing them. In fact, I keep a separate set of charging cables for all of my and my family's devices in my travel bag (for back when we actually traveled). They also offer most of them in a variety of colors, which IMO helps keep track of cables better.
 
folivier said:
Jeez, you younguns. My drawer has a few SCSI cables and DB9's mixed in with all the others.
Click to expand...
I thought someone might chime in and show us their Bus+Tag (IBM) or 10BASE5 (ancient Ethernet) cables. :cool:

Agree that this is maddening. In the USA, it is hard to believe, but you can still plug in any 1920's era appliance. I'm not going to say it is safe, but hey, it is compatible.

My Android experience has been a slow move from Micro-USB to USB-C. No proprietary charger needed. The constant change with Apple, including the inability to use wired earphones, is one reason I haven't jumped ecosystems.
 
Since I'm a tinkerer of sorts I use the charging bricks to power different things. Have an assortment of 12 volt and 5 volt stuff I tinker with.
My son came over a couple days ago. He had some christmas lights that had a timer and worked off 3 AA batteries. I cut off the timer battery pack and used a usb cable and charger brick so he could plug them into his main timer for his string of Christmas lights. Work great.
 
folivier said:
Since I'm a tinkerer of sorts I use the charging bricks to power different things. Have an assortment of 12 volt and 5 volt stuff I tinker with.
Click to expand...
Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't throw these away, and has a cache of them. They come in handy, no?
 
Like many here, I've got boxes of misc cables.... I keep them, just in case :)


One of the odder ones is this 5V USB to 12V Cigarette Lighter plug converter for use in one of my cars...



d374d88f-e20f-4dc2-b4ea-b0d432659c0b_1.eaa4f4891d5fc67575ef06a2561938e6.jpeg
 
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