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The Reason You Always Plug in USBs the Wrong Way, Revealed

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday December 03 2017, @08:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the stand-on-your-head dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

So that's why:

The USB paradox is one of the most familiar experiences of the digital age. Every time you try to plug in a USB cord, it seems like you always get it wrong on the first try. It doesn't matter how much attention you pay to the plug or the cord or the icons on the cord. It's always wrong.

And there's a good reason for that! In an interview published Thursday by DesignNews, Intel's Ajay Bhatt spoke at length about why the ubiquitous technology has been so infuriating for so long. Bhatt was a member of the team that developed USB technology. Even at the start of development, they knew that making the connector flippable would be a better user experience in the long run. But doing so would require twice the wiring and more circuitry, which would increase costs.

"If you have a lot of cost up front for an unproven technology it might not take off. So that was our fear. You have to be really cost conscious when you start out," Bhatt said.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:18PM (#604793)

    D-shaped connectors

    Yeah. It's not like this stuff wasn't figured out long ago.

    Standard practice in systems that contain multiple PCBs is to cut out one of the fingers (traces + board material) and put a plastic stop in the corresponding spot in the edge connector into which that plugs.
    Every board has a different pattern; you can't put a board in the wrong slot.
    It also keeps you from plugging a board in upside-down.

    The stupidest fucking thing I ever saw was a temperature controller plugin which had 2 boards and the thing was completely symmetrical such that you could plug in the device upside-down (which was destructive to the device).
    The "designer" didn't know|think to use the industry-standard method previously mentioned nor to offset the connectors so that no contact would be made if you did things wrong.

    Obviously, the person given the task of "designing" the USB connector had zero experience in hardware design and there wasn't a design review process that included anyone else who did.

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