Author Topic: High quality USB cables?  (Read 4843 times)

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Offline tooki

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #25 on: March 31, 2019, 12:59:34 am »
This I’ve wondered, too. I love MagSafe. (Especially the original, thicker version. It had just perfect behavior. The thinner MagSafe 2 is much too easy to disconnect by mistake.)
 

Offline bd139

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #26 on: March 31, 2019, 08:50:03 am »
Not a fan of MagSafe myself. I’ve had to fix two buggered left IO boards. One of which actually caught fire.

Not only that I’d rather have the laptop strong enough to withstand a bit of a beating rather than falling 4 inches and popping the screen. Yes this happened with my MBP and it cost £319 to sort as it was out of warranty.
 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #27 on: March 31, 2019, 07:39:16 pm »
What are you doing with them? Chewing on them?
Typical failure mode for me is the hardening and cracking of the outer shell close to the phone connector, where it gets handled all the time. They do last more than 2-3 months, more like a year or so. But I find it better to eventually replace them, even if wear is tolerable. Cables are cheap, no real need to make them last long, IMO.
IME this happens with the terrible material of more modern Apple cables. I use gobs of cables from generic and branded names and I have seen this issue only once.

]Actually, mini-USB was so unreliable for mobile devices that this was part of why they created micro-USB. It was designed to handle forces that were breaking mini-USB. Now, it’s debatable whether they achieved this goal, and it seems that nowadays, they do make more reliable mini-USB sockets, too.

Well then i must have been handling my devices so gently or i happened to have well made connectors in them, since so far i have never seen a miniUSB connector fail under normal use.


Likewise, I've never had a Mini USB socket fail. In my opinion they are actually quite sturdy. I have seen many Micro USB sockets damaged by people forcing cables in when there is clearly an obstruction or the pins are bent.

I would say the reason for Micro USB is due to their low profile form factor. They take up far less room in thin and portable devices.
I have seen both types break, but since the micro USB caught more of my gadgets (where other members of my family use them), I have the impression the micro variant is more fragile.

In boards I use at work, which are much less stressed than the gadgets, the equal distribution of mini and micro showed to me the mini's cables are much less reliable.
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Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline drescherjm

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #28 on: March 31, 2019, 07:44:14 pm »
I also like Anker cables. I have not had any issue with them over 2 or so years of usage.
I have BS degrees in CS and EE both in 1996. Since this time I have worked for the same medical imaging research team primarily as a programmer. Now at 47 I am trying to get back into electronics projects.
 

Offline hans

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #29 on: March 31, 2019, 09:59:16 pm »
USB cables are disposable consumables.

OTOH the connector in the phone has a value orders of magnitude higher than its actual cost.
If your phone is perfect but the USB connector is broken, then your phone is almost worthless.

A really excellent reason to use the magnetic connector things.  It saves the cable connector,
but mostly it saves the phone connector.

Very true.

Micro USB connectors tend to collect dust and crap over time, meaning that the fit may become loose. Easily solved with a toothpick or tweezers ( :-/O :-BROKE), but IMO highlights how bad the connector is at cleaning/maintaining "itself", especially when it's designed to be water proof, with dust really nowhere to go. I've never had this issue happen with regular USB A/B or mini B ports, albeit they were not waterproof, so any dust+crap would probably accumulate inside the device..

That's also the problem: getting inside a modern smartphone is not trivial at all. My previous Moto G had an actual backcover designed to snap off using just your finger nails. The battery was not "replacable", but you could just take the screws out and put a new battery in, or do any other work. My current S7 apparently needed to be glued allround. It's almost taken for granted that replacing the charging port on such a phone may result in a broken screen as well, which is a gigantic waste. Especially for a phone that's 1.5 - 2 years old, then a broken connector may effectively result in a total write off.

Cables OTOH are like 5-10$ and only have to last for like a month to break even. However I only had cables wear out once or twice. Some may become wiggly over time, and some plastic sleeving may break if you twist the cable too much, but the copper wiring and shield is still intact (although very dodgy looking). I actually have all of my original phone connectors end up like that after 1 years of daily use, and usually these cables are demoted to car duty.
 

Offline Mortymore

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Re: High quality USB cables?
« Reply #30 on: March 31, 2019, 10:56:22 pm »
My latest USB cables and a triple USB charger with Volt and Amp display are from the brand BASEUS.

They have stores on Gearbest and Aliexpress.


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