Shitty Connectors - Schrödinger's USB connector

[George Lucas]

I’m fucking tired of shitty, garbage connectors. First let me start with this piece of shit:

You see this crap? You see how the connector is parallel to the sheath? Well, good luck finding one that looks like that in real life because these things bend so easily you’d think it needs to see a urologist.

They tried fixing this piece of crap with USB C, except USB C doesn’t bend. It just snaps off entirely and instead of a dodgy cable you now have a useless one. Is that better? I don’t know. I hope to God we don’t have mission critical systems that rely on this shit.


Fuck you. These fuckers are the bane of my fingers. You know, RF cabling is a solved problem. It’s called SMB, or BNC. Either’s fine. Hell, I bet RCA would be good enough. But no, everyone insists on using these things for consumer-grade everything. The conductor is literally just a piece of leftover copper from the coaxial cable, is easily bent, and never feels like it actually fits into the jack well. The threads are tight and cross-thread easily, and it take ages to hand-tighten. Sure, you can use a wrench, but be careful not to snap the whole thing off. To make matters worse, TVs usually orient these things vertically now, with very little clearance for the hexnut.


You know what else I hate? Massive, overengineered connectors. This one is a SCART connectors for TVs, but it’s also used in all sorts of industrial applications. These things SUCK BALLS. Plugging one in makes me feel like I need to give confession.


These aren’t as bad, but you know your connector sucks when you have to have screws to keep them plugged in. What’s even more absurd is that there were versions of this without the screws. Great way to fry your computer.


These are so shitty they don’t even qualify as connectors. You’re literally just screwing wire onto a piece of metal. That said, you can get a really solid, secure connection, but it takes time and skill, and it’s impossible without good, clear access. 7-channel surround sound? That’s 28 of these fucking connections you have to do. Git gud. But wait, it actually gets worse:

Spoiler

Yeah I’m not even going to talk about this one.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Micro USB, Mini USB, and USB-C really makes me wish we embraced full sized USB for any serious mobile devices that aren't laptops. Smartphones as a whole. We have to chase the smart device anorexia, so fat chance of that happening.

 

[HahaYes]

The king of all shitty connectors. Molex.
I fucking hate molex.

 

[Anti Alien Alarm]

S-Video, commonly used for standard definition television. They can only plug in from one angle (which you can never tell which way that is due to their shape, this results the pins getting mashed as you frustratingly mash the cable against the back of the TV in the dark, breaking the cable.

Battery connectors. These are small, easy to rip off, and often impossible to get a replacement for if it's an older model battery. Add on top of the fact that many laptops refuse to boot if a battery isn't detected even if they're plugged into AC. And you have a miserable experience servicing the battery on any laptop.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Everytime I try to do a multi drive set up with more than two drives, I give up because of this nonsense.

If your case is a silent one, that shit is going to be a pain in the ass. It's pretty bad in normal cases, too. Also never really know if the damn thing is fully plugged in.

 

[Battlefield42]

DisplayPort is worse than vga. i love it when display looses signal randomly

 

[Slav Power]

You see this crap? You see how the connector is parallel to the sheath? Well, good luck finding one that looks like that in real life because these things bend so easily you’d think it needs to see a urologist.

They tried fixing this piece of crap with USB C, except USB C doesn’t bend. It just snaps off entirely and instead of a dodgy cable you now have a useless one. Is that better? I don’t know. I hope to God we don’t have mission critical systems that rely on this shit.

Never once in my life have I bent or snapped off a microUSB or a USB-C connector. You either use very shitty cables or you treat them like a gorilla ape.

One thing's for sure, microUSB is a dinky afterthought that was the result of USB failing to keep up with the ongoing miniaturization of hardware. Badly designed and not very durable, I've experienced the plugs loosening up in some of my devices, and it's too thin to be asymmetrical. USB C finally managed to create a future proof connector that's also symmetrical, years after it should've been first drafted.

You know what else I hate? Massive, overengineered connectors. This one is a SCART connectors for TVs, but it’s also used in all sorts of industrial applications. These things SUCK BALLS. Plugging one in makes me feel like I need to give confession.

The SCART connector may be a dinky loose piece of shit, however I will die on the hill that it was the best thing that hit European consumer markets. It's a standard from the 70's that had your typical composite video and stereo audio signals, but also composite, component, S-Video and RGB video signals, not to mention stuff like the granddaddy of HDMI CEC. And just about every CRT TV in Europe has one, and you can hook any old and modern video equipment up to it. It was HDMI before HDMI was a thing, meanwhile the US had to deal with composite video in consumer electronics up until HDMI became widespread.

These aren’t as bad, but you know your connector sucks when you have to have screws to keep them plugged in.

Those were around since the 50's and used in more than just computer monitors. D-Sub was used with serial connections, printer connections, or even professional video equipment. Integrated hooks like the one with USB-A and HDMI came decades after. It didn't suck, it's just a legacy connector where that was the best way to keep it in.

Without those dinky hooks you have nowadays your plugs would keep falling out the same way, and most probably they are if your plugs or cables got used up enough. You wouldn't have that issue with D-Sub, where you screw it in and it's in there for good.

The king of all shitty connectors. Molex.
I fucking hate molex.

It's especially bad when the pins loosen up and start moving in all directions. Have fun lining up all four of them.

Everytime I try to do a multi drive set up with more than two drives, I give up because of this nonsense.

I fucking hate that to this day, no PSU manufacturer has realized that this chained 90 degree bullshit is detrimental to building in modern cases. No, it's no longer 2008 where you had multiple 3.5" hard drives stacked on top of each other with 5.25" drive bays at the very top, now you have 2.5" SSD's and vertical 3.5" mounts that go against case metal, so those chained 90 degrees connectors are hellish to work with. Start putting in separate SATA power plugs in your PSU's and ship with straight SATA power cables.

Time for some thread tax:

Don't get me wrong, 8P8C as a whole is great. What really pisses me off about it are those dinky plastic clips that you'll most likely damage the very moment you crimp them, then after multiple reinserts they'll be bound to snap because of how shitty they are. And to this day no one came up with a decent idea to fix this issue, like using some non-ferrous metal to make it less brittle.

There are those replacement clip things available, but this is just a cope for a flawed connector. There shouldn't be a need for such a product on the market.

I said "dinky" 4 times in this reply. This is the dinky connectors thread.

 

[George Lucas]

DisplayPort is worse than vga. i love it when display looses signal randomly

DisplayPort and HDMI are plagued by the same thing: bend radius limitations. So this high-bandwidth cable that’s supposed to produce 4K 120 Hz video is also supposed to get shoved behind a desk with a mass of other cables and you expect people to not bend it? And then to make it worse, HDMI has DRM on it. Kill me.

Now try unplugging a DP connector without looking at it. Good luck figuring out how to disengage the pressure lock. Why does it even have that anyway? What other cable has that? Is it because SCART fell out after pulling out the TV because Sanyo only bothered to put one input on the back of their TVs so you’re constantly having to switch when the kids want to play Nintendo? Then why doesn’t HDMI have it?

 

[gagabobo1997]

Connectors with screws are based. I want USB with screws. screw-in aux. fucking ps/2 with screws.

 

[Slav Power]

Now try unplugging a DP connector without looking at it. Good luck figuring out how to disengage the pressure lock.

I actually have a DP cable without it. Gets held in with the HDMI/USB style tabs. I believe those are optional in DP, so when you need a more firm connection you get a cable with the lock, and if you're a home user you can settle for one without it. HDMI having DRM is hellish, though in PC space it's getting replaced by DP anyway because it handles high resolution high refresh rate signals better. Nvidia only supports adaptive sync over DP for example.

As for bend radius limitations, how bad are they? Because it makes me feel like this is an issue for people that either own an old cramped desk with a PC case shelf and the idiotic back cover, or for people that have to push their shit as far against the wall as possible. My TV has plenty of free space for loose cable mess behind it and so does my PC case that's on the floor. My desk is just a flat particle board with four legs, that's all you need for a PC desk nowadays.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

DisplayPort is worse than vga. i love it when display looses signal randomly

I'm most likely having that with an HDMI cable now. It blanks the screen a few seconds per hour with no apparent vibrations or other interference causing it. I wish it was all or nothing, so annoying.

Never once in my life have I bent or snapped off a microUSB or a USB-C connector. You either use very shitty cables or you treat them like a gorilla ape.

I recently killed a USB-C 45W laptop power connector. I got over 4 years of use out of it and the last year I had to bend it at over 90 degrees to get it to work. Then I replaced it with a generic one for about $9. I did treat it like a gorilla ape and I'm overall satisfied with the connector.

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

You don't know shit if you've never been subjected to the torture of old Sony Ericsson chargers.

Fucking look at this monstrosity. You should be able to see the issue immediately. If not, let me elucidate ya - ONLY THE TWO TINY PLASTIC PINS go inside the phone.

Even brand new ones would just disconnect after the tinitest nudge. Or worse yet, the pins would simply snap or break off. Replacement/bootleg chargers used to sell like hotcakes. The t610i also had the added bonus of having a joystick that could make your thumb bleed.

And now look at Nokia. Simple. Straightforward. Robust. Goes "click" when you plug it in correctly. All other manufacturers had this figured out. What was SE thinking?

 

[the rat]

One thing's for sure, microUSB is a dinky afterthought that was the result of USB failing to keep up with the ongoing miniaturization of hardware. Badly designed and not very durable, I've experienced the plugs loosening up in some of my devices, and it's too thin to be asymmetrical. USB C finally managed to create a future proof connector that's also symmetrical, years after it should've been first drafted.

I never understood the point of microUSB other than to sell more when the piece of shit inevitably breaks when miniUSB existed, I've personally never had a miniUSB cable break before or even the port.

 

[Cat tit bingo]

Connectors with screws are based. I want USB with screws. screw-in aux. fucking ps/2 with screws.

Screws on connectors is cool, but screw-on connectors are true hell and the definitive worst electronic connector

Fuck, all that effort just to play pong

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

BNC is the true patricians connector. Shame it's only ever used in professional settings.

 

[Slav Power]

I never understood the point of microUSB other than to sell more when the piece of shit inevitably breaks when miniUSB existed, I've personally never had a miniUSB cable break before or even the port.

Portable devices were getting thinner faster than the USB standard could keep up with, so they came out with microUSB as an answer to the ever increasing thinness of devices such as mobile phones. Then they came out with USB 3 which was way faster than USB2, but microUSB was physically too small to sensibly add the additional pins necessary for the higher throughput while keeping backwards compatibility and that's how those fugly 3.0 microUSB connectors came to be. Only with USB-C did they decide to sit down and design something once and design it right.

ExplainingComputers did a great explanation of the brief history of USB, including the confusing USB standard naming because you should never let engineers name shit that's directed to the average consumer.

You don't know shit if you've never been subjected to the torture of old Sony Ericsson chargers.
Ver archivo adjunto 5939312
Fucking look at this monstrosity. You should be able to see the issue immediately. If not, let me elucidate ya - ONLY THE TWO TINY PLASTIC PINS go inside the phone.
Ver archivo adjunto 5939317
Even brand new ones would just disconnect after the tinitest nudge. Or worse yet, the pins would simply snap or break off. Replacement/bootleg chargers used to sell like hotcakes. The t610i also had the added bonus of having a joystick that could make your thumb bleed.

Ver archivo adjunto 5939320
And now look at Nokia. Simple. Straightforward. Robust. Goes "click" when you plug it in correctly. All other manufacturers had this figured out. What was SE thinking?

Man, all this bitching about microUSB is retarded given what came before it. Every single manufacturer had a proprietary data connection and power connection. Nokia's power connector was simple, but they had a complicated proprietary data cable, not to mention that Nokia had two different power connectors throughout it's lifespan.

So did every other manufacturer, with some integrating both power and connectivity into their one proprietary plug. microUSB initially fixed the issue of connectivity, and with time it also replaced proprietary power connectors once it was able to give devices enough juice.

Seriously, be fucking glad that microUSB was a thing, because everything that came before it was much, much worse.

 

[Cat tit bingo]

Man, all this bitching about microUSB is retarded given what came before it. Every single manufacturer had a proprietary data connection and power connection

If you lost one and it wasn't included on the Cat o' nine tails charger you where fucked

 

[Geranium]

JST PH 2-pin battery connectors. Absolutely fucking evil. The socket is invariably soldered to some sensitive electronics, the plug is rather gently holding on to two wires running to your power supply, yet removing one from the other feels like splitting the atom by hand.

 

[indomitable snowman]

PC case front panel connectors on the motherboard.

 

[User names must be unique]

USB micro-b is probably my least favourite followed by this motherfucker

You could hang half a hundred niggers with the amount of wired earphones I've broken in my lifetime because this fucking thing never came with adequate strain relief.