<story><title>Why aren&apos;t motherboards mostly USB-C by now? (2021)</title><url>https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/03/22/why-arent-motherboards-mostly-usb-c-by-now/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onetimeuse92304</author><text>The insertion cycles are only for &lt;i&gt;proper&lt;/i&gt; insertion. Like when you are looking at it and doing it at a correct angle.&lt;p&gt;Also, rated lifetime does not take into account things like tugging the cable to the side of your PC because your foot got tangled in it.&lt;p&gt;USB C is extremely fragile due to its size and not much can be done to help it.&lt;p&gt;USB C might be created to withstand more insertion cycles. After all it is meant to be used for devices like phones that are plugged in and out constantly. Part of this improvement is just more experience creating connectors (yes, connectors got much better in the past decades).&lt;p&gt;A cable connected to a back of PC is not being constantly plugged in and out. Nobody I know is plugging in their keyboard or mouse multiple times a day.&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;When I design my boards, I put connectors that match the size of the board. I don&amp;#x27;t put extremely tiny connectors on a very large and massive project. I want a connector that isn&amp;#x27;t too fragile for the project and this means matching it with the forces that you can expect.&lt;p&gt;We, humans, use different forces when around large objects than when we are around small objects.&lt;p&gt;Large PC standing on your desk means forces used around it will be potentially larger than forces around a small appliance like a phone. If you tug on a cable that is hooked up to the phone, only small force is needed to move the phone. And we are usually more careful around a small appliance like phone. If you tug on a cable that is hooked up to a PC, much larger force will be needed before you move the PC. And people are less careful and using larger forces when doing things around a PC -- a larger object than a phone.</text></item><item><author>arcticbull</author><text>Interestingly enough, they&amp;#x27;re specced the opposite way.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Standard USB has a minimum rated lifetime of 1,500 cycles of insertion and removal, the Mini-USB receptacle increased this to 5,000 cycles, and the newer Micro-USB and USB-C receptacles are both designed for a minimum rated lifetime of 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal. [1]&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; To accomplish this, a locking device was added and the leaf-spring was moved from the jack to the plug, so that the most-stressed part is on the cable side of the connection. This change was made so that the connector on the less expensive cable would bear the most wear. [1]&lt;p&gt;I suspect that would make it the responsibility of the cable, not the receptacle, to give you that satisfying feedback. Which is good, because the cable is much cheaper and easier to replace than the receptacle.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;USB_hardware&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;USB_hardware&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>userbinator</author><text>My experience has shown that USB C connectors are far more fragile than A, and every time I plug one in, for some reason the fit just feels vague and unsatisfying. An A plug, when you get it the right way, slides in solidly. As others have mentioned, C seems to have been designed to be the smallest possible, which makes sense for mobile devices, but not for a desktop and its peripherals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arghwhat</author><text>Funny you say that, I can tell from family experience that USB type A ports are quite fragile to a vertical tug as it breaks the internal plastic bar at its base so you&amp;#x27;re left with a hole full of floating copper pins. It of course requires more than a light tug, but less than you&amp;#x27;d think.&lt;p&gt;The USB-C housing is much more rigid than that of type A, so it should handle this much better. The thinner bar might also handle deflection better by virtue of flexibility.&lt;p&gt;Also, hardware engineers know that ports are operated by drunk gorillas. Incorrect usage and odd forces are considered when designing a physical interface.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why aren&apos;t motherboards mostly USB-C by now? (2021)</title><url>https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/03/22/why-arent-motherboards-mostly-usb-c-by-now/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onetimeuse92304</author><text>The insertion cycles are only for &lt;i&gt;proper&lt;/i&gt; insertion. Like when you are looking at it and doing it at a correct angle.&lt;p&gt;Also, rated lifetime does not take into account things like tugging the cable to the side of your PC because your foot got tangled in it.&lt;p&gt;USB C is extremely fragile due to its size and not much can be done to help it.&lt;p&gt;USB C might be created to withstand more insertion cycles. After all it is meant to be used for devices like phones that are plugged in and out constantly. Part of this improvement is just more experience creating connectors (yes, connectors got much better in the past decades).&lt;p&gt;A cable connected to a back of PC is not being constantly plugged in and out. Nobody I know is plugging in their keyboard or mouse multiple times a day.&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;When I design my boards, I put connectors that match the size of the board. I don&amp;#x27;t put extremely tiny connectors on a very large and massive project. I want a connector that isn&amp;#x27;t too fragile for the project and this means matching it with the forces that you can expect.&lt;p&gt;We, humans, use different forces when around large objects than when we are around small objects.&lt;p&gt;Large PC standing on your desk means forces used around it will be potentially larger than forces around a small appliance like a phone. If you tug on a cable that is hooked up to the phone, only small force is needed to move the phone. And we are usually more careful around a small appliance like phone. If you tug on a cable that is hooked up to a PC, much larger force will be needed before you move the PC. And people are less careful and using larger forces when doing things around a PC -- a larger object than a phone.</text></item><item><author>arcticbull</author><text>Interestingly enough, they&amp;#x27;re specced the opposite way.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Standard USB has a minimum rated lifetime of 1,500 cycles of insertion and removal, the Mini-USB receptacle increased this to 5,000 cycles, and the newer Micro-USB and USB-C receptacles are both designed for a minimum rated lifetime of 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal. [1]&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; To accomplish this, a locking device was added and the leaf-spring was moved from the jack to the plug, so that the most-stressed part is on the cable side of the connection. This change was made so that the connector on the less expensive cable would bear the most wear. [1]&lt;p&gt;I suspect that would make it the responsibility of the cable, not the receptacle, to give you that satisfying feedback. Which is good, because the cable is much cheaper and easier to replace than the receptacle.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;USB_hardware&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;USB_hardware&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>userbinator</author><text>My experience has shown that USB C connectors are far more fragile than A, and every time I plug one in, for some reason the fit just feels vague and unsatisfying. An A plug, when you get it the right way, slides in solidly. As others have mentioned, C seems to have been designed to be the smallest possible, which makes sense for mobile devices, but not for a desktop and its peripherals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kalium-xyz</author><text>Once you accidentally insert the usb c cable into the wrong port and short out your mobo you start Inserting it properly and start fearing it :&amp;#x2F;</text></comment>