this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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578
USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by ooli to c/technology
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[–] 418teapot 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Can someone explain to me why I keep reading about people having problems plugging in USB A connectors upside down? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Per the spec, the holes always go up. They indicate the correct way to plug in the port. Not only that, but the printed logo on the connector also always goes up.

The only time this is SLIGHTLY confusing is if you have a desktop tower where the motherboard is essentially mounted sideways, but for that case it just takes an extra second to think which way is "up" from the perspective of the motherboard.

And before anyone says "who reads the spec?", it feels like I subconsciously knew this for something like a decade before I even knew what a spec was.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sometimes you're working on an IoT device in a tight space, which makes rotating/seeing everything much harder.

Especially if you drop the cable it falls into a crevice somewhere.

You probably won't have trouble plugging it in the first time, but gods forbid you unplug/replug it then the cable rotates 540 degrees and you have no idea how it was plugged in before

[–] 418teapot 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that's fair. But I feel like I've seen these "USB superposition" memes since before IoT was even a thing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen enough devices with the usb ports mounted upside down, for whatever strange reason. Also sometimes you want to plug something in without looking, this is much easier with USB-C

[–] 418teapot 2 points 1 year ago

That's wild, I've never seen an upside down port.

I agree reversibility is better and am happy usb c will finally kill this meme.