Why is the micro USB so fragile compared to mini USB cable e

[Avraham Bernholz]

cl wrote, on Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:19:06 +0100:

I'm sure lots of minor damage to plug and socket comes from attempts
to push the plug in the wrong way up.

I put a dab of the wife's pink nail polish on the USB top of the
connectors, and, in the case of the less obvious device ports, on the
device itself, where the pink dots are to be visually matched *before*
one plugs in the connector.

So, at least in "my" situation, that's not why the USB nibs are failing.
I think it's a bad batch of cables from Frys.

I found an unopened original cable still in its packaging from Frys
(I had bought about a dozen cables at the same time):
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=124v8ns&s=8

Those cables stink!

Roxgo, http://www.roxgo.com,
Manufactured and exported by Zendex, Inc, South El Monte, CA 91733,
Made in China, UPC 851556004031

 

Dave Liquorice <allsortsnotthisbit@howhill.com> wrote:

On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:08:24 -0700, William Sommerwerck wrote:

My cell phone uses a charger with a micro-USB plug.

'cause the phone makers got together and decided on a "universal"
connector for charging. Under pressure from the consumer about the
being fleeced for chargers with only difference being the propritary
connector.

I think it was actually the EU (European Community) that sort of
persuaded them, it's only a voluntary code though.

If these were of such poor quality that they went bad after a few
hundred insertions, you can imagine the reactions of the manufacturer
and owner.

Do people keep a phone that long? People here seem to upgrade every
tweleve months or when ever they can twist their provider in to it.

Personally I don't like micro USB. It's too small, doesn't self guide
on insertion, the orientation is non-obvious and with the lack of
self guidance is the thing not going together because it's miss
aligned or the wrong way up? Mini USB doesn't suffer those problems.

Apart from anything else it's not easy to work out the right way up,
I'm sure lots of minor damage to plug and socket comes from attempts
to push the plug in the wrong way up. Mini-usb is much better from
that point of view because of its obvious shape,

--
Chris Green
¡

 

[Avraham Bernholz]

Chris Uppal wrote, on Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:52:31 +0100:

I'd imagine that wherever you buy this kind of kit, and whoever is named
as the "supplier", it's actually produced by some unknown factory
(probably in China as things stand today, not that it makes any
difference). And, more, that it won't always be the /same/ factory --
it'll be whichever offered to make the stuff cheapest.

I found an unopened package of the dozen or so cables I had bought from
Frys. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=124v8ns&s=8

Roxgo, http://www.roxgo.com,
Manufactured and exported by Zendex, Inc, South El Monte, CA 91733,
Made in China, UPC 851556004031

My recommendation?
Don't buy those cables!

 

[Chris Uppal]

Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Price ? Brand ?

I don't have the original shrinkwrap, but it was generic
Frys stuff. I will have to go back and look at the brand,
but, how does *that* help?

Let's say the brand is "made in China" stuff?
Is that necessarily better or worse than "made in anywhere else"
stuff?

I'd imagine that wherever you buy this kind of kit, and whoever is named as the
"supplier", it's actually produced by some unknown factory (probably in China
as things stand today, not that it makes any difference). And, more, that it
won't always be the /same/ factory -- it'll be whichever offered to make the
stuff cheapest.

So you really have no hope of identifying an /actual/ supplier, let alone of
finding a good one.

But what you /can/ do is buy from a brand with a name that a reputation (good
or bad) will stick to. Such brands have the incentive to monitor the quality
of the stuff they are getting from the /real/ suppliers, and will switch
suppliers if the quality drops.

Of course, even a brand might let a bad batch slip through: one with the wrong
steel for the connector, or the crimping machine out of adjustment (so that it
makes the crimps too sharp, and hence fragile). But that won't happen often
/precisely because/ they are taking steps to avoid it.

I'm sure if the brand were "Belken", it would be good, but,
I think this was just generic stuff. Why should something as
simple as a cable need to be name brand anyway?

Well, you answered that in your first post ;-) It turns out that micro-USB
plugs have to be assembled to a certain standard or they stop working. (This
is still on the assumption that something else isn't causing the breakage)

And, what is a name brand (other than Belken) anyway, for
cables?

Can't make any recommendations. I generally buy cables in shops (not online),
and avoid "cheap" shops at that, but I don't consciously buy by brand. As I
say, I have had exactly zero problems with USB[*] so far (full, micro, or
mini), but to what extent that's down to luck, differences in the way I use
USB, buying higher quality cables, or whatever, I can't say.

-- chris

[*] Unlike bloody Ethernet connections...

 

[chris]

On 21/08/2014 09:19, cl@isbd.net wrote:

Dave Liquorice <allsortsnotthisbit@howhill.com> wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:08:24 -0700, William Sommerwerck wrote:

My cell phone uses a charger with a micro-USB plug.

'cause the phone makers got together and decided on a "universal"
connector for charging. Under pressure from the consumer about the
being fleeced for chargers with only difference being the propritary
connector.

I think it was actually the EU (European Community) that sort of
persuaded them, it's only a voluntary code though.

Yup. European Commission to be exact.
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/01/05/eu-standard-phone-charger-coming-this-year/

It's a not voluntary code though; it's an agreement between the
manufacturers and the Commission. Probably because if there hadn't been
an agreement, the Commission would have imposed a regulation.

If these were of such poor quality that they went bad after a few
hundred insertions, you can imagine the reactions of the manufacturer
and owner.

Do people keep a phone that long? People here seem to upgrade every
tweleve months or when ever they can twist their provider in to it.

Personally I don't like micro USB. It's too small, doesn't self guide
on insertion, the orientation is non-obvious and with the lack of
self guidance is the thing not going together because it's miss
aligned or the wrong way up? Mini USB doesn't suffer those problems.

Apart from anything else it's not easy to work out the right way up,
I'm sure lots of minor damage to plug and socket comes from attempts
to push the plug in the wrong way up. Mini-usb is much better from
that point of view because of its obvious shape,

Although true, I doubt any current smartphone is thick enough to
accommodate a mini-usb socket.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 07:18:51 +0200, Poutnik <poutnik@privacy.net>
wrote:

Dne 20.8.2014 v 23:57 Jeff Liebermann napsal(a):
I've torn apart a few "failed" mini and micro USB connectors, mostly
on cell phones. Although most of the permanent damage is from
breakage, a fair number of the gold contacts had the plating blown
off, apparently from arcing. My guess(tm) is that inserting the
connector with the power applied is discharging a large capacitor in
the power source, through the connector, to the cell phone. It
doesn't take many arcs to destroy the gold plating. The USB 2.0
specification limits the initial inrush current to 0.1A before the
chips negotiate to turn on the current to anywhere from 0.5A to 2A
maximum current. The spec also limits the size of the load
capacitance to 10uf. The idea is to prevent arcing. However, if the
power supply vendor ignores the spec, the connector contacts will fry
in short order.

I instinctively plug micro USB end into a phone,
before I plug the USB end into USB socket of PC or a charge.

That's probably un-necessary if you have a quality charger and
properly designed cell phone. 0.1A inrush current is not going to do
any damage to the gold plating. However, if you have a no-name
charger, or worse are charging from a "stiff" 5v source, it's worth
checking what the charger does. I have a USB extension cable where I
cut the heavy 5V positive wire. I put various ammeters in series to
measure current drain. Today, you can get such devices on eBay for
very little:
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/171427886388>
However, these will not show the required 0.1A inrush current limit or
any current spike caused by an oversized capacitive load. For those,
I insert a 0.1 ohm resistor (actually a length of nichrome wire).
Using a dual trace oscilloscope, I put the Ch A probe on one side of
the resistor, and the Ch B probe on the other, and the scope in
differential (A-B) mode. That's necessary because grounding the +5V
power line with the scope probe ground is not a good idea. I can post
a photo of what it should look like if anyone needs a sanity check.

Note that USB 3.0 is different. Current is now up to 900 ma and
overload protection is required:
<http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/>

Simulation of USB 2 inrush current:
<http://www.epsilonlabs.com/USB_Inrush_I.html>

The design of the micro-USB connector system intentionally moved all
the failure prone parts to the plug. There's not much you can do to
improve or protect the receptacle on the phone end, but plenty you can
do on the cable and charger end.

There is an amazing amount of junk USB power supplies out there:
<http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/usbPowerSupplyTest%20UK.html>
The real Apple charger:
<http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html>
and the not so real clone:
<http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html>

I bought a few cheap USB car chargers on eBay, and stupidly passed
them out to friends as presents. After I looked inside, I had to run
around and confiscate them before they blew up someones phone.
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/LTspice/Cig%20Lighter%20USB%20charger/Circuit%20view.jpg>
Notice that there is a short across the data wires (used to fool the
phone into believing that the maximum current available). The front
has two USB jacks, labeled 2A and 0.5A. With the short, they're both
identical. I tried to build an LTspice model of the device, but
failed because couldn't identify the chip used.

I later bought some of these which are fairly cheap, and won't kill
your phone:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger.jpg>



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:56:22 +1000, "Rod Speed"
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:

>I effectively do that test when I drive between major towns.

Just try the foil wrapped box test and see for yourself. I think
you'll be unpleasantly surprised. If you don't want to run the
battery to total discharge, just run it for a few hours an look at the
percent charge remaining on whatever battery monitor application you
have available, and extrapolate the results.

Incidentally, don't try using an (unplugged) microwave oven for this
test. They leak too much at cellular frequencies.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 10:43:54 +0000 (UTC), Avraham Bernholz
<Avraham.Bernholz@gmail.com> wrote:

cl wrote, on Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:19:06 +0100:

I'm sure lots of minor damage to plug and socket comes from attempts
to push the plug in the wrong way up.

I put a dab of the wife's pink nail polish on the USB top of the
connectors, and, in the case of the less obvious device ports, on the
device itself, where the pink dots are to be visually matched *before*
one plugs in the connector.

Or, just buy a cable with a connector that fits both ways:
<http://flipperusb.com>
Too bad it's only available for the large USB connector.

Or, just wait for the new Type C USB connector, which is reversible:
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/08/18/usb-type-c-guide/>

So, at least in "my" situation, that's not why the USB nibs are failing.
I think it's a bad batch of cables from Frys.

Find a microscope and look at the gold plating on the connector. If
it's nice and shiny gold, you win. If it looks dark and dingy, like
some of the base metal is showing through the plating, it's much too
thinly plated.

Strictly speaking, the USB connector system is a bad joke. Ask any
connector or switch manufacturer about switching DC with a gold plated
connector and they'll cringe. Gold plating is suppose to be for "dry"
loads (i.e. no DC). If one must run DC through a gold connector, the
power is suppose to be disconnected and all caps are suppose to be
discharged. For "live" loads, one is suppose to use silver. However,
the USB connector has both a dry data load, and a live DC power load.
Therefore, we see all the inrush current protection on the DC pins.
<https://www.nkkswitches.com/pdf/switchcontactmaterial.pdf>

Before you declare your cables to be junk, you might want to run some
bench tests with your five(?) assorted power supplies under various
load conditions. Also check what they do for inrush current. My
guess is that at least one of them will be problematic and possibly
the culprit.

The thin USB cables may actually be an improvement. The higher
resistance wire might reduce the inrush current a little. For short
circuit protection, they'll probably make a tolerable fuse. I'm too
lazy to do the calcs and measure the wire gauge.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[The Real Bev]

On 08/20/2014 05:47 AM, Chris Uppal wrote:

Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Sounds like you got some of a bad batch of cables.

I wonder if there is a way to tell if a cable is good
*before* you buy it?

Price ? Brand ? If the cable comes from a supplier with enough of a name to
care about quality control (and therefore test the stuff they get from the
/actual/ supplier) then that's probably the best you can do. In particular if
it comes from a brand that you have had good quality (not necessarily premium
priced) stuff from before.

I bought a number of extension cables at the 99-Cents-Only Store a
couple of years ago. Belkin, transparent plastic covering what looked
like braided metal, lighted ends. Same package that I saw a few weeks
later at Fry's for ~$14.00. I should have bought more of them, but the
ones I buy from DealExtreme work just as well.

Perhaps also a visual inspection of the overall build quality will tell you
something about the quality control, but it's difficult to see how to apply
that effectively to something as simple as USB cables.

--
Cheers, Bev
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This is Usenet. We *are* the trained body for dealing
with psychotics. -- A. Dingley

 

[The Real Bev]

On 08/20/2014 11:03 AM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Chris Uppal wrote, on Wed, 20 Aug 2014 13:47:03 +0100:

Price ? Brand ?

I don't have the original shrinkwrap, but it was generic
Frys stuff. I will have to go back and look at the brand,
but, how does *that* help?

Let's say the brand is "made in China" stuff?
Is that necessarily better or worse than "made in anywhere else"
stuff?

I'm sure if the brand were "Belken", it would be good, but,
I think this was just generic stuff. Why should something as
simple as a cable need to be name brand anyway?

And, what is a name brand (other than Belken) anyway, for
cables?

I just bought some from Dollar Tree for $1 each. They are bright
green, so they'll be easy to spot, when I need one.

The 99-Cents-Only store had orange ones They also had a variety of
skins for one of the Apple or Samsung phones which ALMOST fit my BLU --
I gave the skin to my granddaughter, who has used it for months.

--
Cheers, Bev
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This is Usenet. We *are* the trained body for dealing
with psychotics. -- A. Dingley

 

[Rod Speed]

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:r34cv9hem2sue4gvovescl848cqq4tgfve@4ax.com...

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 07:18:51 +0200, Poutnik <poutnik@privacy.net
wrote:

Dne 20.8.2014 v 23:57 Jeff Liebermann napsal(a):
I've torn apart a few "failed" mini and micro USB connectors, mostly
on cell phones. Although most of the permanent damage is from
breakage, a fair number of the gold contacts had the plating blown
off, apparently from arcing. My guess(tm) is that inserting the
connector with the power applied is discharging a large capacitor in
the power source, through the connector, to the cell phone. It
doesn't take many arcs to destroy the gold plating. The USB 2.0
specification limits the initial inrush current to 0.1A before the
chips negotiate to turn on the current to anywhere from 0.5A to 2A
maximum current. The spec also limits the size of the load
capacitance to 10uf. The idea is to prevent arcing. However, if the
power supply vendor ignores the spec, the connector contacts will fry
in short order.

I instinctively plug micro USB end into a phone,
before I plug the USB end into USB socket of PC or a charge.

That's probably un-necessary if you have a quality charger and
properly designed cell phone. 0.1A inrush current is not going to do
any damage to the gold plating. However, if you have a no-name
charger, or worse are charging from a "stiff" 5v source, it's worth
checking what the charger does. I have a USB extension cable where I
cut the heavy 5V positive wire. I put various ammeters in series to
measure current drain. Today, you can get such devices on eBay for
very little:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171427886388
However, these will not show the required 0.1A inrush current limit or
any current spike caused by an oversized capacitive load. For those,
I insert a 0.1 ohm resistor (actually a length of nichrome wire).
Using a dual trace oscilloscope, I put the Ch A probe on one side of
the resistor, and the Ch B probe on the other, and the scope in
differential (A-B) mode. That's necessary because grounding the +5V
power line with the scope probe ground is not a good idea. I can post
a photo of what it should look like if anyone needs a sanity check.

Note that USB 3.0 is different. Current is now up to 900 ma and
overload protection is required:
http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/

Simulation of USB 2 inrush current:
http://www.epsilonlabs.com/USB_Inrush_I.html

The design of the micro-USB connector system intentionally moved all
the failure prone parts to the plug. There's not much you can do to
improve or protect the receptacle on the phone end, but plenty you can
do on the cable and charger end.

There is an amazing amount of junk USB power supplies out there:
http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/usbPowerSupplyTest%20UK.html
The real Apple charger:
http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html
and the not so real clone:
http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html

I bought a few cheap USB car chargers on eBay, and stupidly passed
them out to friends as presents. After I looked inside, I had to run
around and confiscate them before they blew up someones phone.
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/LTspice/Cig%20Lighter%20USB%20charger/Circuit%20view.jpg
Notice that there is a short across the data wires (used to fool the
phone into believing that the maximum current available). The front
has two USB jacks, labeled 2A and 0.5A. With the short, they're both
identical. I tried to build an LTspice model of the device, but
failed because couldn't identify the chip used.

I later bought some of these which are fairly cheap, and won't kill
your phone:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger.jpg

Where are you getting those from ?

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:18:57 +1000, "Rod Speed"
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:

I later bought some of these which are fairly cheap, and won't kill
your phone:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger/Powergen%20USB%20car%20charger.jpg

Where are you getting those from ?

Amazon and eBay. Available in white and Darth Vader black:
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088U6OZY>
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/131257596903>
<http://tips.navas.us/2014/01/best-usb-car-charger.html>
<https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=powergen+usb+car+charger>

Grumble... I paid $15 and now the price is $10. Oh well.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[The Real Bev]

On 08/20/2014 12:56 PM, Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote, on Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:02:13 -0400:

Replace the connectors, they are cheap enough.

I also have to replace the Duracell USB wall charger I bought
from Frys, as it just fell apart in my hands today!

I'm getting bummed out on Duracell chargers and rechargeables. Several
years ago (maybe 2008) I bought a set of the precharged Duracells --
supposed to maintain a charge while sitting on a shelf for nearly a year
-- and the spares (charged at the same time as the ones in my camera)
are dead when the ones I've been using in my camera die. The Duracell
charger (the BIG one!) stopped working within 2 years. I now carry more
Kirkland AAs with me Just In Case.

Are the Eneloops any better?


--
Cheers, Bev
==========================================================
"It's no piece of cake, but it sure beats listening to Ted
Kennedy on the Senate floor."
- Jesse Helms describing heart surgery

 

[The Real Bev]

On 08/20/2014 07:08 PM, Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Ralph Mowery wrote, on Wed, 20 Aug 2014 18:41:59 -0400:

That is why I asked why the origional poster was plugging
in about 3 to 10 times a day.

I never formally measured how many times I plug in a day,
but, for the smartphone, it's at least 3 to 5 times a day.

For example, I get in the car, and plug in the phone (otherwise
the battery will die with the GPS running). I use the GPS and
go to the store (I use the GPS with traffic all the time, even
if I know where I'm going).

Do you feed in the store as a destination? If not, how does it have any
beter idea of traffic than you do by looking out the window? Or are you
using one of the Sigalert/511 apps?

I get out of the car at the store and bring my phone.
Back from the store, I plug her back in.
Off to my next errand.

Then, I get to work (let's say), and pull it again, and then plug
it into the work USB cable. Each time I run to a meeting, I unplug
it (the darn thing only lasts a few hours and I've been caught
dead too many times).

Then, it's off to lunch, and we plug it back in at the car, and
back off, and then back at work we plug in, and off, etc.

Back at home, we run the same routine. So, the total number of
plugs in and out is easily about 20 a day (or so), but only about
five or ten on any one cable.

If the battery would last all day, that would be a different
story, but it won't last more than a few hours.

Theory has it that you maximize battery life by letting it run down to
less than 30% and then giving it a full charge rather than keeping it
topped up. What do you think?

--
Cheers, Bev
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
666řF -- the oven temperature for roast beast.

 

[The Real Bev]

On 08/21/2014 03:43 AM, Avraham Bernholz wrote:

cl wrote, on Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:19:06 +0100:

I'm sure lots of minor damage to plug and socket comes from attempts
to push the plug in the wrong way up.

I put a dab of the wife's pink nail polish on the USB top of the
connectors, and, in the case of the less obvious device ports, on the
device itself, where the pink dots are to be visually matched *before*
one plugs in the connector.

So, at least in "my" situation, that's not why the USB nibs are failing.
I think it's a bad batch of cables from Frys.

I found an unopened original cable still in its packaging from Frys
(I had bought about a dozen cables at the same time):
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=124v8ns&s=8

Those cables stink!

Roxgo, http://www.roxgo.com,
Manufactured and exported by Zendex, Inc, South El Monte, CA 91733,
Made in China, UPC 851556004031

FWIW, I've never had any problems with cables -- or anything else --
from DealExtreme.
http://www.dx.com/s/USB%2bcables?category=312

There have been problems with some items right out of the box -- PS2 to
USB keyboard connectors, and a never-could-have-worked
mp3-player-to-cassettte adapter. I emailed them and sent photos of the
items in question, and they credited me immediately.

The disadvantage, of course, is the 2-3 week shipping time. Big deal
They now sell some stuff out of their warehouse in California with
much faster delivery, but if they're doing it legally they'll charge
sales tax on that stuff, and I believe in avoiding sales tax whenever
possible.

--
Cheers, Bev
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
666řF -- the oven temperature for roast beast.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:56:39 -0700, The Real Bev
<bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:

>Are the Eneloops any better?

Yes. I use them in my various cameras. Hardly any self-discharge
after many months.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Chris Uppal]

Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Roxgo, http://www.roxgo.com,
Manufactured and exported by Zendex, Inc, South El Monte, CA 91733,
Made in China, UPC 851556004031

So you got the cables from Fry's, who got them from Roxgo, who got them from
Zendex, who may be the US marketing arm of a Chinese factory (or group), or may
be another middleman sourcing cables (etc) from whichever Chinese factory is
cheapest in any given week...

It seems that either you got rare a rouge batch, or that that entire supply
chain doesn't include /anyone/ who cares as much about quality control as I'd
prefer

-- chris

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

The Real Bev wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

I just bought some from Dollar Tree for $1 each. They are bright
green so they'll be easy to spot, when I need one.

The 99-Cents-Only store had orange ones

I was hoping for bright red.

I had someone claim that the BNC cables I used on a job were his. I
asked him where he bought the green RG/58. His jaw was just hanging
open as I left with my tools and cables.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Avraham Bernholz wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote, on Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:02:13 -0400:

Replace the connectors, they are cheap enough.

I didn't know you *could* (easily) replace the connectors!
And, at 5 cents each, no less.

10/.99 = $.099 each, not $.05. Shipping was 79 cents, for a total of
$1.78. The 10 I bought just arrived.

How can they possibly make money selling those micro usb connectors
for 5 cents each, with shipping from Szechuan China being 80 cents?

BTW, are they crimp on? Glue on? Solder on? What?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121338466227

Solder, like Rod stated.


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

 

[Andy Burns]

Chris Uppal wrote:

> It seems that either you got rare a rouge batch

I thought someone wanted orange, not red ...