most universal USB connector

If you have the space use regular size type A for anything that sources and regular type B for any box that's a slave. All that mini and micro stuff is a pain for most people once they are past 50. You can barely see the orientation markings and then if you have enough biceps it'll go in either way, once ... crunch.

No joke, a ME (who must have been a bouncer in a previous life) even managed to reverse a D-Sub and completely crush up the shell.

I don't have much room... some of the boxes will be very small. I was hoping to use the world's most popular USB connector, so anybody can but the power supply at Walgreens. The problem is to figure out which is the most popular connector.

I agree that the small USB connectors, and most cell phone connectors, are horrible to get to mate. Stupid designs.

A big customer has decreed that all boxes, including the ones we supply, will use a Mencom power connector, 24 volts in. It's hard to mate, hard to unmate, and if you don't do it exactly right, pins get bent.

slaves/devices should always be B

I believe it is micro-B

but it is a flimsy little connector, I'd go go for standard B unless you really need the small size

-Lasse

Probably the European standard kind of dictates that if you need small and want a ubiquitous plug. AFAIK they chose Micro-USB:

I'm pretty sure it's the micro-B.

Mini-B is being deprecated in favor of the Micro-B. For this sort of thing, go with what the market has chosen; Micro-B.

AFAIK, Micro-B.

I think so too but it is indeed a crap connector. I have a portable hard drive using one whose cable falls out it you touch it.

Mini-Bs aren't any great shakes, either. I know at my last job they were having real trouble finding new connectors for the existing design. The big guys are dropping them, so the connector manufacturers are also.

I wonder what they're going to do with micro-Bs when the 2A (or more) charging specs become stone.

Our most recent phone does use the micro-B. Which is a damned annoying "Yet Another Connector" for not really much smaller (same width, thinner) than the mini-B on both cameras, and much easier to get confused up .vs. down than the mini-B

An even more telling indication that micro-B is the right track (despite my personal preference) is that "random cell-phone charger some child left in the library and I just looked at" is also a micro-B. And I don't think I've seen a mini-B charger (they may exist, but most phones were using weird unique connectors before the micro-B, from what I've seen - and I usually see a crop of abandoned chargers at the end of every school year.) Of course I also have a couple of A chargers, but those intend you to use an A-something cable, and are more expensive than the wall-wart-with-cable-sticking-out versions.

Mini-B is too thick for cell phones. YAC was needed because SOC (same old connector) no longer worked. BTW, I think you forgot the connectors used in video and still cameras. ;-)

Mini-B chargers definitely exist. We used them in my previous job. Mini-Bs aren't anything to write home about, either. Believe it or not, Micro-Bs are supposed to be more rugged than Mini-Bs.

snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz explained on 5/03/2012 :

Is this a reserection of the once famous MICROBEE lol

The nice thing is the microUSB cables are now dirt cheap since that is the standard. Fry's had them for $0.99, limit 3.

I have read that Micro-USB was designed to be more reliable than Mini-USB. One point was that the device side is more stable than the cable side, so the cable takes the wear. Somewhere must be specs from a reputable manufacturer.

I personally have no complaints with one of the first HTC Desires with Micro-USB, and I abuse it as a memory stick and camera, too.

Gerhard

This is procedural. One should always attach the device first, then plug the cheap, std USB end into their PC or charger, or the wall wart into the wall. If their is already power on the wire, that is one of the elements that degrade the cable connections as each 'make and break' are made.

It also may be keyed toward the new 3.0 std. Notctheir larger connectorizations, but the micro series.

I would personally not buy those. BTDT, never no more :-)

You get what you pay for.

And that is one of the problems that could have been avoided _if_ the wall wart designers had put on their thinking caps. Because uncle Leroy will just plug'em in at the USB, cuz he can't easily get on his knees no more where the wall outlet is, cuz them knees hurt and his hip ain't so great either, so he just leaves the charger in the wall outlet.

The fix: First sense if a current flow is possible, then apply full power. Simple, really.

I beg to differ! Do you really think a $30 cable from BestBuy is 6X better than a $5 cable over the Internet?

Over the Internet is ok if you know the source and the cable quality. But I will not buy the 99c cables at that place. No way. I've had my experiences and they were not positive at all.

BTW, I just finished an EMC/ESD job. There are _major_ differences between USB cables. For example, we found 5ohms for the shield on one cable and had issues. Then we found 0.3ohms on a better cable of equal length -> issues gone on that link.