Gregory's ServerBehold the fruits of hours of labour, the #USB iceberg meme. I spent way more time on this than I’m proud to admit :cowboy_lesbian:
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Tier 7 (Picture: The bottom of a cash register with two standard RJ45 ports and three unusual ports. The first one is a peachy red, labelled “24 Volt USB”, and is three times taller than a standard USB-A port. The other two are labeled “12 volt USB” and appear similar to the 24 Volt USB one but are painted a pale blue. Tier 8 (Picture: A diagram of a micro USB port with its pins labeled “VBUS”, “MHL-“, “MHL+”, “CBUS”, and “GND”, these pins are connected to various pins on an HDMI port to the right): BusKill, WebUSB, MHL Alt-mode, VirtualLink Alt-mode.  @bcoffy Excellent work! Also for your consideration - HTC's extUSB.   @dpflug @bcoffy Not necessarily even headers: if you have a Baseboard Management Controller with KVM emulation, the emulated keyboard and mouse (and sometimes emulated install media) sit on top of an emulated USB hub which is connected to the USB root hub (which might be another licensed macroblock in the same chip). @bcoffy you are missing wireless usb look it up, it's an actual ratified standard with functional production implementations   @bcoffy putting OTG just as a 3rd tier doesn't feel like it captures the eldrich horrors of SRP/HNP/RSP. From >redacted< HNP characteristics can be used as a stack fingerprint to implement DRM schemes ..  @ryanc @bcoffy also a good one: Intel, who is the primary original designer of USB and an USB Implementers Forum member makes a cable that *looks* like an illegal A-to-A cable on first sight, but is actually legal because they disconnect vbus and they made an exception for debugging cables https://i.stack.imgur.com/PyeYG.jpg https://designintools.intel.com/c01-intel-svt-dci-dbc2-3-a-to-a-debug-cable-1-meter.html    @charlotte @eloy @bcoffy we sat in total silence while I stared him down. Then I left.  @whitequark @eloy @bcoffy almost everything here. not sure if this is a reflection of the meme or myself @leo @whitequark @eloy @bcoffy  @bcoffy sucks that it only took one accessory shoving 9V on the CC pins to make ppl think Nintendo broke spec, despite using a standard+compliant TI chip for USB PD @bcoffy recently learned : you can plug micro usb 2.0 male in half of the connector of a micro usb b 3.0 female port to use it in usb 2.0 mode. Better than nothing  @bcoffy I had a Nokia phone with micro-A port. I don't remember if the charger had a micro-A or micro-B connector (both fit). Also a bunch of computers with powered USB ports with multiple colours. Still have a card from one such computer somewhere.  @bcoffy ok but seriously why is micro-b a flimsy piece of shit!!! like why is every single micro-b connector like that!! @bcoffy is "USB-C is a shape" referring to something specific? because I mean, it is, but that seems kind of obvious @daniel @leo This basically, I think when people first start learning about USB-C (myself included) they get it in their heads that USB-C has all these great features (like 240W PD or 80 Gbps transfers, alt modes), and they think it’s just an inherent trait of the port, when in reality those things require the supporting controllers, hardware, and USB-C just so happens to be the shape of the port that CAN pass those things through it.  @bcoffy USB-PD has all sorts of cursedness, including the fact that negotiating which device charges which is a deliberate race condition where the faster device wins. This is under the assumption that you will probably want to charge weaker devices from stronger devices, which will have the more powerful CPU of the two. @genevieve @bcoffy USB spec requires devices that want power to have 5.1kΩ resistors between the CC line and ground, and if a charger doesn't detect them it needs to refuse power delivery @genevieve @bcoffy A USB-C device which wants to receive power needs a resistor of a specific value between each of the two CC pins and ground, and the charger will only provide power when it sees one of these resistors. If a device cheats and uses a single resistor for both pins, it will work with basic cables but will fail with more capable cables (which use both pins). This famously happened with the initial revision of the RaspberryPi 4 (they fixed it in later revisions). @bcoffy you should sign this so others can attribute it to you. For example, I have this SQL iceberg I saved from social media a while ago and I don't know who did it, can't attribute it. @bcoffy ok, duh, I googled it and it wasn't that hard: Jordan Lewis. Nevertheless, maybe sign yours?  @PattaFeuFeu @luana @bcoffy in the USB-C spec it says they're not allowed because "such adapters would allow many invalid and potentially unsafe cable connections to be constructed by users" (e.g. stick two of them onto a USB-C to C cable and you get a USB-A to A cable). they're pretty safe so long as you know what you're doing with them, they just don't want people sticking the wrong things together and breaking their electronics @luana @bcoffy Because if you connect two of these adapters together through a normal USB-C cable you end up with a male A to male A cable, which is forbidden because it shorts together the power supply of both ends of the cable (the cursed A-to-A debug cable is allowed only because it doesn't connect the power or USB 2.0 pins, it connects only the USB 3.0 pins). @xfix @luana @bcoffy I had an external HDD case with (only) USB-A port for a while, which came with an male-A-to-male-A cable... Also got a tiny male-A-to-female-C and male-B-to-female-C cable lyring around 😄 @xfix @luana @bcoffy Also *how* forbidden is this really? It seems like A-to-A is pretty simple to obtain. (though then again I've seen something about male-to-male US power cords that you can apparently get easy enough and those *got to be* super illegal to manufacture so maybe simple-to-obtain means nothing)     @bcoffy I believe that I have personally encountered at least one item of every single level. I'm old, I remember BIOS emulation of PS/2 protocols for USB keyboard/mice. @bcoffy isn't USB attached SCSI implemented by pretty much every portable hdd? i wouldn't put it that deep  @bcoffy also blown-out motherboard USB ports from hubs missing the backfeed protection diode and poorly isolated power adapter leaking mains back into the port. @bcoffy this is excellent. If you need another layer: Serial debug console over USB @bcoffy ohh, I got one external hard drive with one of those micro B plug connectors. I might have to upgrade that one at some point. @wertercatt @bcoffy Oh thanks ..... I always see this one as "USB-Oh bugger let's break out the leads box" 😀 @bcoffy How could you maintain your sanity doing that iceberg meme? o.o  @bcoffy Also, weird reversible plugs from before USB C.  @jackemled @bcoffy I had some JBL earbuds, and while the earbuds themselves didn't work out so well, it shipped with a charge cable that has a reversible USB-A end. (The other end is USB-C.) I still use that cable for charging stuff! @bcoffy   |
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Tier 5 (Pictures: two unusual USB plug ends, a Mini-A and Micro-A plug): USB 1.0, Mini Type-A, Female Type C to Male Type-A is Forbidden, Micro Type-A, USB 1.1. Tier 6 (Picture: an unusual port on a computer that appears to be a wider USB-A port, labeled eSATA + the USB Symbol.) HDMI Alt Mode, USB-eSATA Hybrid Ports, Ajay Bhatt, Other Type-A Port Colors, Hazardous cable designs (A to A, B to B, etc)