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Kamila Borowska

@luana @bcoffy if female C to male A was allowed then such an adapter could be used to create male A to male A cable

USB was never designed to allow male A to male A, and such a cable could potentially start a fire

22 Oct 2023 at 5:54 | Wall-to-wall | Open on queer.party
4 comments
Jonas Platte

@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 😄
I don't really understand that explanation but I guess it's also why the latter two items were so hard to find 😅

22 Oct 2023 at 7:17 | Open on social.tchncs.de
Kamila Borowska

@jplatte @luana @bcoffy the way USB is designed, the host device (indicated by using A connector) is supposed to supply power

if both devices decide to supply power you end up with current fight where both device supply 5V power, and the consequences of that could be pretty bad

this is not a problem with USB-C, as USB-C has a way to negotiate who is responsible for supplying the power

USB-C to USB-A/USB-B adapters are fine provided the user doesn't use those to create a male USB-A to male USB-A cable, however the possibility of someone creating those and then causing damage to their hardware (for instance, a less tech-savvy user could try connecting two computers using usb-a to usb-a cable) means that those adapters are forbidden by the spec

as for your external HDD, i assume the manufacturer wanted to save money using USB-A instead of USB-B, USB-C or custom connector as they should be using

@jplatte @luana @bcoffy the way USB is designed, the host device (indicated by using A connector) is supposed to supply power

if both devices decide to supply power you end up with current fight where both device supply 5V power, and the consequences of that could be pretty bad

this is not a problem with USB-C, as USB-C has a way to negotiate who is responsible for supplying the power

22 Oct 2023 at 7:27 | Open on queer.party
Jonas Platte

@xfix @luana @bcoffy
Aha! So my male-B-to-female-C is actually fine then because it doesn't make it easier to make A-to-A connections?

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)

22 Oct 2023 at 7:45 | Open on social.tchncs.de
Kamila Borowska

@jplatte @luana @bcoffy as far the spec is USB concerned they are forbidden. USB-IF will refuse to certify any such adapter

with that said, manufacturing those is not illegal, and there are plenty of smaller companies that will sell those

22 Oct 2023 at 7:54 | Open on queer.party
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