5 ms·

The only cables you can mess up are barrel power supplies..

doubled112 2y ago
I don’t think you’re being imaginative enough. People break USB ports all of the time, and ruin DisplayPort ports because they’re a locking connector. Also, USB-C. The combination of video, power and data transfer that any laptop supports is up to the manufacturer, so it’ll fit but will it do what you need?
- hulitu 2y ago
  > ruin DisplayPort ports because they’re a locking connector. This is not obvious. Display port's UI is like modern UIs: one cannot tell if the protrusion of the connector can be pressed or not. Also the force necessary is quiet high.
  - upon_drumhead 2y ago
    It's doubly not obvious because not all Display Port connectors are locking. For example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY3W7PG3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY3W7PG3
  - cortesoft 2y ago
    Especially when it is slightly recessed in the case so you can’t get your fingers in to press the release.
  - projektfu 2y ago
    I've had (admittedly cheap) connectors flat-out refuse to unlock, leaving me sweating because I don't want to damage the much-more-valuable equipment they connect to. No more AmazonBasics cables for me.
jonhohle 2y ago
I’m not sure if you meant to say “can’t mess up.” If that’s what you meant, are they center positive or negative? What’s the voltage? What’s the outer diameter? What’s the inner diameter? What current is required? A known barrel jack for a known device is simple. Have a device and need to replace a power supply? It gets complicated.
- sharpshadow 2y ago
  As you mentioned a couple of things can go wrong with barrel jacks, which is my point. With let’s say display cables it either connects or not.
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    I see you've never bent a VGA pin.
rahimnathwani 2y ago
I've seen a couple of monitors fried because someone tried to power them with a DC power supply that had the right barrel jack but wrong voltage.
rebuilder 2y ago
I once plugged a USB type B connector into an external hard drive blind (it was dark) and was rewarded with a zap and a dead hard drive. The connector went in the wrong way without any particular force - either the jack or the connector must have been a bit looser than standard. The drive was fine once I took it out of the enclosure, fortunately.
- tzs 2y ago
  I did that with the 4 pin Molex connector in a drive in the '80s. That normally takes a tremendous amount of force, but the connector on the drive side gad the most pliable plastic I've every seen on a connector. The drive was loaned to us for testing by a disk controller company that had hired us to write drivers for their new controller, and they had received the disk on loan from IBM. It was a 1 gig drive at a time when 200 MB was the norm for a big personal computer disk and not yet on the market. At that stage only a select few outside of IBM had been loaned these drives for testing. I was pretty freaked out. I assumed that I'd be in a lot of trouble for destroying the drive. I told the person who had loaned us the drive what happened and he told me that he'd fried two of these drives the same way! He'd found out from his contact at IBM that IBM was losing about 10% of the drives from the early production runs due to their own technicians plugging power in backwards when testing the drives as they came off the line. The contact also said that IBM had already revised the parts list to switch to a Molex connector whose plastic was firm enough to end this problem.
bjelkeman-again 2y ago
On an early version of the MacBook Air the headphone jack was next to a USB port. In the dark I tried to plugin a pair of headphones and managed to put the headphone connector into the USB port. I didn’t push hard, just so some electrical connection happened. The kernel immediately crashed. I talked about it with a friend who is a tech consultant and he confirmed that he had managed that too.

I don’t think you’re being imaginative enough. People break USB ports all of the time, and ruin DisplayPort ports because they’re a locking connector. Also, USB-C. The combination of video, power and data transfer that any laptop supports is up to the manufacturer, so it’ll fit but will it do what you need?

hulitu 2y ago
> ruin DisplayPort ports because they’re a locking connector. This is not obvious. Display port's UI is like modern UIs: one cannot tell if the protrusion of the connector can be pressed or not. Also the force necessary is quiet high.
- upon_drumhead 2y ago
  It's doubly not obvious because not all Display Port connectors are locking. For example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY3W7PG3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY3W7PG3
- cortesoft 2y ago
  Especially when it is slightly recessed in the case so you can’t get your fingers in to press the release.
- projektfu 2y ago
  I've had (admittedly cheap) connectors flat-out refuse to unlock, leaving me sweating because I don't want to damage the much-more-valuable equipment they connect to. No more AmazonBasics cables for me.

jonhohle 2y ago

I’m not sure if you meant to say “can’t mess up.” If that’s what you meant, are they center positive or negative? What’s the voltage? What’s the outer diameter? What’s the inner diameter? What current is required? A known barrel jack for a known device is simple. Have a device and need to replace a power supply? It gets complicated.

sharpshadow 2y ago
As you mentioned a couple of things can go wrong with barrel jacks, which is my point. With let’s say display cables it either connects or not.
- yencabulator 2y ago
  I see you've never bent a VGA pin.

rahimnathwani 2y ago

I've seen a couple of monitors fried because someone tried to power them with a DC power supply that had the right barrel jack but wrong voltage.

rebuilder 2y ago

I once plugged a USB type B connector into an external hard drive blind (it was dark) and was rewarded with a zap and a dead hard drive. The connector went in the wrong way without any particular force - either the jack or the connector must have been a bit looser than standard. The drive was fine once I took it out of the enclosure, fortunately.

tzs 2y ago
I did that with the 4 pin Molex connector in a drive in the '80s. That normally takes a tremendous amount of force, but the connector on the drive side gad the most pliable plastic I've every seen on a connector. The drive was loaned to us for testing by a disk controller company that had hired us to write drivers for their new controller, and they had received the disk on loan from IBM. It was a 1 gig drive at a time when 200 MB was the norm for a big personal computer disk and not yet on the market. At that stage only a select few outside of IBM had been loaned these drives for testing. I was pretty freaked out. I assumed that I'd be in a lot of trouble for destroying the drive. I told the person who had loaned us the drive what happened and he told me that he'd fried two of these drives the same way! He'd found out from his contact at IBM that IBM was losing about 10% of the drives from the early production runs due to their own technicians plugging power in backwards when testing the drives as they came off the line. The contact also said that IBM had already revised the parts list to switch to a Molex connector whose plastic was firm enough to end this problem.

bjelkeman-again 2y ago

On an early version of the MacBook Air the headphone jack was next to a USB port. In the dark I tried to plugin a pair of headphones and managed to put the headphone connector into the USB port. I didn’t push hard, just so some electrical connection happened. The kernel immediately crashed. I talked about it with a friend who is a tech consultant and he confirmed that he had managed that too.