I found it at the dollar store.
- jet ( @jet@hackertalks.com ) English99•9 months ago
Don’t think of it as a tiny cable, think of it as a gender bender. You can put on the end of some female cable.
You’re more likely to see dongles like this at fixed installations. Like somebody puts a USB port into a wall, like a speaker’s podium, or a presentation stand. So one side is fixed, depending on what you want to hook up to it, you might need to have a gender bender.
- Starshader ( @Starshader@lemmy.ml ) 43•9 months ago
Is the cable considered transgender after that ?
- jet ( @jet@hackertalks.com ) English43•9 months ago
USB is bi-directional. So it really doesn’t care about the plug gender. Some other protocols are directional, then the plug gender is very important, so adapters for directional protocols tend to be more expensive, it may even require external power.
Once USB on the go was invented it cease to matter at all.
- essell ( @essellburns@beehaw.org ) 35•9 months ago
Today I learnt my sexuality is USB
- lud ( @lud@lemm.ee ) 22•9 months ago
Universal Sexual Bus?
- flakeshake ( @flakeshake@feddit.de ) 40•9 months ago
Such A-to-A adaptors and cables always have been prohibited by the USB spec, but people built them anyway. A common usecase for “illegal” A-A cables i remember was connecting PCIe cards (especially GPUs and mining cards) externally to riser sockets.
- jet ( @jet@hackertalks.com ) English7•9 months ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go
In 2001 the directionality became kind of moot. Especially if you want to do attach something with an on-the-go host
- nottheengineer ( @nottheengineer@feddit.de ) 12•9 months ago
An OTG setup needs all 5 pins of the micro-B connector. USB A cannot be used for OTG. If a USB-A port can act as a client, that’s not OTG, it’s a botched implementation.
- jet ( @jet@hackertalks.com ) English3•9 months ago
Technically, yes… but life finds a way https://pinoutguide.com/PortableDevices/usb_otg_pinout.shtml
- Nioxic ( @Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English38•9 months ago
It turn@ a usb extension cable into a regular usb
I guess that could be a use case?
- stebo02 ( @stebo02@sopuli.xyz ) 5•9 months ago
wouldn’t that just make this thing longer? we’d still have the same problem
- 👍Maximum Derek👍 ( @Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ) English10•9 months ago
There are female-female USB extension cables. As to why those exist…
- XTornado ( @XTornado@lemmy.ml ) 5•9 months ago
They are good for wifi/bt/radio usb receivers used for keyboard/mouse/gamepads…so they can be in a better place like higher or further.
- Stormyfemme ( @Stormyfemme@beehaw.org ) English2•9 months ago
Those still need to get plugged in to the device somehow lol
- XTornado ( @XTornado@lemmy.ml ) 2•9 months ago
Yeah… honestly somehow I missed the female-female part 😂 I thought it was male-female.
Well then it’s used in combination with a male male for sure otherwise yeah O don’t see any use unless there is some weird device with male input.
- trailing9 ( @trailing9@lemmy.ml ) 31•9 months ago
Sometimes you have a female to female cable.
- Franzia ( @Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 26•9 months ago
Say gex
- Fizz ( @Fizz@lemmy.nz ) 10•9 months ago
gex
- metaStatic ( @metaStatic@kbin.social ) 7•9 months ago
haha, gross
- mayflower ( @mayflower@lemmy.ml ) 3•9 months ago
Hey gexy
- magic_lobster_party ( @magic_lobster_party@kbin.social ) 5•9 months ago
Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko
- Kalash ( @theKalash@feddit.ch ) 14•9 months ago
To connect two USB-A ports.
Basically the same as a USB-A to USB-A cable, just really short.
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 19•9 months ago
USB-A to USB-A cables do not exist, the USB standard does not allow them, if you have a cable with two USB-A connectors then it’s not actually a certified USB cable. The same goes for USB extension cables and this adapter. Note how there isn’t a ‘USB certified’ logo on the package.
- Kalash ( @theKalash@feddit.ch ) 7•9 months ago
USB-A to USB-A cables do not exist
wtf are you talking about, of course they do.
- jet ( @jet@hackertalks.com ) English8•9 months ago
They meant cables in spec with the USB specification at the time usb-a was new.
Now with usb-c, it’s kinda moot, as most cables are male to male anyway… of course that means we’re more likely to see USB-C female to female adopters now
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 4•9 months ago
USB-C female to female adapters also are out of spec. The USB standard does not allow for extensions. USB cables only have male connectors (with the exception of USB-OTG dongles).
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 7•9 months ago
Show me where in the USB standards these are specified.
- Kalash ( @theKalash@feddit.ch ) 7•9 months ago
They cables and exist and they work. So being “specified” doesn’t mean jack shit.
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 2•9 months ago
They might sometimes work. They aren’t guaranteed to work.
- DrQuint ( @DrQuint@lemm.ee ) 4•9 months ago
USB-A to USB-A doesn’t exist
*looks at old charger from an American device*
HOLY SHIT A CRYPTID CALL SCP
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 1•9 months ago
That’s not a USB charger.
- DrQuint ( @DrQuint@lemm.ee ) 2•9 months ago
HOLY SHIT AN UNIDENTIFIED CRYPTID CALL SCOOBYDOO!
- squiblet ( @squiblet@kbin.social ) 1•9 months ago
It’s not hard to imagine a product that would require one, though. It’s how every phone charging cable works, just with a different size male USB on one end.
- BorgDrone ( @BorgDrone@lemmy.one ) 1•9 months ago
It’s how every phone charging cable works, just with a different size male USB on one end.
No, it’s exactly not how every phone charging cable works, at least not for non USB-C cables.
Pre-USB-C cables are explicitly unidirectional. In USB there are ‘hosts’ (usually computers) and ‘devices’ (flashdrives, camera’s, mice, keyboards, etc.). The host side always has a female USB-A connector, a device either has a female USB-B connector (if it’s intended to be used with a cable), or a male USB-A (if it’s intended to be plugged in directly into a host, like a flash drive). A real, standard-conformant USB cable can only go from USB-A male to USB-B male (with the addition of USB-C, it can also go from A-to-C, from C-to-B, or C-to-C). Never A-to-A or B-to-B, extension cables (male to female) of any type, A, B or C, are not allowed either.
USB was specifically designed like this so you can never connect a device to a device or a host to a host.
On the host side, you pretty much only see full size USB-A ports. On the device side there are 3 common types of USB-B ports: standard size (you can for example see these on printers and scanners), mini-USB-B used a lot on older phones, and later micro-USB-B. On each side the male part is on the cable, the female part is on the host or device.
- Krafty Kactus ( @tkk13909@sopuli.xyz ) 13•9 months ago
LUSBian sex obviously!
- blackn1ght ( @blackn1ght@feddit.uk ) 12•9 months ago
I dunno but it bothers me how much plastic wrapping that fucking thing apparently needs.
- Murais ( @Murais@lemmy.one ) 11•9 months ago
You ever watch Requiem For A Dream?
- Fraylor ( @Fraylor@lemm.ee ) 5•9 months ago
ASSSSSSS TO ASSSSSSSS
- sounddrill ( @sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz ) English8•9 months ago
Many cheapo sata connectors need a cable like this(I use a male A to female micro b and then a female micro b to male A, it gets the job done)
But connector, idk
- Ravi ( @Ravi@feddit.de ) 8•9 months ago
It’s an Usb-A gender changer. It’s not that useful but you could use it to turn an otg adapter (female usb-a to male usb-c) into a regular usb-c cable. I’d rather buy a usb-c cable though.
- Monkey With A Shell ( @ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com ) 5•9 months ago
Not one that short but I do have A to A cord like that in use. In my case it’s with a KVM that I lost and AC adapter for but found that if I plugged in to one of the rear console connections it could get it to power on from the USB device. Cable it to a USB charging port on the front of one of the UPS and away it goes.
- fubarx ( @fubarx@lemmy.ml ) 4•9 months ago
So your pets can’t chew the hard-disk cables.
Unless you have a pet rabbit.
- ScreamingFirehawk ( @ScreamingFirehawk@feddit.uk ) 4•9 months ago
Angering the USB-IF
- RHOPKINS13 ( @RHOPKINS13@kbin.social ) 2•9 months ago
I actually have a APC UPS at work that uses a USB-A to USB-A cable. You can look up the cable online, it’s part number 940-0504. I was surprised APC used such a cable. I think if you tried to do something dumb like connect two PCs together with it, one of the USB ports would fry.
- Rin ( @Rin@lemm.ee ) 4•9 months ago
pretty sure i tried it as a kid and nothing happened.