SMK Toughens Up Those Tiny Micro-USB Connections 137
An anonymous reader writes "If a gadget ships with a micro-USB port, I see it as a plus because it isn't proprietary — meaning I can easily and cheaply buy replacement cables. But the micro-USB ports aren't the strongest connectors in the world, so if the gadget is expensive (a smartphone) and you accidentally bust the port, you're in trouble. And that's easily done. Japanese manufacturer SMK may have fixed the problem, though, with a new double-strong connector design. They started producing them on Friday, and at an output of 500,000 a month, hopefully they'll be shipping with most new gadgets before long."
Sure they will (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless it's going to reduce there under contract replacement costs smartphones will not have these. US phone companies want your phone to break every couple of years so you buy a new one with a new contract so they can have horrid service.
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Port failure is usually considered an in-warranty repair, so the smartphone makers have every reason to make the ports as durable as possible.
The second year (Score:2)
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They have every reason to make sure they do not fail in the first year, they people they are selling these to also want to insure they fail ever 2 years.
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Just prepend an "i" and you should be good to go. People like overpaying for things that start with "i".
iNtercept (Score:2)
People like overpaying for things that start with "i".
Like the Samsung iNtercept [google.com]?
Already exists* (Score:5, Insightful)
It's called a "through-hole mounted connector." Phone manufacturers just like to save a few pennies by using a surface-mounted connector, which is weak as shit.
*Yes this is even stronger, good for the improvement. But through-hole is strong enough, the problem of weak connectors was caused by phone manufacturers being cheap bastards.
Re:Already exists* (Score:4, Informative)
It's not always just to save pennies; a through-hole connector has to go through all of the layers of the board. By using a surface-mount connector you only lose the space on the top layer and can route things in the layers beneath (modulo signal-crosstalk issues).
Re:Already exists* (Score:5, Informative)
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If you look at the photo, the frame is through-hole. What they're slashvertising is a connector with a second frame that resists torquing the PCB when stress is put on the connector.
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not good enough. even thruhole will rip off the board.
the problem is chinese crap pcboards and lack of thickness of the copper and the bonding. I work on pcb's and I hate the idea of having to do rework on a china board. some are ok but MOST are meant to be soldered once. try rework and the trace lifts off or rips off. not even ONE rework left in the boards, today.
I get my own boards made at imagineering (as an example). and when I hakko unsolder mine and remove things that are thruhole, I can rework
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Why would just a through-hole connector cause such an increase in thickness? It might cost about a millimeter right under the connector, and any lower PCB layers would need to route around the area under the connector. Why is this such a big deal?
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"Micro USB works just great if the user isn't clumsy or an imbecile."
So you're saying it doesn't work at all, then?
easy solution (Score:2)
Stop depending on a dab of solder to support a connector and mount it to the case where it belongs.
This used to be the standard way of doing things.
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Uh-huh. And deal with an impedance matched transmission line between the connector and the PCB. And do it such that it doesn't occupy half the volume available for the phone.
Look at any high-frequency instrument assembled such that connectors are on the front panel, say any "vintage" spectrum analyzer. Take out the input connector assembly. Look at its volume and weight. Then put your phone next to it. Hopefully you'll understand then.
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The port seems to be locally stiffer than the case. All it would do, I guess, is crack the case.
Too late for my N900 (Score:2)
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I filed down my cables from day one. I only plugged a cable in with the hooks still in place once to get a feel for how much force is needed. Considering that the connector is surface-mounted, the amount of force required to remove the connector is terrifying.
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Wasn't that one of the the points of Micro-USB? (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought that one of the reasons to move to micro-usb was that the parts most likely to be damaged are now on the easier to replace cable side, as opposed to mini-usb where the springs were on the device side. So I would think that the likelihood of device side damage was already less than with mini-usb.
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The issue is that of the connector itself breaking away from the circuit board as they are soldered directly onto the surface of the board. It is very easily done. Solder doesn't have fantastic mechanical strength and solder pads on PCBs aren't that strong either.
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The problem is typically their incorrect budgeting of mounting area on the PCB. Those miniature surface mount connectors demand large mounting pads for the frame -- really much larger than the minimum dimensions shown in the datasheet. The pads should also have plugged vias in them for mechanical strength against delamination -- this isn't a problem as I'm sure there's plenty of plugged vias in any modern motherboard, whether for a PC, laptop or a smartphone. It's just silly design, that's all.
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When will someone address laptop DC jack weakness? (Score:1)
Busted DC jacks (and sometimes USB ports) are a huge problem. Mounting the DC jack to the case and connecting to the motherboard with a cable makes replacement easier, but it's only treating the symptom and not the problem.
Apple has a marvelous idea, but seem to be the only ones using it.
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I agree. However I remember that Apple also patented the discussed DC jack, and doesn't probably want to license it for less than 100% of your laptop's price.
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I don't believe that Apple doesn't have a valid patent on it. Waring has had magnetic breakaway cables for years and has been using them for powering deep friers.
Re:When will someone address laptop DC jack weakne (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe that Apple doesn't have a valid patent on it. Waring has had magnetic breakaway cables for years and has been using them for powering deep friers.
A lot of patents on this sort of tech are simply a reiteration of what should be considered prior art with an appended "in a mobile computing device."
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I agree. However I remember that Apple also patented the discussed DC jack, and doesn't probably want to license it for less than 100% of your laptop's price.
Yup. There was a company that tried to make some external add-on battery for Macbooks, and they had to resort to buying Apple adapters and chopping off the connector to use on their product, because Apple would not license at any price (or the per-unit price was more than a new power adapter).
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Oh, no, wait: it's a 30-pin iPod cable, which uses the same SMT jack that everybody complains about...
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My experience is it's very rare that the connector itself gets busted. A far bigger problem is solder joints and/or PCB tracks getting busted as the connector moves relative to the PCB.
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agreed - while it seems the vendors are getting smart and standardizing their power connectors (Lenovo uses the same for almost all their laptops now, same as dell) they are only standardizing them in house.. not cross vendor.
i would love to see Apple license the mag safe connector a reasonable enough rates that everyone can use it.. or just put it out there as a standard (like display port)
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If it didn't cycle, the battery would last even less time. If you leave MBs plugged in all the time, the battery dies quite quickly.
Interesting. (Score:2)
The EU decides that all cell phones should use a MicroUSB connector for charging. The MicroUSB port really wasn't meant for constant plugging and unplugging.
Phones break when the ports fail.
Like that isn't scary. I tend to plug my phone in 6 times a day I wonder how long the connector will last?
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Yay, a thread where I can finally whine about the flakiness of the microUSB connector and not get modded down!
microUSB is supposed to have been designed for ~4x more cycles than miniUSB. But I don't believe it. I can barely keep it attached to my phone once continually enough to maintain charging, unless I arrange it so the wire torques the connector down instead of up. Lots of fun to try to do while driving.
Also, it was designed so the moving parts that clip it together are in the cable instead of the p
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Perhaps you have a defective device, or were abusing the product. Of the items that I have which use MicroUSB, none of them have displayed even the slightest bit of flakiness to them. But then again neither have my MiniUSB devices and they've been abused significantly more than my MicroUSB devices.
Re:Interesting. (Score:4, Interesting)
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The micro connector was designed for 10,000 cycles, IIRC. So you can plug and unplug your phone 6 times a day for 4.5 years. Note that the mini-USB was only designed for 1/10th of that, so the micro connector is the better choice. Go check the Wikipedia article if you don't believe me (not that it's any more authoritative than I am).
I've got three devices with micro-USB ports, with an age of ownership of one year. One micro-USB port has failed.
I've got four micro-USB cables. Two have failed at the micro-USB connector.
I've got upwards of twenty devices with mini-USB ports, with an average age of ownership and frequency of connection similar to the micro-USB devices. None have failed.
I've got even more mini-USB cables than devices. None have failed.
Also, it's a lot easier to plug a mini-USB cable into a port without looking at it fir
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I've got upwards of twenty devices with mini-USB ports, with an average age of ownership and frequency of connection similar to the micro-USB devices. None have failed.
I've got even more mini-USB cables than devices. None have failed.
And that's exactly what mechanics tells us should happen.
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Sure, and those comments are just as applicable to the mini-USB mounts. Hell, probably more applicable; the entire unit of a surface-mount USB it taller, and therefore applies more force to the solders through leverage, assuming the same insertion force.
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Agreed. The larger connector will always win, for nature cannot be fooled. In spite of connector size, the insertion/removal forces will be similar, after all it has to deal with same kind of mechanical environment -- phones dropped, phones hitting things in the car, mating/unmating of the connector, stiffness of the cable, etc. If you have less material to carry similar stresses, and substantially similar outline but scaled down, it can't but develop fatigue fractures earlier. There's absolutely no way aro
Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sad perhaps, but it was inevitable when companies started outsourcing work from the US and EU where they could easily keep tabs on production to China where it became less convenient to do so. Also, lower costs aren't what one normally considers a sign screaming high quality production capabilities.
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No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
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>>Anyone else think its gotten a bit sad that a company building something to last/stand up to use has become a news story?
Well, normal full-sized USB connectors (of the various flavors) have held up very very well in real-world use, with the only real issue being that you sometimes have to try to insert them twice, as they are symmetrical and in a dark environment you can't see the black plastic on the inside very well. I heard that they were designed based on Nintendo game plugs, which might explain
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>>I've never heard about the Nintendo twist - and I kinda doubt it; the USB comes from mid-90s, when the NES cartridge slot was still a fresh memory, and would probably make everybody wary about anything from Nintendo in the topic of connectors ;p
It was an off-the-cuff remark made by one of my professors. He said they were inspired by the gameboy's connectors, which had been proven to hold up well in real life.
Taking a look at them, I do see the resemblance. (http://www.yyyescable.com/images/Product/P
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If that is true, its too damn small for us over 50's to see or feel. Why can't they make the plastic reflect the shame of the metal?
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USB plugs tend to have an embossed logo on the "up" side
Except that the computer side does not, and many like to make them confusing on purpose it seems.
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Do you go out of your way to pay more for more durable products?
People seem to forget that we voted for this.
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It is difficult to tell how durable an item is. By the time you know how durable something is in the real world it is likely to be discontinued or silently changed. Some people base their decisions on brand trust. Unfortunately if there are financial problems or a need to look good to the stock market it's very tempting for a manufacturer to sell out their brand for a quick buck.
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Well, I'll put it this way: Back in the 70's you could purchase a turntable that'd still work today. You would have paid more than the modern equivalent of $700 for it to sit in your closet today underneath an 8-track player, a walkman, a cd player, and three mp3 players.
Mirror (Score:3)
Original link seems slashdotted for me. Here's an alternate:
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/smk-just-made-micro-usb-ports-a-lot-stronger-20110919/ [geek.com]
Not enough bias? (Score:3)
I know it seems like an odd complaint these days, but my issue with USB connectors - pretty much all of them - is that I don't understand why they don't have a more obvious bias.
It's not clear which side of the plug is up.
Oh sure, if you are looking at it in bright light, you can USUALLY tell clearly.
But if you have bad vision, or are trying to put the cable in a blind spot (we're never plugging in cables that are hard to see, under desks, in the dark, or all three, are we?) it's pretty much a 50% chance if you have the plug right side up.
With the micro usb it's even worse, given their delicacy putting them into a phone, and the ease that one might misinterpret the "not fitting this way" with "not fitting because I'm not pushing hard enough".
Why didn't they make the USB plug format a triangle or some other shape that has a clear "top" and "bottom".?
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Consider my el-cheapo work Blackberry. The power cable for it has "UP" written on one side of the mini USB connector used to charge the phone. However, the connector on the phone is upside down compared to every other mini usb device I've ever seen when facing up on a table.
So if I use the Blackberry charger on my HTC, "UP" has to face down. Nice one, eh?
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...or design it so it doesn't matter which way you plug it in.
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Most likely an Apple patent.
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Microsoft patented a battery holder that let you slide batteries in any way. Guess what? Slashdotters laughed at it, said it was useless, retard, and that only idiots would need a thing like this...
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/07/02/0641200/MS-Design-Lets-You-Put-Batteries-In-Any-Way-You-Want [slashdot.org]
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You know, if you are going to claim what 'slashdot' did something, you might to actually check your link.
Because, you see, I did.
A few people seemed to think it was obvious and shouldn't have been allowed to be patented, and others pointed out some prior art, but I'm counting exactly four people, 'mcgrew', 'pandrijeczko', 'tius', and 'erroneus' who seemed to think it was 'useless' or that only 'idiots' would need it.
That's it. That's all.
453 comments, and you have such an confirmation bias that slashdo
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Oh, and FYI, the word 'retard' doesn't even appear in a post. That word is once in an unrelated sig, but not a post.
The word 'useless' shows up twice, but neither time is it referring to the invention.
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That's better solved by making the cable's orientation more obvious. You're not going to see the internals of the port when you're trying to plug it in, but you can see and or feel the look of the cable without too much trouble..
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Type B is the worse because it does actually fit with the wrong side up. I've burned an external drive enclosure board because of that.
Re:Not enough bias? (Score:4, Insightful)
Fifty percent chance? Everybody knows that when you plug in a USB device you push it in, flip it over, push it again, then flip it over the way you had it to get it in! USB connectors are three-way.
Wish it 'funneled' better (Score:2)
Along with orientation, one pet peeve of mine with USB has been that the very 'squared off' edges mean that even if you have the orientation right, you have to get the parts exactly lined up before they'll insert. I wish there was a slight 'funnel' at the opening of the female port to make it easier to "start" the connector getting inserted.
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I'm surprised Gigabyte doesn't include something like this in their motherboards. After all, they like to add useless things to sell more. Like twice as much copper on their boards, or "3x technology" (1.5Amps per USB connector, instead of the standard 500mA).
How much do they cost? (Score:2)
That's essentially the question when it comes to whether we get to see them in devices. If they only cost a fraction of a cent more than the old connectors, there's no chance that they would get used, even if they tripled the lifetime of your gadget.
Cost of poor quality (Score:3)
If they only cost a fraction of a cent more than the old connectors, there's no chance that they would get used
They might cost less once you figure in the cost of in-warranty repairs.
wireless (Score:2)
I can't remember the last time I busted my Bluetooth port.
Re:wireless (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't remember the last time I charged my phone over the Bluetooth port. Oh wait, it doesn't charge over Bluetooth.
Sometimes "stronger" isn't stronger (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes making something harder or stronger doesn't actually solve the problem. Firstly, you can simply shift the breakage point to something more expensive (the circuit board itself). Often, making something more flexible and forgiving goes a lot further. A "soft" connector that flexes instead of breaks would be much more useful.
I see this with surface coatings all the time. If we have a problem with scratching, making the surface harder actually is counter-productive. Making it softer and more malleable is more likely to solve the problem (the surface deforms around the particle that's scratching it, often resulting in no damage. Even when it still scratches, the resulting defect is much less noticable).
"Bend with the wind"... it's why Bamboo is such a useful material.
Going all Tao on us (Score:2)
Don't fight against the current, use the current to achieve your goals, effortless doing.
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That's great, until you need to go up the river.
Then you walk (Score:2)
No use fighting the river.
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Boats are heavy?
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Why did you bring a boat to go up river? Why would you have a boat to go over land?
From the beginning you should have planned the path of least resistance, working with nature instead of against it to achieve your goal.
It's just the general concept of Taoism.
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So I should float on my back downriver, and walk upriver?
Generally when people move on rivers, it is in a boat, in which case, you don't just leave your boat behind.
But I am fighting over a joke...showing my asperger's, so just ignore me :)
Re:Sometimes "stronger" isn't stronger (Score:4, Informative)
If you look at TFA, it seems that the connector actually introduces flex where there wasn't any before.
CAT 5 (Score:2)
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Afaict there is already a soloution to that, boots that fit on the rear of the connector and provide both a strain relief and an anti-snag cover for the rear of the locking tab. On the downside they often make it harder to unplug the cables as you must compress the plastic of the boot when depressing the tab on unlock the connector.
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Not to quibble but I think you mean the RJ45 connector that is at the ends of your Cat 5, Cat 6, etc.
If you want to split hairs, it's technically an 8P8C connector. [wikipedia.org] You get my point.
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8P8C modular plugs and jacks look very similar to the plugs and jacks used for FCC's registered jack RJ45 variants,
No, no it isn't. RJ45 is a standard for network plugs and jacks, 8p8c is a generic term for different tips that have the same layout, including plugs that have a different key structure than RJ45. Read the 3rd paragraph and it explains this.
Double-strong connector? (Score:3)
That's doubleplusgood news!
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Wireless devices should be wireless, and sealed. (Score:3)
Wireless devices ought to be totally wireless. They already have Bluetooth, so they don't need a headphone jack. Syncing can be done over the Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular radios, which are already present. Charging should be inductive. (The inductive-charging people need to agree on a standard, or one of the three competing schemes needs to win.)
Then the unit can be sealed up and made watertight and dust-tight. There's already a Casio G-Shock phone that meets military ruggedness standards, so this is quite possible.
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I want someone to build the equivalent of a wireless USB dongle that also does induction charging.
Leave it plugged into your phone, set your phone on the charging platform, and it would start charging and USB-connect to the computer.
I have no idea what any engineering problems with that would be, though.
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Even a magnetic connect charge cable would help.
Mini USB (Score:2)
How about we go back to the rugged mini-usb and throw this micro-usb shit out? Night and day difference in robustness.
strain relief (Score:2)
hey young cable and connector designers, I have this brand new concept for you. its called 'strain relief'.
what a novel concept, huh?
maybe consider giving it a try. I've heard they used to use them on reliable things, back when things were DESIGNED to be reliable and work for decades (and not months).
when I see small connectors that could break and disconnect from the host pcb, I always look for some stubby cable to act as a strain relief.
in the last 10 years, I have not seen a cable/connector design that
Low profile port saver (Score:2)
I've been looking for a low profile USB port saver, you know, like one of those mini Bluetooth dongles, with a female extension lead.
Should manufacture it really, it's pretty essential and doesn't seem to exist
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I've never broken one or even heard of one being broken. Laptop power connectors on the other hand ...
I, on the otherhand, have gotten a phone straight from the factory with a detached micro-USB port. I'm looking at you HTC. Great product, if you get one that doesn't have a manufacturing defect!
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The nice thing about USB plug standards is there are so many [wikipedia.org] to choose from.
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There is a micro connector for USB 3 but it's much wider (it's formed of two sections, one with the low/full/high speed connections compatible with previous USB versions and a seperate portion for the superspeed connections) and phones don't really have any need for USB3 speeds at the moment.
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Or the vendor will use a non standard microUSB, and evil cats will eat your cable....(Nook Color)