Kobo Forma mini USB cable

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Yeah, my Kobo and Tolino have the wide part of the port facing one way while my cheap Lenovo tablet and my old Moto phone had it in the other. It sure would be nice if all the device makers agreed on which side is up.

My current phone is USB-C so i don't have to worry about direction for it.

The thing is, there is an agreement -- it's documented in the USB standard, just some designers can't be bothered to follow it. They probably had a huge stock of the connectors already or got the wrong ones for 1 cent less per connector, and didn't care -- and why should they since nobody else cares and almost nobody actually knows about that little detail anyhow.

[jmmcg9]

Great ideas! My normal process after donning glasses is to 1. Look at the Device to see which way the narrow side is oriented. 2. look at the cable for narrow side. 3. Look back at device since I usually have forgotten by now which way is up. 4. Look back at cable. 5. plug it in!
Adding the dot Will probably reduce that by a couple of steps!
Thanks, Joe

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by jmmcg9

Great ideas! My normal process after donning glasses is to 1. Look at the Device to see which way the narrow side is oriented. 2. look at the cable for narrow side. 3. Look back at device since I usually have forgotten by now which way is up. 4. Look back at cable. 5. plug it in!
Adding the dot Will probably reduce that by a couple of steps!
Thanks, Joe

If you're using a cable other than the one that came with it, you can probably just feel for the existing USB logo on the cable end and put it DOWN (since Kobo put the port in upside-down).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by stumped

does not work as a multi device solution , because different devices have the socket oriented differently
i had tried the dot idea, but then needed to memorise for each device, with screen side up, should dot be facing up, or down...

Works on everything, if you put the dot, bar or stick-on gem on the device, on the narrow side of the connector.

The problem isn't the socket. The confusion happens because of the PCB the socket is soldered to is facing the screen/front/top surface or facing the back/bottom/rear.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by twowheels

The thing is, there is an agreement -- it's documented in the USB standard, just some designers can't be bothered to follow it. They probably had a huge stock of the connectors already or got the wrong ones for 1 cent less per connector, and didn't care -- and why should they since nobody else cares and almost nobody actually knows about that little detail anyhow.

Ah, I see. I didn't know there was any supposed agreement.

Originally Posted by twowheels

If you're using a cable other than the one that came with it, you can probably just feel for the existing USB logo on the cable end and put it DOWN (since Kobo put the port in upside-down).

Some of my cables have had a USB symbol on one side and a raised logo on the other, so there was something similar to feel on both sides.

Fiddling with USB plugs is one place where myopia comes in handy as my up-close vision is quite good.

[MGlitch]

If only their were a form of USB which universally didn't care about which way up the plug went into the port. I can SEE that being a great solution to the issue presented here.