Comment on What happened to cylindrical plugs?

skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

There are two immediate problems with round USB. First one is that audio jack carries no power and it’s generally rather harmless for finals or microphone to have some contacts shorted or crossed for time when plug is inserted. USB, let’s even just 4-pin, carries power and i’m not sure how well would either of devices react to having data bus connected to +5

The other problem is that USB is proper radiofrequency connector, unlike audio jack where anything goes. This means it has to be shielded and impedance has to be some specified value, which in practical terms means that there’s some specific ratio of metal to plastic and shape of conductors that has to be used. Barrel plugs would have way too low impedance and already bulky connector needs extra shielding which makes it even bigger

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