No, I'm not. The connector side of micro-USB is usually the failure point. I had mini-USB receptacles fail at an extremely high rate back when I was building and selling mini-USB 2.5 inch external hard drive enclosures back in high school. Micro-USB wasn't even invented until 2007.
Out of those, Micro-USB is the only one I've seen fail and I've never even heard of the other types failing. Usually, the locking pins bend and it will no longer hold securely. Meanwhile flash drives with USB A plugs last indefinitely.
Reliability isn't really off topic when talking about connector design. Apparently there are possible tradeoffs between damaging the socket and the cable; IIRC micro-USB is designed to sacrifice the cable to reduce damage to the device.
MicroUSB is supposedly designed in such a way that the stress is placed on the cable connector which is easier to replace, not the device connector which is attached to an expensive device.
But yeah, I can't imagine Micro-USB being more reliable than regular USB-A.
That may indeed be the design intent, but it's completely at odds with my experience across hundreds of devices and cables over the years.
Micro has rendered numerous devices irreparable, or not-economical-to-repair, because the device-side connector fails. Thermal cameras, audio adapters, countless cellphones. Thankfully my daily-driver phones tend to be Samsungs which keep their USB connector on an easy-to-replace sub-board, but I can't say so much for FLIR's finest. I've thrown out my share of flaky micro cables, too, but those are cheap to replace. It's the device-side failures that have rained on my parade for years.
Mini, on the other hand, has been bulletproof. Countless Beaglebone Black boards, FTDI adapters, logic analyzers strewn about my bench, my TomTom, my GoPro, even my old Blackberry was mini. And not a single one of them ever died because of a USB connector problem. (The magic smoke has escaped from more than a few, but that's another story entirely!) I've thrown out plenty of mini cables, sure, but the device-side connectors simply don't fail like their supposed design would suggest.
Regardless of their intent, I consider inclusion of a micro port to simply be a design flaw at this point. Mini or C is the way to go.
I'm aware of the ratings, I'm just trying to say that in my experience, no matter what the numbers say, reality has proved the opposite for me, I've had far more (some number I've not counted, but, in the order of dozens) Micro ports/plugs fail on my than I've had Mini ones fail (none, ever).
>the newer Micro-USB[4] and USB-C receptacles are both designed for a minimum rated lifetime of 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal.
Micro-USB is an abomination from a durability perspective, and in no way does this reflect reality for the majority of Micro-USB plugs and sockets I've found in the wild.
Personally I think these numbers are fabricated horseshit, drafted by some engineer behind a desk running endless simulations.
The USB industrial complex made the same claims with micro-USB vs mini-USB; and are now doing it again with Type-C.
My empirical evidence: I've now had to replace two laptop motherboards due to a (mechanically) failed USB-C port.
Guess what I haven't had to do in 25 years? Replace a failed USB-A socket. Ever.
USB-C connectors are fragile and companies are making more and more large, heavy cables with huge connectors especially common with Thunderbolt or port replicator-type devices. It is a recipe for disaster and they expect us to fall for this USB Jedi Mind Trick again.
Yep, I have had several mini USB ports quickly destroy themselves, to the point that it affected my buying decisions. The accepted answer in the link perfectly explains why.
Anecdotally (and probably relatedly), my mini-usb plugs always wiggled in the socket, while micro-usb does not. They also seemed to require less force to unplug, and so popped out accidentally more often.
Another point: AFAIK the Mico USB connector is designed so that if you apply force from the side to a plugged in connector, the plug will deliberately break and the socket/pcb will stay functional.
Edit: I can't relate to those who say Mini USB is more reliable than Micro USB. I've had a lot of trouble with Mini USB connectors and especially cables, especially if I move a connected device i've had lots of short disconnects. This never happened with Micro USB. So.. go Mico USB!!1!
I am stunned to hear micro USB is rated for that many insertions. The implementation must not live up to the standard. In my experience, anecdotal, I know, microUSB is the most unreliable of all the USB form factors I've experienced. Bad connectors on cables, and ports that regularly fail internally (not levered off the board.) I have considered replacing ports with miniusb, or a tethered B port because micro has been such an utter failure on so many of my devices.
Mini USB-B is still not very robust in terms of connection the board. I’ve got a couple devices here where the port is ripped off the PCB. (I voluntarily [attempt to] repair devices for friends, so I see more than a typical rate of failed parts.)
By some definition, that’s evidence of unreasonable force, but it definitely happens and should be anticipated when you put the device in the hands of lots of gorillas.
They always do. These things have mechanical physical standards as well as the electronic/software side.
Micro-USB requires more force because of its 2 teeth underneath, that's made to latch onto the socket. That was a mistake. In comparison, Mini-USB don't have this problem and slides straight similarly to USB-C in that sense.
A lot of thought process goes into this mechanical interaction of male/female plug/sockets.
I design/3d printed a lot of mechanical stuff for hobby for some years now. You can't make stuff work without calculating these tolerances. I am sure professionals who work on standards know/do better than me.
I have two Kindle Fires with broken micro USB ports and I've seen two LEGO NXT robotics controllers break USB B ports. Even with DB-9 connectors soldered to boards, I don't remember a lot of breakage. I think it's because those were almost always through-hole and so much today is just surface-mount so it's relying on the pads staying adhered to the board to physically hold a frequently plugged/unplugged port in place. Crazy.
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