Charging connectors

[BlackEagle]

Definitly no. Maybe there is a cheap difference, but the most devices with barrel jack connector are more sensitive at this point than usb changing devices are.

Maybe additional use?!

 

[Neelix]

What are you basing that on? I've never seen any evidence that barrel jacks are less reliable than micro-USB connectors, in fact most of the anecdotal evidence I I've heard on the subject puts it the other way around. I've used a lot of barrel jacks in my time and I've never had one fail on me yet.

In any case, if you are really afraid that the charging socket might be a point of failure, wouldn't it make more sense to have a backup? that way if either one fails you can just switch to the other.

- Neelix

EDIT: @Binky Is there any chance of adding "(in addition to the micro-USB port)" to the poll text? I get the distinct impression some people are voting based on the misapprehension that we want to get rid of the micro-USB port.

 

[Tensuke]

USB charging is fine, I'm generally alright with the speeds. I just have flashbacks to my N900 and its broken microUSB port. Without that, it was impossible to charge and short of fixing it myself (which I couldn't/wouldn't do) or sending it off to a third party for a sum of money, I just bought extra batteries and a battery charger. It worked okay sometimes, but it really wasn't ideal. Now, I've never had something like that happen with other devices so the lack of dedicated charging ports hasn't been an issue. But I also remember early Pandora unit problems, and don't want to have to send off the Pyra if the one port breaks and I can't charge the battery. I'd prefer a dedicated port for that for redundancy (and so it could charge faster if I needed it). I'm not going to raise a fuss if it's ultimately not included, but I will vote yes on this poll.

 

[ZetaNeta]

Q: Why does most USB hubs have a barrel plug?
A: Because you cant just multiply the power on a single USB port to for ex. 4

Pyra will have USB? Yes, it will. Question closed.

Pyra has no way of obtaining enough power from USB while charging.

I am totally against MicroUSB.
Its not only n900... Its most of the Samsungs, modern Sony cameras, and etc.
MiniUSB is a real thing! How much does searching for a MiniUSB takes? "Stand up (if you are low on them), look around, take one hanging off something"
No MicroUSB can do that.
MicroUSB can be made wrong not even on purpose, and very easily.
And the most hated thing is that lil thing in the middle of the port. Its tiny, its tiny and it will *uck up in 2-4 months.

I had to take a hardcore Nokia battery, charge it every night in a nokia, and in the morning, put it in my "no longer being revived on daily basis" samsung, held by either superglue, either a chewing gum which i had to fix every hour.
Of course that meant no usb connection and custom firmwares
 

 

[thatgui]

I am totally against MicroUSB.

You do realize that:

- an important part of durability of the "connection" is depenend on a sensible design: which is looks like Nokias fault in that particular case, as I see/saw no news/articles about general MicroUSB port failure.

- the MicroUSB Port will be different (USB 3) from the one used in the N900 (USB 2)

?

 

[BlackEagle]

What are you basing that on? I've never seen any evidence that barrel jacks are less reliable than micro-USB connectors, in fact most of the anecdotal evidence I I've heard on the subject puts it the other way around. I've used a lot of barrel jacks in my time and I've never had one fail on me yet.

I mean loose connection. My barrel jack connectors are quiet fast broken all of them. Remember my last laptop. -.-

Q: Why does most USB hubs have a barrel plug? A: Because you cant just multiply the power on a single USB port to for ex. 4 Pyra will have USB? Yes, it will. Question closed. Pyra has no way of obtaining enough power from USB while charging. I am totally against MicroUSB. Its not only n900... Its most of the Samsungs, modern Sony cameras, and etc. MiniUSB is a real thing! How much does searching for a MiniUSB takes? "Stand up (if you are low on them), look around, take one hanging off something" No MicroUSB can do that. MicroUSB can be made wrong not even on purpose, and very easily. And the most hated thing is that lil thing in the middle of the port. Its tiny, its tiny and it will *uck up in 2-4 months.

Okay! Right, 500mA loading is much less than open end, this is fact on default connection, I have many wall connectors with even more than 1300mA. So it depends on the source. I repeat additional use maybe ^^

I never had problems with ubs connectors since now.

 

[Neelix]

I mean loose connection. My barrel jack connectors are quiet fast broken all of them. Remember my last laptop. -.-

My first thought there is to wonder what you are doing with them to wear them out so quickly. I've had power cables break on me, if I've been straining them too much but never the connector itself. (and putting too much strain on the cables to much will kill them no matter what kind of connector you use)

As for your laptop I have no memory of it, as I wasn't there.

- Neelix

 

[ZetaNeta]

If you really dont wanna a barrel plug, we should have a "official" USB cable and a wall adapter.

Most people are being annoyed by how 1 cable charges the phone OK, and another charges it slower than it discharges.
We should have a proper, pre-tested cables capable of charging Pyra "right".

MicroUSB 3.0 doesnt have much difference but more points of failure.
Its basically a USB 2.0 plug, with a additional thingy on it.

MicroUSB fails not only on nokias, but on some other devices like the Samsung phones and Sony videocameras i told above.
That should tell us something. Atleast that "not everybody" can do it right.

 

[Grench]

Take any USB charging wall adapter, get out a magnifying glass and read it's specs.

It will have something on it relating to Output. Some will do 500mA. High end ones will do upwards of 2.1A, but may require some device USB handshaking to switch to those levels.

I charge my Pandoras with the barrel jacks and/or the miniUSB port. When charging on the miniUSB I use an old 700mA Blackberry miniUSB charger. It keeps up fine.

Suffice it to say, though, that USB wall chargers were not all created equal. We can't assume that everyone buying a Pyra is going to have a 'good' one just lying about.

 

[thatgui]

MicroUSB 3.0 doesnt have much difference but more points of failure.

Its basically a USB 2.0 plug, with a additional thingy on it.

Do you have anything to back that up - do you even own a device with a Micro USB 3.0 port > I guess not

MicroUSB fails not only on nokias, but on some other devices like the Samsung phones and Sony videocameras i told above.

So, are there any articels/news you can link to, that show that there is an actual problem with how the MicroUSB 2 is mechanically designed ? I own several devices that utilize this port (4 to be exact), and while one is already worn out the other three are perfectly fine. As I'm sitting in the IT department of a small company I also get an impression on what fails first on the phones (90% Blackberry) my company issues to its employees, and the MicroUSB port isn't on top of that list.
Maybe this isn't really a problem with the port itself, but how it is perceived ? Especially Samsung and Sony are usally seeling their devices in quantities of hundredthousands (if not millions), if the MicroUSB2 would be "bound to fail", wouldn't we see a mucher bigger "customer response" (like MS got it with the "red ring of death" from the old xbox360) ? Or is it more likely that we just notice the couple of hundered/thousand cases where the port fails (for whatever reasons) and just don't "see" the much bigger part of customers where the port does not fail, because they don't talk about it ?

That should tell us something. Atleast that "not everybody" can do it right.

And ED already stated that he will be extra carefull about that particular aspect has he himself is a victim of several MicroUSB2 port failures (all on several Nokia N900 he owned/owns)

 

[Neelix]

To be honest I don't see physical reliability to be a valid argument either way. 

The question is whether or not there should be a barrel jack in addition to the microUSB port, and the only way I can see reliability coming into the question at all is in that having two ports capable of charging the unit means that in the unlikely event that one of them does fail you'll have the other as a backup.

The main point of having a dedicated charging port is to ensure you can always charge the device regardless of what else you are doing with the multi-purpose micro-USB port.  

- Neelix

 

[_jr_]

^ exactly this.

 

[thatgui]

To be honest I don't see physical reliability to be a valid argument either way. 

...

Thats why I voted "I don't mind", as the only contra argument that comes to my mind is "space". As long as there is space for it, I don't see any reason not to include it (even if I won't use it at all).

 

[Tenka]

None of my microUSB2 ports have ever been damaged, or given me the impression that I should be fragile with them.  I'm surprised to hear that they're apparently so easy to break.  I did hate them for a while because I only had regular USB b cables and it was easier to stuff in the big plug, but I got used microUSB, and smaller things needed it.

Now there's a microUSB3, I thought it was some kind of SATA connector at first.  Of all the microUSB3 plugs I've used I have never been able to get the plug to go into the socket in my first few tries, it has taken me closer to ten tries, and once I finally have them inside they are tight enough to swing a Pandora around by, and they're flat enough to break off from a downward press before they could leverage a Pandora and 1/2 up to an angle.  I don't know how resilent the sockets are on motherboards, but I imagine they likely receive more pressure than the last generation due to people like myself trying to push the plugs into the sockets, wondering if the flat angle is still off.