Eric Arseneau's Weblog

eric<.>arseneau<@>sun<.>com

I just got a development kit with some cool toys in it, which is way cool.  However, it did come with a not so nice surprise. You see, up until now I already knew there were a few different kinds of USB connectors

• USB A - the big boxy looking one
• USB B - the wide narrow one
• USB mini B 5 pin - the one we use on Sun SPOT
• USB mini B 4 pint - I know about this one because there are 400 of them sitting in a cupboard in the lab, due to my screwing up in thinking that ordering a USB mini B cable would be enough to get the right thing :(

One of the projects I've been working on, PlaySIM, used a new USB connector I had not seen before, it seems to be a

• USB To Go mini B connector - scratch head to see what the functional difference is between the mini B and the togo mini B?

So when I got this dev kit I started with on this blog entry, I was not surprised to see this mini B connector again.  What DID surprise me, was

• USB To Go mini A connector

Why?  I dont get it?  Is there really a need to have a USB A & B type connector?  What do they diferentiate? Is it actually physically required?  Is is a scam by cable sellers to get another round at this?

What makes me really laugh is the couple of blog entries I've seen where all the mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, are supposedly going to use "micro" USB connector as a standard.  So does this mean

• Yet another USB A & B pair of connectors coming out?
• Which connector will they all use?  You think they will use the same actual one, or use different ones as they get as confused as we do with all these different seemingly useless connectors :)

If someone can help me understand this I would really appreciate it.  Will be more than happy to post an update including extra information.

Now, let me go to my USB cable bin and see if I can find the right one to get this board working :(

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