Computer: Connector
USB BSU   (+12, -3)  [vote for, against]
Opposite orientations for adjacent ports.

For those fiddly ones at the back. Guessed wrong? Try the port next door, instead of having to change the orientation of your cable one handed.
-- shudderprose, Aug 21 2009

Alternate http://www.bsu.edu/...11770-49168,00.html
Nothing to do with Indiana's #1 party school. [RayfordSteele, Aug 21 2009]

Engadget - Double USB concept http://www.engadget...usb-plug-rejection/
the Double USB connector that works right side up or upside down thanks to twin spring-loaded plastic connectors on its interior [xaviergisz, Jan 26 2011]

TRRS connector > USBBSU http://www.jiscdigi...ages/trrs-jack2.jpg
A round 4-pin connector [idris83, Jan 27 2011]

I'll never understand why they made those silly things rectangular to begin with.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 21 2009


Yeah, an obvious right-way orientation would be true engineering instead of just making stuff.
-- normzone, Aug 21 2009


Perish the thought .....
-- 8th of 7, Aug 21 2009


Probably designed by some Ivy Tech CAD flunkie and not focused on by the rest of the team.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 21 2009


//an obvious right-way orientation//

Nah, just make them round, like guitar plugs.
-- Wrongfellow, Aug 22 2009


in lower case: usb qsn
-- xaviergisz, Aug 22 2009


There should be no guessing. They are always the same way up - the slot in the cable's connector is towards the top. Making some ports the other way would just confuse things.
-- spidermother, Aug 25 2009


True, but is there a rule for the upright ones?
-- shudderprose, Aug 25 2009


How about an auto-rotate USB plug/socket - on registering a certain level of pressure, it spins 180° ready for another insertion.
-- zen_tom, Aug 25 2009


The spring-loaded either-way-up USB plug is a good idea, but it would be better as a socket.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 26 2011


I would settle for a little dot on the upside I could feel with my thumb. PS2 used to have these and I never had a problem. In fact, most holes I try to find in the dark have been known to come equipped with such subtle labelling.
-- KAGE, Jan 26 2011


Yeah, but then you had a starting clue by the legs.
-- normzone, Jan 26 2011


//is there a rule for the upright ones?// It seems that there is. The side that would be up in the horizontal ones faces the left side of the case in the upright ones. This puzzled me for a moment, but makes perfect sense when you consider that the left side of a tower case corresponds to the upper surface of a horizontal case.
-- spidermother, Jan 26 2011


// Nah, just make them round, like guitar plugs. //

Absolutely. USB has only 4 pins and 4 ring TRS connectors already exist. I would suggest using a different diameter and length than 3.5mm though, to avoid people exploding their headphones.

Additionally, the casing should slope downwards into the socket like a black-hole in a spacetime graph to maximise insertion speed.
-- idris83, Jan 27 2011


//make them round// The electrical contacts need not be round (like phono plugs) ony the mechanical connection. You could seat the thing in its socket in in any orientation, then, once you had a positive "snap," twist it until you felt the "click" of a detent, indicating it was oriented properly and that electrical contact was now made.
-- mouseposture, Jan 27 2011



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