> modern USB-C cables [...] have "e-Marker chips" inside the plugs
If only they all did. I have a significant percentage in my pile with no e-Marker chip. They'll be the first to be culled once I get around to that, mind.
A dainty little USB-powered Pinecil v2 can peak at ~126W with appropriate firmware and an EPR 28v PD 3.1 power supply. It's an impressive feat. :) (And, yes, it requires a USB cable that is e-marked for 240W before this is allowed to happen.)
That said: 28v EPR is a bit usual. A more typical configuration runs on 20v USB PD at no more than ~64W, like a cheap, genuine [safe], used 65w Lenovo laptop charger cheerfully provides.
Had every Apple device that used Lightning and consequently have had a veritable smorgasbord of cables from official to Poundland to weird keyring ones; never had a single one fail.
Then again, I've not had a MicroUSB or USB-C cable fail on me either (without obvious physical damage like the one I half-melted by injudicious aiming of a blowtorch.)
> the Micro-USB plug is intentionally designed to fail before the connector inside the device is damaged.
I've had two devices where the MicroUSB socket has broken off the PCB. Not a huge amount considering I've probably had tens of devices with MicroUSB power over the years but a truly inconvenient amount given the impossibility of a home fix (for most people.)
Now I use those magnetic-plug cables and just leave the MicroUSB ends in whatever I might need to charge to avoid the physical stress.
That's a different failure mode. Before Micro USB there was Mini USB, which was the same concept but I believe the fault was that the springy parts were inside the device. When that wore out, you were screwed because the cable would just cease to make good contact, and a new cable wouldn't help.
Micro USB's improvement was reversing where the weak bits were. Now it's the cable that wears out, so when it does you just throw it out and buy a new one.
Attachment to the board is another thing entirely, it's all about having some sort of through hole pins to hold it in place (not all devices had that, some were purely surface mount), and good design. I think some devices had a tiny daughter board for the connector, to ensure that part could wiggle around a bit for stress relief.
I think Nokia's original Micro USB socket design had only two through-hole pins, which was not sturdy enough.
A standard USB-C socket has four: one in each corner like some later Micro USB sockets.
There even exists USB-C sockets with all through-hole pins but there's no space for USB 3 pins so they are all USB 2.0 or charging-only.
I used to buy cables with non-standard reversible Micro USB plugs, but I think there was only one manufacturer of them and now I can't find replacements.
A large part of it is basic physics. A Micro-B connector like [0] is way easier to damage than a C connector like [1] because it is less solidly mounted to the PCB, and because it has a shorter distance from the fulcrum to the furthest mounting point.
I have accidentally ripped off Micro-B connectors, but ripping off a C one usually requires a nontrivial amount of force.
My London example - Vanbrugh Hill leading into Vanbrugh Fields which leads into Vanbrugh Park (from which branches Vanbrugh Park Road and Vanbrugh Park Road West) which turns into Beaconsfield Park except Vanbrugh Park has jumped across an open area to become a road (terminating at Blackheath Royal Standard) and going the opposite direction leading into Vanbrugh Terrace before terminating at Shooters Hill Road.
All of that is related to Vanbrugh Castle which is, of course, at the junction of Maze Hill and Westcombe Park Road.
On the downside, it has highlighted what a cowboy industry manufacturing USB-C cables is.
reply