Comment by rootusrootus
12 hours ago
> I’m so glad Apple’s proprietary connector is gone.
Apple made Lightning when the rest of the world was still mucking about with Micro-USB, which I would argue is just about the worst connector ever in common use. The only type of cable where I routinely kept a half dozen on hand because they failed so damn often.
I do like USB-C, but despite being superior (physically) on paper, it's not as robust as Lightning, definitely more finicky. But it has more capability, which is important.
What I've read is that the Micro-USB plug is intentionally designed to fail before the connector inside the device is damaged.
I have a compulsion for fixing things, so I've seen a lot of gadgets where a connector has been broken away from a circuit board due to repetitive stress on a plug. The most common have been audio plugs -- headphone jacks in cellphones, and some connectors in musical instrument gear. I'd much prefer to replace a $5 cable than an expensive phone or gadget.
But of course it's arguable that they made it too delicate.
Now that I'm on my soap box... I've also seen a lot of damaged cables where the breakage is in the wire just as it exits one of the plugs. And a common cause is the habit of coiling your cables neatly by wrapping them as tightly as possible. Since I mentioned musical gear, I'm a working musician, and I cringe when I see how people -- even engineers -- treat cables. I always advise people to watch one or two of the ubiquitous videos where some burly roadie shows the proper way of coiling and handling a cable. I'm a bassist, and I have cables that have lasted 20+ years.
> 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.
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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.
[0]: https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/C53207153.pdf
[1]: https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/C53431229.pdf
I've found the opposite, Lightning cables routinely failed for me and I haven't had a USB-C cable fail yet, and I've been using them for 7+ years.
Not sure if it's the connector or the build quality, but want to throw in the opposite experience.
The cables fail from bad design.
The connectors are great.
Aren't there high quality cables available? Eg from companies like Apple or Anker?
I struggle to understand why an Apple lightning cable would be more robust than an Apple thunderbolt cable...
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I just had to buy more type-C cables because all of mine are broken - always at the cable entering the connector, and I don't coil them tightly - but I've never used Lightning.
In case you don’t do this already, avoid:
- Pulling on the cable to unplug it, instead ensure you pull on the solid connector on the end.
- Bending at the point of the cable connector, resting the phone upright on the cable + connector when plugged in (e.g. in cup holder in a car) or stretching the cable too long that it causes a bend in the cable at the connector when plugged in.
There was a recent HN post about cable abuse and it said coiling too tight doesn’t itself damage cables (I will add I don’t like how it makes the cable get a memory and wants to kind of recoil itself all the time), but I think the action of too tight coiling incidentally puts more stress on where it joins the connector.
> Micro-USB, which I would argue is just about the worst connector ever in common use
False! Mini-USB is even worse.
How do people find Lightning cables robust? Every single one I got from Apple failed around the one year mark. So much so that I finally started buying cheap knockoffs that only lasted 6 months but cost a tenth of official ones. To compare, I haven't seen a single Micro-USB or USB-C cable fail on me whether expensive or cheap. Am I simply uniquely unlucky in the matters of Lightning cables?
> How do people find Lightning cables robust?
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.)
> How do people find Lightning cables robust? Every single one I got from Apple failed
My third party cables are lasting 3-5 years. Absolutely would have preferred lightning cables, but it is what it is.
That said, Apples lightning cables were/are indeed quite low quality.
My Apple Lightning cables weren't great either. They typically either started coming apart at the stress relief sleeve or the contacts would somehow corrode (other cables in the same container were fine).
I settled on buying packs of 3rd party braided cables for myself and parents so we could switch them out more easily.
With MagSafe, I rarely use a cable at all anymore!
A few years ago, I bought a bunch of magnetic cables (with both Lightning and USB-C connectors - the cables are the same; only the connectors differ). I haven’t had any issues so far.