Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
It's not an officially sanctioned application of USB, but some product vendors use it for various reasons. After all, a USB cable is just a bunch of wires (some twisted together a special way).
One example that springs to mind is the HTC Vive link box. This was made before USBC was very popular, and I'm guessing they wanted USB 3 speeds with a lower profile connector. Typically, you'd use an A to B cable, but the B connector is much taller.
Thanks for the info, I have another question. Can it be used to connect one pc to another maybe for sharing files or for doing some other stuff ?
Generally no - USB connections are asymmetric, with hosts and devices. Your PCs are both hosts - they cannot function as devices or communicate with other hosts.
It'd be like you trying to fill up 2 swimming pools with one hose, pumping water into each end, right?
Nope. Computer USB A ports are "upstream ports." Both computers would be expecting to find a downstream device on the port. USB needs a single host to control everything. Can't have two hosts.
If it was already tried with this specific cable and it didn't work, then this cable doesn't have the capability built in. Some cables like this have a bridge in the cable that allows pc to pc communication.
Laplink is a major product that still does this. In the center is a controller that acts as a device to both ends, letting both PCs act as a host.
It still requires their software to make use of this connection, though.
Not without special support from the hardware and software. But a smartphone is pretty much a PC with specialized hardware and software. And you can certainly plug your smartphone into a PC to share photo's.