Hacker News Reader

Comment by benburleson | Hacker News Reader

Aside from the many, many different sizes, I really miss barrel jacks for charging. Like USB-C, there is no wrong way to plug it in, but the connection always feels solid.

I currently have to wiggle my USB-C and find the right angle to achieve "rapid charging," and if it moves too much it just falls out.

Feels like we've gone backwards in physical connection reliability.

View on HN

Do USB-C connectors get packed with lint?

I had a USB micro phone stop charging and it ended up being lint/dust packed in the connector.

Yes! Exactly what happened with my Pixel phone. The cable would fall out after a minute. Took a toothpick and a few minutes to get the dirt out and now it's as good as new.

They do. I started seeing my phone not getting fully charged during the night and driving on a bumpy road would make the screen turn on and off. Took me a while to realize that a small lint ball from inside my pocket had made it into the USB C socket of my phone. It was small enough not to be overly evident. Few minutes with a toothpick and it's good as new!

> Like USB-C, there is no wrong way to plug it in, but the connection always feels solid.

Hefty disagree. I've seen plenty of (mainly cheap) laptops where the barrel socket would get loose over time and it was an absolute pain to charge because the connector would jiggle out at the slightest movement.

> Like USB-C, there is no wrong way to plug it in, but the connection always feels solid.

You can always get the polarity wrong if the designer is stupid and switches them from the standard

I have two devices at home with the positive contact on the outer ring!!!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com