In digging through my new wife’s box of increasingly obsolete electronic cables we came across this oddball 6-foot USB cable.
Beyond the USB logo on the ordinary USB-A connector there is no branding or symbology anywhere on them. In fact she has 2 such cables, completely identical. And zero recollection of what device(s) they may once have connected to.
Shape-wise the central pin connector on the other end is a standard 4-conductor mini (3.5mm) phone plug. And some Googling shows many examples of cables that go from USB-A to 4-conductor mini phone plug for audio output.
It’s the 4 (or is it 8?) flanking connectors that are a complete mystery. The two faces of the oddball connector are identical. And despite my looking carefully it’s unclear to me whether the intended mate grips the conductors on outside of those rectangular pins or slips into the center between them. Or both.
The USB to 3.5mm audio cable has a large end. The inside of the large end has the chip that implements the DAC to produce analog audio…
So this one with the combined USB , audio … its like the combined charge from USB,and “use with computer” cable for the headphone.
So you can charge the headphones from any USB , and you can listen to most devices via USB , Or you can use the headphone (if charged ? depends ) with the standard 3.5 mm analog socket that is available if this USB cable isn’t in use.
Why they used a custom connector at the device is because if they provided a standard USB socket at the device, people would plug a standard USB cable in, and it wouldn’t function… the device at the end only gets audio off the 3.5mm socket ! And yet the custom connection socket does provide standard 3.5mm socket, so they only need one 3.5mm socket on the device… as part of the custom connector.
Also they avoided the need to get the top and bottom sorted out, by making the connector work the same with 180 degree rotation… two sided connectors. 4 pins like USB… seems the device gets the full USB as well … and yet its better than USB since the 180 degree compatiblity thing means less warranty claims when the socket gets broken by someone putting the connector 180 degrees wrong…
The device could have flash drive storage that is loaded via the USB connection ? and yet also works with 3.5 mm analog input ? mp3 player built into the headphones ?
Ah the original plain cable appears to be charging cables for the XBOX 360 controller , the 3.5mm plug not doing anything in this cable but centre the connector neatly. The reason for the 3.5mm audio plug is that the controller has the 3.5 mm audio socket, so it can connect microphone on to the xbox, so as to allow talking …
Although @Joey_P’s connector is similar, it is not the same as mine. They might or might nor mechanically fit into the same receptacles, and at least as to the 3.5mm central plug they are definitely NOT electrically compatible.
@Isilder: She did at one time own an original XBox, and the fact she has two of these oddball cables suggests they went from the head end unit to the two controllers.
