C isn’t mechanically robust like standard B. You can assess this for yourself by wiggling both. C is meant to be plugged and unplugged frequently whereas standard B is not.
I think your real question is why the printer didn’t include the cable, but that answer is even more obvious.
If you were in some sort of rare predicament where you had to bring your printer to their house in the first place, why wouldn’t they share their cable for a few minutes? This is getting more and more ridiculous.
With borrowing anything from anyone, there’s always an implicit “assuming that they’re not already using it”.
But I do have extra printer cables, because I’ve owned multiple printers in the past 30 years. And also consider that, if you ask most people if they have a spare USB-C cable, they’ll tell you no. Even if they do have one, because that’s not what they know them as. I often hear my students ask each other “Does anyone have a spare Chromebook charger?”, or “does anyone have a spare phone charger?”, even though those are actually the same thing. I’ve never heard one of them ask “Does anyone have a spare USB-C charger?”.
I remember when I bought a 2.5” HD enclosure, and they used USB-A on it (for size reasons), and provided a USB-A to USB-A cable. I thought “Oy, that’s stupid."
ETA: And… Here it is:
Amazon.com: SABRENT 2.5in SATA to USB 3.0 Tool-Free SSD/HDD Enclosure (EC-UASP) | Optimized for SSD; UASP SATA III; tool-free; black; external 2.5" hard drive case : Electronics "%2Benclosure%2Busb-A&qid=1785259117&sprefix=2.5%2Benclosure%2Busb-%2Caps%2C335&sr=8-5&th=1
It’s not an unusual plug. It’s the original USB peripheral plug. There have been several orders of magnitude more of them made than the USB-A to USB-A plug you are so enamored with. If printer manufactures still use them it is because of robustness. Just because you don’t move your printer doesn’t mean others don’t - in an office setting people are moving such things around all the time. And an office setting is the most likely use case for a USB-connected printer - managers and others who need to print sensitive documents (like performance reviews) but don’t want them printed on a shares network printer.
I never saw one in real life. Their applications are as I said niche.
How long ago was that? Maybe before the mini-B connector came out in 2000?
ETA: I just saw your link. I have no idea why someone would do that. Use a USB3 micro-B plug.
I edited my post with the drive.
Still available, surprisingly.
My Roland FA-07 keyboard, which is professional-level, uses a USB-B as a data connection, and I prefer having that robust cable, much like I prefer 1/4" over 1/8". I also notice that the cable is thicker on the USB-B than on other USB cables, but I’m not sure why that is.
My guess is that it’s acting as a host for the drive you plug in? Essentially, a pass-through host to the drive?
Latest Moog synth still has a USB-B.
To be fair, I usually bring a laser printer to a friend’s house in case I need to print out directions or an email. I bring my own cable in case they are running a long job, like printing out a book to read. It’s saved me a few times when traveling and the airport only accepts paper tickets.
Is that still a thing? (paper tickets only…really asking…been ages since I had a physical, printed ticket…kinda miss those weird things). Still see them in movies though where someone is handed a printed ticket. I thought they were long gone now though.
I print concert tickets sometimes for smaller venues that don’t have apps and aren’t attached to Ticketmaster or AXS or whatever. It’s easier than searching for the email or waiting for them to look it up. Just a quick scan. I have a ton of scrap paper that I use for it so it’s not being wasteful.
In addition to my printer, both of my UPS’s use a USB-B port (cable included of course). On the front of the device they also have a USB-A and a USB-C but those are for powering devices rather than anything else. The USB-B port is to connect to a PC to transmit data, though I have never used them for that purpose, particularly the UPS that powers my network gear (routers, etc).
//i\\
Paper airline tickets haven’t even existed in the US since the late 90s.
OTOH, paper boarding passes are common as dirt.
Pro tip: if your phone has a cracked screen, very very few scanners will read a QR code correctly. Likewise if your battery is low and the phone goes into battery preservation dim screen mode. So get a paper boarding pass.
Pro tip 2: if you’re checking baggage you’ll be interacting w a kiosk or an agent. Getting a paper boarding pass is negligible incremental effort at that point. And can pay dividends.
No, you couldn’t. It’s not stocked in stores - it’s offered by a third-party seller through HD’s “marketplace” (similar to the marketplaces of Amazon and Wal-Mart). You could have it shipped to the store for pickup in about a week.
Really? My friends all that all the time.
I always get a paper boarding pass. I don’t have to worry about whether my phone will quickly read my fingerprint and unlock, even if everything else works perfectly. If it’s easy to print at home/the hotel, i print it there. Otherwise, i print it when i arrive at the airport. Paper is extremely reliable.
So have you succeeded in connecting your printer to your network, yet?
At this point, I’m not sure what your question is:
USB connection is far easier than setting up WiFi although WiFi is certainly possible. USB is plug-and-play. WiFi is a 20 minute hassle.
I see no reason why a printer company could not make it work. USB-B is just USB-A in a different form. The internal wires of a standard USB-A and USB-B connection match directly pin-for-pin. For USB 2.0 cables, the four internal wires match by color and function.
Sure. Since the whole world seems to be going to USB-C then maybe it is time printers use USB-C. I am absolutely not buying the “more robust” connector bit. Ridiculous.
It absolutely is not. You man be thinking, “it’s all wires! So it makes no difference what the connector looks like,” but stop and think why is it that, if it is so trivial, USB never defined such a cable (for starters, such a Frankenstein cable could fry devices left and right).
I can confirm they exist, and I even know of cases where you need one (and you have to plug it into one specific port on the weird device in order to make it work, etc.), but it is by no means a standard cable and I bet many people have never seen one.
Absolutely are.
You have a USB-A cable with four wires and the other end, USB-B, with four wires. What do you think happens in the middle?
The difference is in the plug. The wires go through.
ETA:
I still have an old fashioned USB exapansion hub. It’s input is a full-size USB-B. It also has a 7.5v DC power input. Obviously, they never considered USB-B to be a power source.
(If anyone cares, I also have a working 3.5" disk drive.If you ever have a floppy that you want read, let me know.)
The problem is, if printers used this non-standard wire for some reason, there would be a lot more of those ridiculous cables around, and people would have been frying their PCs left and right by trying to connect the USB-As together from two PCs.
USB-A = host
USB-B = peripheral
The printer is a peripheral.
Full sized USB-Bs are definitely more robust than USB-C. There’s a reason they’re still super common for musical instruments.