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Is there a place to buy nonstandard sized cables to act as band-aid fix for loose ports? (leminal.space)

submitted 3 weeks ago by CorrodedCranium@leminal.space to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ml

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I'm mostly talking about Micro USB cables; they were pretty notorious for gradually becoming loose.

They definitely wouldn't be a great fix and could potentially make things worse but for electronics you don't plan on unplugging again or mind dying shortly after I could see them coming in handy if you don't want to solder on a new connector or rely on strategically placing a device where the cable makes proper contact. I could see them being a weird item you stumble across on Ali Express.

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[–] peto@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Do you mean slightly oversized plugs to force into old usb sockets? I don't know how you'd even supply chain that, being that the changes are probably within the tolerance envelope, or you are breaking the standard and that is far from a good idea. I also don't think this is usually the problem. In my experience it has been less the socket getting stretched and more it getting packed up with dust so the clips don't engage properly. Cleaning out the port tends to solve the problem.

If the port is actually mangled, better to do a proper fix on it. Because we stick to the standard the part cost is minimal so even if you are going to a tech you are mainly just paying labour and rent.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yeah that's pretty much it. I get that it's not a good idea but I could see myself using them for old electronics that have just gotten worn down after cleaning them like you mentioned. Stuff I'm probably not going to invest time or money into repairing.

Like a micro USB cord with larger and more aggressive clips for example.

It's kind of like dealing with a bolt that doesn't want to loosen by adding more force. It might work or make things a lot worse but it's a "right now" solution

[–] peto@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure, the thing is, to extend the analogy, you are asking for there to be slightly smaller nuts. Nuts that for reasons imperceptible to the eye, won't fit good bolts. Nuts for which a manufacturer would have to build new machines to make.

It given that you expect to import it via Ali express, it is no more 'a just now' solution than doing the job right.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 1 points 3 weeks ago

Once I'm at that point I wouldn't really be looking for that kind of precision. Just something roughly in that range.

Every so often I stumble across cables that are a tad thicker than others (usually they came with cheap electronics) so I know they are floating around out there. They're just not labelled as being this way.