I don’t know much about cables so if type something wrong forgive me …

I was wondering around with some old stuff, and found this cable that is usb to usb “as shown in the image below”

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71hHpyqvvnS._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg

Now what i thought was that it might be used to connect 2 computers with each other so i tried that and connected 2 computers with each other using it and nothing happened Can anyone tell me what this cable is even used for ???

  • ch00f@lemmy.world
    11·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • deepinder_brar@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      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 ?

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        51·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • Rednax@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        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.

  • kuneho@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 year ago

    I had a cable like this, it was for an ancient Medion digital camera. No idea why they went with the full size USB female socket on the device, but it was just a simple USB cable that had male plugs on each end. Maybe it was cheaper, maybe it had debug purposes… we will never know.

    I also tried to connect two PCs with it, it was my very first thought when I saw that cable. Obviously, it didn’t work, nothing happened. Remember Total Commander had a “Connect two computers with USB” feature, was thinking maybe that will work with it, but nope… for that, a specialized USB cable/device was needed, not the one I had for the camera.

  • KHTangent@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    It was used to power the Vive Wireless Adapter. I’ve also seen a Steelseries keyboard which used this cable type.

    It’s not widely used, but it’s nice to be able to buy one

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’ve used these while developing consumer electronics. One product had only a single USB port, and it acted in device mode during bootup for debugging purposes before switching to host mode so it could talk to peripheral devices.